Happy New Year ya'll and hello from Cambodia! We hope that everybody is enjoying the holiday season and staying warm. We have been sitting pool-side in a lovely garden sipping frozen drinks in Cambodia trying to stay cool! Please though, don't feel too bad for us.
We (3 of us including Victoria's mom) have been touring the Temples of Angkor for the last 4 days and also hitting the local markets working on our bargaining skills. For those who don't know (Travis certainly didn't) Angkor is the cash cow of Cambodia, much like the Taj Mahal for India and the nearby town of Siem Reap is full of fancy French hotels to accommodate all of the tourists. The temples themselves were build around 1,000 years ago and not really discovered until the early 1900's by French explorers hidden in dense jungle and severely grown over.
When Travis learned that we were going to be visiting temples for 3 full days, he had his doubts that he wouldn't get super bored. Well folks it is safe to say that Travis now agrees that 3 days is a MINIMUM if you come to visit Angkor and you will not be disappointed. Victoria and her mom had already been here before and knew the system. In the mornings we would meet our driver who would chaperon us around for the day. His vehicle was a regular motorcycle with an attachment on the back much like a ball hitch that held a two-wheeled carriage to motor us around in. This was almost the highlight of the trip in itself and many others would agree since about 90% of the other tourists got around the same way.
Our first duty after flying into town was to buy our 3-day pass and then catch a sunset at Angkor Wat. We wanted to get our tickets the day before as lines can be REALLY long in the mornings and although it is fun to stand in a queue with a bunch of Japanese tourists taking pictures of each other, we opted out. Our driver then took us to the base of a small hill with a temple on the top that we were told was an excellent place to watch the sunset. Just walking up the path alone should have been a clue for us to turn around now as there were tons of other people looking to catch the same last rays of light. We trudged on only to find the temple at the top covered with people much like an ant hill all lined up for the sunset. We dutifully went to the top, took a picture and got the heck out of there. OSHA would not doubt have a field-day with the hundreds of people crowding atop a temple build over a thousand years ago, made of sandstone no less. We made it back down in time to catch the wonderful sunset glow over the mote surrounding Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure. All was well.
The 3 days going around the temples is hard to explain if you have never seen Angkor. The largest and best known is Angkor Wat but there are hundreds of other large temples in various states of repair, some within walking distance and others 10 to 15 miles off in the jungle. Some of the temples are well known for having amazingly detailed carvings, others have huge pools, and some even have Hollywood fame. Huge trees are growing around the temples and in some cases on the temples themselves which is just too cool. The picture on this post shows such a tree and is the scene from an action movie called Laura Croft and features Angelina Jolee at this very spot before entering into the doorway and falling into the center of the earth. You can ask for our autographs later.
The unfortunate part is that at this time of year, the temples are crowded which made for amazing people-watching but could at times take away from the experience (this is where Victoria, on a previous trip, created the game "guess the nationality of the tourists"). Huge buses were driving around groups of (we hate to stereotype, but it was just so true) Japanese and Korean tourists who would take so many pictures of just the entry-way, nobody could get through them to actually see the temple itself.
The good news was that our driver knew where to go to beat the crowds. He even took us down a long dirt road with lots of sand traps and when he stopped we noticed there was not a single other tourist around! We had a ball exploring the temple just to ourselves. If you ever get the chance to come to Angkor, do it before more tourists come and they have to rope it all off. What is so amazing is you have free roam of all the temples and can walk on ruble piles or pass through archways that look like they were going to collapse last century.
Moving on. New Years happened and we wanted to splurged for non-Cambodian food, so what did we choose...Mexican of course! Well sort of. It was a few days after New Years day that we found this place and Elizabeth ordered spring rolls, but still they had tasty margs and the rest of us had enchiladas and burritos. Not too bad for being in Cambodia after all.
And finally, for the last few weeks Travis has been needing a haircut. Before leaving the States, Victoria (who is Travis's licensed barber) gave him a short buzz to last as long as possible, but it has finally gotten too long. At first blush it might seem like a easy task: "sure, I will just go get my hair cut." But then you realize that you are in a place that barely has paved roads and you don't speak the language. So for the last week or so we have been scouting places to get a hair cut, driving by lots that are beauty shops with handfuls of women in there getting their already very straight hair straightened, and no doubt gossiping about the last white guy that came in looking for a hair cut and left looking like he got into a fight with a lawn mower. Travis was content to wait it our for another 4 months...
But today we walked by a good looking shop with some English on the door and sat down for what turned out to be best haircut and neck message of Travis's life, setting him back a full $3. To boot the lady was wearing a mask over her face.
Tomorrow we embark on what is billed as "Cambodia's most scenic boat ride" up a river to a city called Battambang. Yet again it is not very far away, but could take up to 8 hours. The Lonely Planet mentions that break downs are "very frequent." Wish us luck and bon voyage!
T&V
