Angkor Wat and Other Bits from Siem Reap

the only reason anyone stays in siem reap is because it is home base for those exploring angkor wat.  if you don't know anything about angkor wat stop right here and do some reading first.  it is the the largest and most impressive collection of temples from an ancient civilization (it makes anything the mayans did look like tinkertown - that's a winnipeg reference).  angkor wat is actually just the largest and most famous of the temples in this area.  the surrounding area has many temples, some we found even more impressive than angkor.  we purchased a three day pass for $40 each.

just a little about the town of siem reap first.  it's clean, has great food and accoms.  since it mainly exists for the purpose of housing angkor wat visitors it has a resort-ish feel.  kind of like walking the streets in a mexican touristy area at night.  open air restaurants, bars, markets filled with various cambodian silks and touristy trinkets, etc.  but like i said it's clean and perfectly safe.  we loved it as a relaxing spot after a long full day of temple touring in some pretty extreme heat (well extreme for this canadian prairie boy atleast).

we started off with some of the older and run down temples and worked our way up to the bigger hitters.  i have an interest in this type of stuff but generally don't have a long attention span for it...and for three days?!  what was i thinking?  i stuck to what my research had guided us to do and i have to say i was thoroughly impressed and our itinerary was spot on.

the structures were built over a king's lifetime and some date back to 800AD.  how do you even begin to manage a project that large with that much precision without the use of any computers or what we would consider modern technology?  how many thousands and thousands of people would have had to work on these?  we overheard one guide said that there was an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 workers on the biggest temples.  some of these structures also housed portions of the cities as well.  here are a few shots for you.

the kids on these temple grounds are relentless.  they want money for everything from guide books to knowing random canadian facts to taking pictures of them.  they are only doing what their families have asked them to do to survive so you can't get angry.  however it is an extreme test of patience at the end of a tiring (but fun) day.  once you buy a coke or something from one of them they are like sharks that smell blood.  i was almost scared at first but then just started laughing and they all laughed with me because they knew how ridiculous it was too.  oh and we saw monkeys.  you could feed them from your hand if you wanted.

and we rode an elephant.

we also chilled at the top of one of the temples with a couple of young monks.  one of them had pretty good english.  we had each other laughing pretty good.  one of the more memorable experiences there.  they gave us permission to take this picture.

i awoke one night in a panic.  i heard a noise equivalent to the noise the alien made when the little mouth came out of the big mouth against sigourney weaver's face in alien 3 (i think).  luckily roel was familiar with this noise from his travels to the philipinnes with his mom years ago.  apparently this intense noise was from a cute little gecko in our room (which i couldn't see).  who knew?

one of the highlights was one day when we finished up touring the temples early and our tuktuk driver/guide took us to watch some local vball at our request.  i ended up playing with the locals (our driver had to put some money in on my behalf and do the arranging).  it was a lot of fun but is not actually volleyball as far as i'm concerned.  ha  very different game of carrying and almsot pushing the ball completely changing the direction of it's path.  i was one of the few people who actually hit the ball because it was just natural for me but in reality it is a much lower percentage shot if you are allowed to push it anywhere you want.  woops...apparently no pictures.  only two videos that i don't feel like figuring out how to post or link to this blog.  :(  roel didn't get a chance to play.  i think our driver thought roel's pants precluded him from playing.

by the end we had a fair crowd watching the game i was in on (3 on 3 on a packed gravel court).  they all thought it was pretty hilarious when i spiked the ball because they weren't used to seeing it.  the net was pretty low too so i didin't have to jump much.  but i did swallow my pride and played a third game after losing two!  thankfully i won the third game and part of the money back that my teammates would have had to put in.  50 cents per game is a great deal for me but i'm sure they wouldn't have enjoyed seeing it evaporate.

hope you enjoyed the update.  i may come back to fill in some big gaps later today.  or perhaps i'll just move on to the next post.  missing my home continent right now as we're both under the weather but spirits remain high.  :)