I've returned to finish the story of my time in Siem Reap and now i'm hard pressed to recall what happened!
well, i suppose i could start with poverty. if you're a bleeding heart, do not come here. you learn to grow thick skin about this kind of thing eventually, although it still pierces the soul a bit. if i gave money to every amputee, landmine victim, homeless/schooless child, starving family i'd be broke and begging my parents for more money. i just tell my self not to look and if to say anything at all, sorry.
on to something more positive?? ok. the temples of angkor are about 7km from siem reap so generally you would rent out a tuk tuk for the day at a rate depending how far you go. anything from $10 to $25... however, if you're feeling extra sporty you can rent a bicycle for $1-2 a day. we did this once... to visit angkor wat, the bayon and ta prohm... and man! that was the sweatiest day of my entire life i think. the bikes were one speed and the roads were bumpy and the seats were so uncomfortable we both got bruises on our asses at the end of the day. but it was worth it! we must have biked maybe 20 km that day. in blistering heat.
there were monkeys all along the roads leading to temples and we even saw one deep within angkor wat once, which seemed strange. he had a dead frog and was dragging it around with him...
my least favorite destination was the first one we did.... can't remember the name, it was really far and if i could somehow see the future i would have not done it. i hadn't really seen any temples at this point so i was priming myself up for something amazing. we arrived at the foot of a pseudo mountain. upon starting up it we realized it was a 1500 m ascent. i guess the hike was worth it but i was expecting a temple at the top but all i got was (by comparision of my expectations) a crappy waterfall with some eroded art work on rocks. it was great, but it definitely wasn't worth the extra money we payed to go out that far to see. the land mine museum wasn't a whole lot to look at so much as it just made me really respect this man, aki ra endlessly. an ex-khmer rouge boy soldier, he laid tens of thousands of landmines back in the uhm... good old days... and has now dedicated his life to clearing them all out. he claims to have cleared an estimated 50,000 so far. he has also taken in many children of land mine victims and is aiding them in education and basically just surviving etc. other than that siem reap was pretty chill as a town itself was concerned. i think i'll miss all the great restaurants most of all. my last night which was valentines day, i think i drank one too many glasses of aloha screwdriver by the end while i was playing pool with this guy named dave from the UK. i ended up having my ass kicked in pool royally by an italian and his cambodian mistress. when i could barely hold the pool queue up anymore it was time to go.... er, stumble home.
suffice it to say, the 11 hour bus ride to sihanouk ville the next morning... at 7am... would be pure hell.
