Siem Reap and more old rocks

The only thing we wanted to do in Cambodia was to visit these old rock piles from a long time ago. We really couldn't figure out how old the rocks were but had a nice rough estimate on when it was piled together by these old people. They did a wonderful job considering the rocks were old and mostly square so it must have been tough to roll them. My favorite pile was this one that had a lot of square rocks on top of each other and trees and stuff growing from and around it. It is so interesting that these old people from a long time ago actually went rock hunting and found these square rocks. How and where did they find so many old rocks that were almost the same size and shape will always remain a mystery to me.

Ankor is one of the most fascinating places I have ever been. I wasn't too excited about seeing the ruins but went along to keep Amy company. Once we arrived at the "Ticket Booth" on our rented bikes I moaned about the $80US for our 3 day pass. Who wants to spend 3 days looking at old rocks that were once piled together? When we arrived at Ankor Wat itself I was overwhelmed by how spectacular it was. WOW! The details on almost every stone and how magnificient the buildings were. Everything was so elaborate it gave me chills to think about how life there must have been back then. We walked around and looked at every building stone by stone. The stories that each wall told was carved with so much detail that we figured out which story was which without having a guide or book to follow. I'll let our pictures do all the explaining since I cant begin to write about all the splendors. I did really enjoy the hammock outside of the 5 star bathrooms they had at Ankor Wat. We tried to rent out a stall for the night since it was much nicer and cleaner than any guesthouse we have been to in all of SE Asia. The police officer showing off his new stun gun made me think twice at first but after he listened to som Bob Marley on my iPod, we became good buddies. I was offered a free hour nap on the Hammock.



We spent the second day in bed since we both felt sick. The entire time we couldnt stop thinking about all the other cities and ruins at Ankor that we could be running around at. Well, at least our pass is good for another day. Time to rest.

We both felt fairly sick on the third day but it was our final day to see the ruins. Bike rental it is again since a tuk tuk will cost us $12US for the entire day compared to $4US. The ride wasnt as pleasant today since it felt hotter and we were still sick. We made it to Ta Prom, the city that wasnt rebuilt and it's ruins being taken over by giant trees. It was an amazing place but I kept getting this feeling that I was at Disneyland waiting in line for a rollercoaster ride. Maybe the thousands of tourists that just got off the 50 buses parked outside, pushing their way past us ruined the mood. We both had enough for the day and headed back into town with the promise of returing during the rainy season when no one else wants to visit.

Siem Reap itself was a nice town despite being very touristy. The trick was to just give a polite apologetic "No, thank you" to all the tuk tuk drivers, tour guides, trinket salesman, etc that constantly surround you. We learned that this was more effective than a rude "No!" Cambodia took some getting used to but was not so different from Laos, or, as they say all over Southeast Asia, "Same same, but different."

Same same: the agressive tuk tuk drivers. Different: Instead of being 3 wheelers, the tuk tuks were actually regular motorcycles pulling a kind of two wheeled chariot. It makes you feel very royal!

Same same: women wearing sarongs. Different: women wearing full-on pajama suits. I have no idea what this fashion is about, if you know, please tell me.

Same same: plenty of Western food and tourist services. Different: everyone speaks very good English! The average beggar kid on the street speaks better English than the most expensive Lao tour guide! We weren't sure if this was due to the more outgoing Cambodian personality, or the fact that all the TV is American TV in English, rather than American TV dubbed in Thai. Particularly endearing to me is their habit of saying "like" every third word.

Same same: poverty. Different: More poverty, and lots and lots of amputee landmine victims. It is a terrible problem. One organization sponsors landmine bands where the victims learn a musical instrument and make money from donations and CD sales.

Same same: tonal language. Different: Instead of the rising tones, high tones, mid tones, etc of Lao, in Cambodia the tones appear to be !, !!, !!!, and !!!! We could never tell when couples were arguing and when they were exchanging tender love poems.

Same same: inflated currency - 4000 riel to the dollar. Different: For anything over 4000 riel, they use US dollars. ATMs only give US dollars.

Anyway, the next day we headed to Pnom Penh by bus. Not too bad of a ride, only 6 hours. We planned on staying one night in the city before hopping on another bus for 3 days back to Laos. Guess what, no Visa on arrival in southern Laos. Luckily we looked into this at Pnom Penh instead of heading up to the border to be denied access. Our options are to stay in Pnom Penh at the rat infested lakeside guesthouse for 3 days to get Visa's done or.....fly to Laos. We both decided that we were over 3 day bus rides and coughed up the $400US of our plane tickets. Off we went for a little shopping at the Russian market (no Russians in evidence but lots of cheap black market Western brands) and then the airport!