I reset up my tripod, took some practice shots of Angkor Wat with my handy dandy tripod and remote control, and got set up for the sunrise. However, I noticed that my pictures weren't coming out how I wanted and the couple's next to me looked amazing. I asked them what their settings were and they (who were semi-professional landscape photographers) helped me with my settings. HUGE IMPROVEMENT!! It's the kind of thing where, I've taken lots of photography classes, but there's so much information thrown at you at once that you forget a bunch of it until it's time to use it. When they reminded me about the settings I immediately remembered being taught them and was ready for action! By the time the sun was getting ready to rise I was ready to go!
...
Annnndddd then the sunrise never really came... it was honestly probably the biggest dud of a sunrise I've ever seen.
Although still pretty beautiful :)
There were so many clouds that there was absolutely no color, it basically just got a teensy bit lighter out until there was daylight but no sun. Pretty big disappointment. HOWEVER, regardless, it was still really amazing being able to take all those pictures and talking to the people around us (hello to Cathy and Susan from Seattle!)
After the "sunrise" our taxi took us back to our hotel so we could finish packing before our bus picked us up at 8:45. We went to our room with the intention to call our parents, pack, and then go downstairs to hang out with Nath and Pear before leaving. We packed and called our siblings and parents (or tried to - sorry I missed you mom and dad!) before getting a knock on the door at 8 am, pretty much as we were getting ready to join Nath and Pear downstairs.
"Your taxi is downstairs."
"I didn't order a taxi."
"You pick up. Bus. Downstairs."
"It's only 8, they're supposed to come at 8:45."
"They pick up. Bus."
Awesome. We raced to finish our last minute packing and grab all our bags before heading downstairs. I'm quite sure we missed a few things... We got downstairs, said a super quick goodbye and thank you to Nath and Pear and got into the shuttle to take us to the bus station. We got on our bus (in the right seats, booked by our hotel) and basically fell asleep for the next 6 hour bus ride, only waking up for bathroom breaks and a quick lunch (and I mean quick - we stopped at a full on restaurant, they said 20 minutes, and after 19 they were honking the horn for everyone to get back on the bus!!!)
We arrived in Phnom Penh at the bus stop around 4 and we proceeded to try to get our money back for the bus mishap (we tried to book online, got charged, but never received tickets, then booked more tickets through our hotel). They were pretty good about the whole thing, with us just having to show our email confirmations, etc. in order to get the money. As we were handed the cash, we went to grab our bags to catch a tuk tuk out of the bus station so that we could go and watch the sunset on a river cruise... until I realized that my camera bag was missing.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
I LEFT MY CAMERA BAG ON THE BUS. WHAT THE WHAT.
I had put it in the overhead bins, instead of at our feet like the rest of our bags. HOW DID I LET THIS HAPPEN?!?? It wouldn't have been a problem if we would have realized the situation about 10 minutes earlier... but because we needed to get the money from the bus company, the bus we had arrived in had already left. UGHHHHHH.
I started freaking out slightly - it is my camera after all! But I had a feeling that all would be fine, we just needed to track it down. The woman at the counter who had helped us with our refund called the bus driver to find out where he was.
On his way across town.
She came back to us and told us that YES, the driver had the bag, but that we could pick it up tomorrow afternoon at 5 pm. I'm sorry but WHAT??? She told us that was the next time the driver was coming through the city, and until then he wouldn't be coming back. I told her I needed it back right away and she told us the only way to get it would be to go and find the bus. We told her we'd go wherever it was, and she hailed a tuk tuk driver to take us to the bus. The whole way there we were quite nervous, hoping that my bag would still be there and everything would be ok. Again, I had a feeling it would be, but you never really know...
45 minutes, and a drive all the way to the opposite side of Phnom Penh later, we found the bus and my camera bag was safely in my hands! HUZZAH!!
I told Jon I just wanted to make sure that we got to see the whole city in the 2 days we are here :).
Another 45 minutes later, and driving past the major monuments in Phnom Penh at sunset, we found ourselves at our hotel checking in. I felt AWFUL that we had missed the sunset cruise (as Jon seemed to have been looking forward to it :() but we were both grateful that I had gotten my camera back. We trekked upstairs to our room (through the most NARROW hallways I have EVER walked through) and into the tiniest hotel room in the world, before finally being able to put ALL of our bags down.
This picture does not do these hallways full justice. They were NARROW.
Once we had dropped off our bags, we showered and then headed into town for dinner and the night market. We grabbed a tuk tuk outside of our hotel and asked him to take us to the market across town. He asked if we were sure we wanted to go there and we said yes.
We only drove for about 10 minutes (a tuk tuk was $2) and arrived at the night market. Where everything was closed. Apparently his way of telling us that the market is only open on Saturday and Sunday nights was to ask us if we were sure we wanted to go there... Luckily, the (closed) market was right next to a bunch of restaurants, so we were able to grab some food (burgers!) before heading back to our hotel.
I've been quite surprised by the food in Cambodia. Honestly, I LOVE Thai food, and kind of assumed that the spice pallet and food would be very similar...but not so much. While Thai food is SUPER spicy, with hints of lemon, Cambodian food is blander, with a heavier emphasis on fish. Not really our jam. BRING ON THE SPICE!! For food reasons, we will be quite excited to get back to Thailand :).
Ok - time for bed. More tomorrow!
Jess' highlight of the day: holding my camera again. Le sigh.
Jon's highlight of the day: having an American meal and beer by the river
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