The last few days

(Floating village on Tonle Sap)

On Tuesday we had a lazy morning going to the post office and shopping in the market before taking a tour of the lake Tonle Sap. We tuk-tuked to the lake with our guide and then got on a boat that took us out to a floating village. The village we saw moves 5-6 times a year depending on the season/conditions (needing protection from weather, to get away from their trash, different area to fish from...).  The water was very brown in the main body of the lake, and Michael asked our guide if the water changed color in the dry season. Our guide said that the water color stayed the same in the lake, but got darker and dirtier near the village the longer it was in one spot.  Not that we have been eating a whole lot of seafood but seeing the color of the lake definitely made me want to stick to chicken. 

(Me at the floating village on Tonle Sap)

Wednesday I woke up with a headache so we went to the spa where we got messages and I got a facial. The afternoon was spent being lazy on the balcony. In some ways being here for 9 days seems like way too much. We could have been done in 5 days and felt like we saw enough; but it was nice being able to have a completely lazy day and not felt like the day was wasted. 

(Phnom Bakheng)

Yesterday we did half of the walking tour of Siem Reap that is in my pocket sized Lonely Planet guide book. We saw Wat Preah Inkosei. We haven't gone into any active Wats because there is a 16 day ceremony type thing going on. I haven't fully caught on to what is happening other than a monk is being recorded and you can hear him when we go by any active Wat. From there we walked to an art gallery, and had our most expensive drinks at  FCC($3.50 for a cafe frappe!). The afternoon was spent by the pool before we headed to to the Wat Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset.  The sunset was even more anticlimactic than the sunrise we saw. 

(Sunset with a little help from the "sunset" mode)

Today we will pack our stuff, eat the last few things I really want to eat, do our last shopping at the markets, and then fly to Seoul at 11:40pm. We will spend ~11 hours in Seoul and, hopefully, take some sort of tour of Seoul before heading home. 

(We have seen quite a few people taking pictures with their iPads!)

Random odds and ends

- Angkor Wat turn 900 next year.

- The Wats are a combination of Hinduism and Buddhism.

- Other countries (Japan, China, Korea, France, Germany, India) are all spending millions of dollars to help restore some of the Wats.

- In the Western grocery store we can find 1.5 liter water bottles for 40 cents but at the Wats we are quoted $1-$1.50.

- My favorite drink, Zenya Green Tea with Pomegranate, is 65-75 cents in the Western grocery store and at the Wats it is $1.25.

- We can find Angkor Beer cans at the Western grocery store for 60 cents a can. At most restaurants, most of the time, we can get Angkor draft for 50 cents and at happy hour we have found it for 35 cents.

(Michael's beer Wat)

- Wildlife we have encountered: songbirds, monstrous daddy long-legs, geckos, cows, water buffalo, "wild"/ferrel dogs and cats, rhinoceros beetles, termites, different types of ants, rats and MONKEYS. 

- We have talked with two people from the US, one from Colorado, and one from Utah. the guy from Utah was staying in our hotel and was quite excited to hear that we were from the US too. He said we were the only Americans he had talked to in Cambodia so far. 

- There are many more Western toilets than last time. I have only used two squat toilets so far. 

- Michael and I agree that 26 degrees C is a good temperature to sleep at. 

- We have gotten crisp US 100 dollar bills from the ATM machine. Last time I was here the biggest US bill I got was a 50.

- At any one time you can pay for something in mixed US dollars and Khmer Riel.

- We have seen 100, 500, 1000, 5000, and 10000 notes in Riel. 

- The exchange rate is 4100 Riel to 1 dollar, but most market vendors use 4000:1. 

- That makes 100 Reil 2.5 cents.

- At the western grocery stores, when checking out, prices are displayed in both USD and Riel.

- Our most expensive meal has been $18.50. That included two shakes, an appetizer, two main dishes, a beer, and dessert. We were the only customers on their second floor balcony, and we sat there for over three hours using their free wifi. 

- The breakfast that is included with our room rate is two eggs (fried, scrambled, hard boiled, or omelette), a nice fresh baguette, coffee, juice, and fruit.  

- The power goes out most nights in our hotel around 10pm for about 5 mins. 

- On a moto we have seen: a family of 5, pigs in a cage, chickens in a cage, a stack of eggs, rugs, a wicker book shelf, piles of recycling, a bicycle, and a bunch of other random stuff that I can't think of. 

 

Rules of the Road and more Wats!

Yesterday we rented mountain bikes to go back to Ta Prohm. The day before we took a very abbreviated tour of the temple because I needed to find the bathroom and I wasn't willing to wait. We started out around 10ish while it was lightly raining. It felt much cooler yesterday morning so I thought biking was a good idea. It wasn't until we started out into traffic that I started to rethink biking. According to Google we went approximately 16 miles round trip. I think my last bike ride was close to six months ago but I think I went maybe 4 or 5 miles. 

(Dirty feet at the half-way point.)

Biking turned out to be quite the adventure.  You see, we have decided that when driving there aren't a lot of rules other than get to where you are going. For the most part people drive on the right side of the road, but that seems like it is merely a suggestion. And on a two lane road you may have 3-4 vehicles ride along side each when someone is passing. We made it through the busiest part of town with only one detour that would have gotten us there but it wasn't the main road.

(Me at Ta Prohm)

Our next adventure on the bikes was navigating a dirt road that had turned into a slippery, muddy, mess. We went through some spots where the mud was at least 2-4 inches deep. Other than being covered in mud we were able to navigate the road pretty well considering that tuk-tuks and cars where having problems on the road. While we were touring around Ta Prohm we had more than a few tourist and tour guides laugh at us because we were so dirty. At one point a Western tourist made the comment to his tour guide that he didn't want to end up looking like us.  We explained that we had biked there and they understood why we were so dirty. It was then a careful but unexciting ride back to the hotel in the rain. I didn't get any after photo because we were so dirty and needed to rinse off outside, while it rained, before we could get back to the room. We then spent part of the afternoon washing off and trying to remove the red mud from the back side of our clothing. I felt better when Michael explained biking in Cambodia to a friend as slightly terrifying. I had a good time, glad we did it, but my anxiety doubled while thinking of all the ways I could die while riding the bike. Also, my butt is still sore!

(Sunrise at Angkor Wat. No "help" from my camera.)

Today we woke up at 4:30am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We hired a tuk-tuk driver to get out there. The sunrise was anticlimactic but my camera's "sunrise" setting sure does know how to make it look better! After the sunrise we had coffee and a banana pancake with condensed milk (my favorite!). We finished of the Grand Circuit by going back to Bayon, Preah Khan, Neak Pean, and Ta Som.  I was most interested in Neak Pean because last time the moat was completely empty and this time the moat and temple grounds were quite full of water.

(Sunrise at Angkor Wat in "sunset" mode)

We called it a day after the five Wats and are now sitting on the balcony of the Singing Tree Cafe where we had lunch. This afternoon we might do a little more shopping in the market, swimming, or just hanging around on our balcony reading. 

(Me at Bayon.)

Wats and restoration

Today we splurged for a car with aircon and an English speaking tour guide. At 3pm it was 88 degrees with 66% humidity.   I don't think I have ever been so sweaty -it was disgusting. So we spent 7 hours touring around before calling it a day and retiring to our balcony after a shower.

Here are pictures from today.  I am most amazed about the restoration that has happened in the last four years and of how they are keeping some things together. As our tour guide told us today, in some countries you wouldn't be able to walk in these Wats because they are not safe. In the US you could never get away with these techniques. 

(I can't get over the details or that Angkor Wat is 899 years old.)

(Bayon, one of my favorite temples last time.)

(Restoration is happening. This reminds me of all the restoration happening in Greece. Here other countries spend millions of dollars to help with the restoration.)

(Michael posing with a demon at the South Gate of Angkor Thom.)

(Me at Bayon.)

(Me and Michael at Ta Prohm where Tomb Raider was filmed.)

(Yes, this is being held up with wooden poles.)

(And this Wat is being held together with ratchet straps!)

Now we will walk downtown to find a new place to eat dinner.

Taking it easy and tuk-tuks

(View from our balcony.)

When I thought about this trip, I though about how nice it would be to be in Siem Reap for almost two whole weeks. We could relax, take things slowly, really absorb everything around us... Well, we're here and I'm having a hard time taking it slowly. While part of me is completely happy sitting in a restaurant on Pub Street having a mid morning drink, part of me thinks we have to go go go and see everything. Now that we are here I'm not sure how many times we will actually want to go to Angkor Wat or any other of the wats. And while I could happily shop every day for a while, my bank account and suitcase won't let me do that. So we talked about traveling to Sihanoukville so I could see, and show Michael, the NGO I worked at for a month four years ago. But realistically spending two days traveling on the bus didn't sound like fun. This trip was all about taking it slow, not about how much we could squeeze in 9 days. So we've decided that if we have one big adventure a day that we would be happy and would take time enjoying our balcony, sitting on Pub Street with a drink, and swimming. 

 

This morning we walked to the Angkor National Museum and learned more about the history of Angkor Wat. As Michael just put it, we saw things made out of stone there.  I maybe took in 1/8 of the information I heard and read.  Then this afternoon we kept it simple by going and getting messages. We also finalized our plans for tomorrow and are getting a car and tour guide to see the main wats around Angkor Wat. 

 

(I found some elephants while walking today.)

(Michael eating some tasty taro/banana chips.)

So far we have walked everywhere and that has worked for us. We end up hot and sweaty but are able to take in the sites around us because of our slow pace.  Yet when you walk anywhere here all you hear is "tuk-tuk sir, tuk-tuk ma'am," "where you go, you want a tuk-tuk," "tuk-tuk tomorrow?" as we'll as, "Angkor Wat too far to walk, tuk-tuk." Today we walked by a tuk-tuk where the driver was laying down in it and as he heard us walking by, and talking, he popped out of the tuk-tuk to see if he could ask if we needed a ride. It was funny to watch but being asked every 3 minutes if we need a ride gets old quickly.  This evening when we came back to our guesthouse after dinner the tuk-tuk driver who picked us up from the airport asked us if we took a tuk-tuk today. I explained that we walked everywhere today and that we didn't need a tuk-tuk tomorrow. He looked disappointed that we still didn't need a tuk-tuk, but a little relived that we hadn't taken someone else's tuk-tuk. Oh yeah, we also saw a tuk-tuk crash today. It looked like both drivers walked away relatively unhurt but it still was very unsettling.   

(One of the many, many, tuk-tuks we have seen.)

Other random things: at the night market we saw shirts from the Gap and backpacks from The North Face and Deuter. 

Settling into Siem Reap

We made it! And it was a uneventful trip - thank goodness. We flew from Seattle to Seoul on Asiana Airlines. Let me just take a minute to tell you how much I love flying on Asia airlines, they are so much nicer and friendlier than American Airlines. The bathrooms had free toothbrushes, mouth wash, and combs! I skipped the comb but took everything else. Our service was always friendly no matter how many glasses of apple juice or water i asked for. Also, alcohol is free (this was more exciting to Michael than me - sleeping pills and alcohol don't mix). I took a sleeping pill hoping to sleep most of the 11hr flight but really only slept for ~4 hrs. When we landed in Seoul I thought our layover was about 2 hrs and that we would have some time to kill before our next flight. That didn't happen. We weren't rushed, but we had to go through security again and that took forever. We had enough time to find our gate, look in one shop, go to the bathroom, and quickly check the Internet. Our next flight to Siem Reap was about 6 hrs. Our flight was running 50 mins late since we had to wait in line to take off and  I was concerned that our guesthouse wouldn't wait for us since we were scheduled to come in at 11pm. Luckily there was a tuk-tuk driver waiting for us. The tuk-tuk driver has been very persistent about trying to take us on a tour every time he see us now. 

Last night our tuk-tuk ride was about 15 mins and while I really didn't know where we were, everything felt familiar - the outlines of building, palm trees, driving down the road, the smells.  I can't get over the smells, last night it smelled like the tropical and of burning trash. Most wouldn't think that this was a good smell, but it is one that I got so use to while in Laos and Cambodia last time I was here. Today while sitting outside, next to the pool, we were getting all sort of smells - garlic and green vegetable being cooked, some other good foods, and then there was the smell I can't place but it was worse than burning trash. The sounds are also something that I am enjoying. As I sit out on our balcony I can hear tuk-tuks driving by, people speaking Khmer, kids playing, birds hooting (I think they might be pigeons or doves, not sure which, but it is one of my favorite sounds), cars driving by, all sorts of construction noise, and horns honking. The sounds are never ending and something that I am currently soaking up. 

Today was a low key day and we planned it that way. We were up early, had breakfast at our guesthouse, I showed Michael the downtown tourist area, we walked through one of the markets before everything was open, then took a long walk just walking in one direction till we were tired of it and the picked another direction making a big circle. By 10:30am I was ready to sit down for a drink so while I had an iced coffee with condensed milk Michael had two beers. Our drinks cost the same amount and our pockets were two dollars lighter. We walked around town some more before coming back to our guesthouse to swim and relax. Michael is napping while I sit outside. I just got out of the shower and I could happily take another one. I love heat, but I don't care for being sticky. I don't think that I will get acclimated in our two weeks. 

Time to find a beer and dinner.

Luggage

I'm packed and ready to go!

It's not even funny the difference between what Michael and I are bringing.  I'm packed and ready to go.  I'm using Terry's luggage because I want to be able to go shopping and bring stuff back. Last time I was in SE Asia I made my parents both come with almost empty bags so I could unload some of my stuff, but also so I could shop till I dropped! Right now my bag might be a third of the way full, if that.


Last night Michael sent me a picture of everything he is brining. Yeah, it all fits into a bag the size of my daypack - with room to spare. BUT, as Michael pointed out, I'm the one with the first aid kit, sun screen, bug repellent, more than two pairs of underwear, and I have a much bigger camera (or two).

Right now, I am killing a little time before catching the bus to the airport. The funny thing is that, right now, I'm more concerned about figuring out the Seattle light-rail system then I am about going to Cambodia.

Yes, this is all Michael is bringing.

How it started

The family at Angkor Wat, 2009

This trip came together just about four weeks ago. It came at a time when I was feeling restless with life and wanted to fly away and explore the world rather than figure out what I was going to do next with work. It also came on the four year anniversary of the first time I traveled on my own to SE Asia. While I was in school, and restless, I would look at plane tickets and, in my head, plan trips that I knew I would never take.  Most of the time these trips were to Honolulu for a week or two. Occasionally I would look at trips to Europe. On August 29 I looked at ticket prices to Siem Reap, Cambodia and found that the ticket prices weren't astronomical and somewhat do-able if I so chose. You see, for whatever reason, Siem Reap is my special place.  I've been there twice, once with the NGO I was with and then again with my parents. I've spent maybe a week total there, but in those few days I fell in love with this small city.  I don't know if it was Angkor Wat, Pub street, the markets, people, or food, but if I go missing the first place to check, if not Honolulu, would be Siem Reap. So I'm going back to see if Siem Reap lives up to the hype in my head. I'm also going back because there is so much more that I never got to see while I was there the first two time. 

While I was looking at tickets I thought about how I wanted to do this very hypothetical trip. I didn't want to travel alone for two weeks. I wanted this to be a trip about soaking up Siem Reap, not being a backpacker and moving from place to place and having to meet people along the way if I wanted company. I wanted to be able to reminisce about this hypothetical trip with someone. It is great now being able to talk to Katie about backpacking around Europe. We still laugh about the naked guy who we ran into coming down the walkway in Budapest. So, I asked Michael if he thought it would be fun to go.  He said yes, he thought it would be great. I later found out that he didn't think anything would actually happen with this plan of mine.  In the 48 hours after asking Michael to go I looked at different dates for the best prices, we both talked with our managers to see if we could even get the time off, and I contacted a travel agent I had used to book my last two big trips to see if she could get us any better deals. 8 days later we had two tickets and travel insurance and we now are leaving. I still can't believe that I was able to put this trip together.  

My luggage, October 2008

So with just a few weeks to get everything together, we are all up to date with shots, have traveler's diarrhea meds (that I hope we don't have to use), bug spray, and a new bottle of sunscreen.  I'm ready for the new foods, different culture, dirty feet, and two weeks of new adventures.  

Oh yeah, and we leave in 14 hours! 

The last of our trip

Family at Epidavros

Gyros come with fries!

Liz loving that she is in Santorini

Fira from our coffee stop

View of Oia

Liz and Terry hiking up the caldera

Last sunset on Santorini 

From Monemvasia we drove to Nafplio. Liz drove the last part of the way to Monemvasia on roads that weren't as crazy as what we had been on before so I decided to give driving in Greece a chance. Yes, I know that I just said I wouldn't drive - but I did pay the 15 dollars for an international drivers license, so I thought I might as well. But let me tell you, I don't drive stick very often. I think of it as in theory i know how to drive a stick, but it really isn't a pretty site. I think the last time I drove a stick shift it was for all of 10mins, late on a Sunday night, coasting through every yellow light in downtown Seattle. Before that, the most I had driven was with my drive with Terry to Montana (8+ years ago!). I thought I would drive for 10mins and call it good, but before I knew it we had hit a small town. Yeeeek! I managed to drive for about an hour and went through two small towns before deciding that Terry should take over before I drove into a small city. Other than Terry reminding me that I I needed to stay more to the left, because I was too close to the parked cars on the right hand side, I did just fine. I may have been swearing, and thought that if I somehow sucked in air, the car would magically get smaller to fit in-between some of the car/streets (think Harry Potter and the knight bus). At least where I drove i didn't have to worry about falling down the side of cliffs or hairpin turns. However, I did have to work on not taking out other vehicles. Yet, I only stalled a handful of times! And a few of those times where in one of the towns when I got flustered by someone trying to turn into me when I had the right away. It was quite the experience and I think both Liz and I are happy that Terry did most of the driving.

So this whole time driving around the iPad has been very, very, handy with navigation. However, I got Terry into a small bind while using the map on the iPad to direct us to our hotel in Nafplio. After finding the road we wanted to take was blocked, I had this idea to go down another street... Well, it was just wide enough for our car but we got to a dead end where Terry had to back down the street a few blocks until there was a space for him to do a five point turn to turn around. We quickly figured out that you don't even try to drive in the old town in Nafplio. We made it to the hotel only to find that Rick Steve's didn't lie when he said it had a lot of stairs. This is when I wish I had brought a backpack and not a roller bag for luggage.

The next day we headed to Epidavros and Mykines. The highlight of Epidavros was listening to Terry belt out Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin at the theater of Epidavros! This was one of the old theaters that has great acoustics even if you were in the nose bleed sections. He got an applause and when we went to Mykines a German tour group who had been in Epidavros even commented on Terry's singing and how they recognized that it was Janis Joplin.

After driving back to Athens we caught our flight to Santorini. I think we all were expecting a little time to relax at the end of our trip but we still found that we were go go go. So much to see and so little time. We stayed outside the main town of Fira in Imerovigli. It was a quite town were we had a little studio with a great view of the caldera. One day we walked into Fira and explored. We also had 5 euro cappuccino freddos - we were paying for the amazing view because the coffee sure wasn't worth that much. We even walked down all 500+ steps to the old port. On the way we said hello to the donkeys and then took the cable car back to the top. We also checked out the other main town Oia. Everyday between two and five cruise ships would be in Santorini - it was a amazing to watch them come in, but made the towns very crowed. On our last day we took a boat tour to see the towns from a different view, walk around the volcano, swim in sulfur hot springs, and eat lunch on the island of Thirasia. In all three towns that we explored in Santorini I think my favorite part was taking my camera and going down the plethora of staircases seeing what i could capture.

Our trip has now come to an end. Three weeks went very quickly. We had beautiful and very hot weather all but the last day of our trip. The night before leaving Santorini it rained and there was a big thunder and lighting storm. Talk about some intense lighting and thunder! If we hadn't had to get up so early we would have stayed up to watch it. We were rudely awakened the next morning by our ride to the airport showing up 45 minutes early and waking us up. It sort of felt like Home Alone where the electricity goes off and the family sleeps in. However, we didn't sleep in, and our Greek driver didn't get that he was early! Talk about packing fast and rushing out the door. But even 10 hrs later we still think we packed everything.

Santorini pictures

Tonight I'm too lazy to do captions. I think most of the pictures are petty self explanatory. We are in Santorini right now - spent the day in Fira.

More pictures from Greece

First of all let me say that I am not a fan of the Blogger App - it doesn't upload my photos the same way I put them in. However, I don't know how to upload them any other way... So please bare with the unorganized photos.

Hopefully I will get the captions in
The correct order or else have fun playing the matching game.

~ View of Monemvasia
~ Me and Liz in Monemvasia
~ Sunset in Monemvasia
~ Liz and Terry at the first Olympic stadium in Olympia
~ Me somewhere in Greece. It was a rest stop/view area
~ View from our hotel room in Pylos
~ Terry, Angelos, Paul, Older Son, Father from Greek lunch (for a lack of a better word)
~ This pictures is for you Katie! Me hugging a Greek column
~ Liz, Cathy, Mother, Georgia from Greek lunch
~ Another rest spot/view area from our drive today
~ Group photo minus me and the sons' friends