Ally:
I planned to meet up with Ally, a Scottish guy I met no the way to Phuket, Bangkok. We did exchange any info, but then we ran into each other randomly on Koh Samui! This story was talked about in my Koh Samui enyry, so I won’t go detailed about it here. Well, we promised each other that we would try to meet up again when we were saying goodbye in Thailand, and we actually pulled it off! We met in Siem Reap, he came from Laos (pronounced Lao), and I came from Singapore!
Well, he was supposed to arrive around 10pm, the day we were meeting, I think my flight got in a little earlier in the night, so I settled in and met some people in the hostel. We planned on meeting there at the hostel.. easy peasy.. I took a mototaxi from the airport and let me just say… that my have been the scariest moto I’ve ever been on! There was soo much traffic, it was pretty dark, the driver didn’t use his headlights, swerving, talking on his phone, AND texting! All with me on the back and him holding my bag between his legs in the front… After that slightly nerve racking experience, I finally arrived at the hostel to check in, and tell them that Ally would be arriving and checking in later on. They told me that the power was COMPLETELY out all over town! (This explained the dark roads)… so there was no aircon or fans or much light at all in the hostel.. so what can you do when Siem Reap gets their power from Thailand, and a truck hits a power line that knocks 10 more over??You get a beer, and relax.
After dropping my bag in the dorm, I met some people at the hostel. We shared some beers, stories, and advice with each other over the next few hours. Then 10:00 rolled around, and no Ally. That’s alright though.. I mean, its Asia.. Everything always runs late. Except that was the latest time he gave me.. He was actually supposed to arrive by 7:00. So you could imagine I was getting a bit worried. Well I talked to this guy for a while at the hostel; he was giving me some advice about the temples. How long to go , which ones to see, what time to go… Then we chatted about where he was headed to next, because he was leaving the next morning. Then 12:30 rolled around, he headed off to bed. I sent Ally a message asking if everything is ok. I was getting pretty worried at this point. I played around on my phone for a bit, checked fb, email, blog, talked to friends…
But still.. No Ally.
It was 1:30am; I decided to go to bed. I sent him another message that said which room we were in, which bed was his, how to get in (knocking on door to wake up kid in front to open it), and I told him I was worried and to update me.
The next morning I woke up, and… NO ALLY!
My heart sank, and I was really flippin worried. I sent hime a message, and then… 5 minutes later I got one back that said, “I’m at reception!”
I WAS SOOOO HAPPY!!! I ran down and just hugged him. He said he thought that it might worry me that I didn’t hear from him, but he got in late (around 2am… seriously just missed each other), and the reception kid was way too out of it to understand the he already had a bed, so he just put Ally in a different room. And then by the end of it, Ally was just so tired that he went to bed.
Aah but he is safe and here and life is good!!
That day we just walked around Siem Reap. Walked along the river, had lunch, went to the market, and then walked down Pub Street, which is a pretty touristy/backpacker street where all the restaurants with 50c beers are.
Finally the Temples!!
The next day we went to Angkor Wat! It’s one of the Wonders of the World! The area of Angkor Wat is full of other temples that are too far to walk, close enough to ride a bike or hire a tuk tuk driver for a day or 2. We decided to hire a tuk tuk (didn’t feel like sweating our asses off), and went to 4 temples and ruins. A lot of people do 3 days in the area, because there are a lot of temples and ruins to see, but we figured we could save the money and get the best ones in one day with a tuk tuk rather than a bike. The driver picked us up at 4:30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was soo crowded and full of tourists, it was crazy! The sunrise was very pretty; there is a lake right out front that everyone gathers around, waiting for it to come up, because the reflections are to be beautiful there. And they sure were! There were lily pads on the water too, which made the area even more gorgeous. Afterward, we walked around; it was soo awesome and really big! There are markings on the walls of Angkor Wat that aren’t totally intact anymore and they’re really cool to see. When we walked out of the temple, our tuk tuk driver was basically waiting for us at the door and just driving over as we walked out.. he was on it!
The next temple we went to was the one that Tomb Raider was filmed in… there are trees growing through the collapsed ruins. I loved it sooo much and it ws by far my favorite temple!! You know me.. I <3 trees!
We went to a few smallers ones too.. which were still pretty big. We climbed up the steps to this one, and at the top there was a nice view of the ruins below. At the top, there were doorways, but it was completely open. In many temples out here there are doorways that have a step just underneath the doorway, causing you to bow when you step over it. A lot of times there is a Buddha on the other side of the doorway… There were also these structures that looked like doorways or windows that once were, but because there was no roof or anything they actually ended up looking like large picture frames! Hah! I loved them soo much!
The last one had big towers that looked like they were built with small blocks of rock. There were tons of these oval shaped towers, and they had the face of Buddha on all sides of them! It was really cool.. we went into the main tower and there was a Buddha, and incense to offer. We took the incense, lie some, and stuck them in the sand. Then a woman gave me a prayer bracelet she had made! I still have it on. :)
After that we felt pretty drained and ready to go. It is soo hot out here that by 12-4:00 you just don’t want to be outside unless you’re at a pool! It’s really cool though… to just walk through all these ancient places which used to be FILLED with people, and wonder how it must have been.
My recommendation on the temples is that if you have the money and the time, go for 3 days. And if you plan to go to them, get a guide too, so you can not only see the ancient lands, but also really learn what the sculpture and ruins mean, and what life must have been like back then. Learning it while you are there would be quite the experience. :)
<3 M
Oh! I forgot to mention, there are 2 currencies here.. Cambodian Riel AND US Dollars! If you give dollars, you could get back Riel, vise versa! It's a buy confusing.. but kinda cool too. :)
...I feel like I've written that before.. Hmm.. Oh well!
Ciao!
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