Big Orange Backpack

This is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. It was a beautiful bus trip, as always, I left at 7h30 and arrived here around 2pm. I was accosted the second I got off the bus, and was very happy to see Phal (pronounced Paul), the tuk-tuk driver one of my students arranged for me. They had gone to Bible College together, and Vilot, my student, was nice enough to arrange it so his friend could give me a good price during my visit.

I arrived at my guesthouse and dropped my stuff off and practically ran to Angkor Wat. I bought my ticket ($40 for three days!) and decided to spend the rest of the day inside just Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is actually the name of just one temple, but the entire temple complex outside of Siem Reap has been given its name. It is the largest and probably the most impressive of the 30+ temples in the area. I took the best photos I've ever taken. In the centre there is a tall building that you're meant to climb up. It was almost a vertical climb, nothing like this would exist in the States where you could actually go to the top. It was so scary and dangerous. I, stupidly, had a skirt on, and came to regret it. I had to hike it up in order to make it up safely. I wandered around up top and took some great pictures of the view of the jungle before climbing back down. While wandering around I ran into Sasha and Navita, two girls that I've met twice before that were with Jessie's NGO delegation. We hung out the rest of the day. They hadn't been to the top temple yet, so I begrudingly went back up, even though I felt as though I had escaped death the first time. As I was going up there was an entire Cambodian family laughing hysterically as they almost certainly saw my knickers. We walked around quite a bit before waiting for the sunset. However, we got caught in the middle of a downpour instead. The girls set to dancing in puddles while I sat and talked with a monk for a long while, waiting for it to be "safe"to make our descent. It was again petrifying, but exilerating. We had dinner at my guest house before I retired, watching TV for the first time in a month, the last time being in Battambong for one night.

This morning I woke up at 2:30, 3:30 and finally at 4:30 too excited for words, and at 5am I headed out to catch the sunrise and have my only full day at Angkor Wat. I went to a reflecting pool called Sra Serang for sunrise and caught some amazing photos. I was accosted by children selling all sorts of things, and I was afraid that it was setting the tone for the day. However, I was fairly unhassled most of the day, which is lucky. After speaking for a while with one of the children sellers, I went across the street to a run down temple. I visited three or four extraordinary ruined temples in the morning, and at all of them I was the first person there, and the only one there. It was really a religious experience, and one that I greatly preferred to the busier and more famous temples that I vistited in the late morning, early afternoon. My shoes got really muddy and wet while walking, so I spent the better part of the day barefoot, which just added to the experience. I wish I had more to say, but I hope the pictures speak for themselves.

I was able to upload past photos from this internet cafe in Siem Reap, and it seems as though I'll be able to upload my first day and a half from Angkor Wat too. I'll put the link to all the photos in another entry.