Temples of Angkor

3.31.08
Temples of Angkor!
I had a really great time on my trip to Cambodia! Definitely tied in first place with Iguacu as my top two favorite trips. We left at about 8:30am and I was very excited to find out that Tom and Grant were there too! Both of them were on my Iguacu Falls trip and we’ve been friends ever since. I love those two, so I obviously spent most of the trip with them. Jenna, my roommate from the Taj Mahal, was also on my trip, so she also hung out with us! We got into Cambodia around 2 and then headed off to see Angkor Wat. We had about two hours to explore Angkor Wat (which is the main one of the many different temples of Angkor) and got to see sundown, which was beautiful. We went to a buffet place for dinner that evening and got to watch a cultural show, and it surprisingly wasn’t that toursity. It had some very different types of dancing. The movement was very intricate—there was a lot of hand and foot movement, with little full body movement like western dancing. It had an “Indian dance style” feel to it. The costumes were beautiful: elaborate golden headdresses and bright silk dresses or skirts. After dinner I went back to the hotel and passed out. My roommate this time was a girl named Paige, who was very nice and we got along well.
Day Two: Up at 4:30am to catch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. It was even more beautiful than sundown, because the sun came up from behind the temple. We were there for about an hour before heading back to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we hit up different temples of Angkor. What’s really amazing about the temples is that they’re engulfed by nature; there are trees literally growing out of the temples, vines and grass everywhere, and tons of ruins and parts that have fallen off (or were hacked off and looted, courtesy of years of wars). We got to run around and explore for about three and half hours. Tom, Grant and I had a lot of fun wandering through the different places: The Leper King Terrace, The Bayon Temple and the Elephant King Temple. It was RIDICULOUSLY hot, however. Later someone said that it was about 108’ with the humidity level. We all sweat so much it was absurd, and it also was kind of tough because as amazing as the temples were it just got too hot to keep wandering through them. We had to get back on this dinky shuttle buses to the main gates after a few hours before we could get back on our big AC coach buses. As soon as I sat down on the dinky, non-AC shuttle, I knew something didn’t feel right. I started to get really bad stomach cramps and nausea. I thought I would be ok once we got back on the AC buses, however; I still didn’t feel good when we got back on the buses though, but I figured I would be fine once we got to the restaurant and I could cool down and eat something. Well, I was wrong. I definitely had a heat stroke in the outdoor restaurant where we were supposed to have lunch. I went to the restroom and slid down to the floor. I couldn’t stand anymore; I was really shaky, sweating profusely, incredibly dizzy and nauseous. Everyone was trying to talk to me—tell me to drink more water (which I obviously didn’t have enough of), go back outside where it was cooler than the bathroom, put my head between my knees. I couldn’t process any of it; I was finally able to get myself out of the bathroom and to our lunch table where I put my head down. Kay, who is my absolute favorite professor, was on our trip and came over. She put a cold wet cloth on my neck and tried to get me to drink something. She suggested that I go back to the hotel, and luckily there was a nurse on our trip so she came back with me. I took a cool bath, lay down and managed to eat something a bit later. I felt much better, though I was bummed I didn’t get to see the rest of the temples for that day. When I saw everyone later at dinner that night, they said I really hadn’t missed too much. After a while all of the temples started to look the same and the heat had been getting to everyone. At around four though, when I thought I was all better, I went back out with the nurse to a few indoor shops to look at souvenirs, but I only lasted 45 minutes before I asked to go back to the hotel to lie down again. By dinnertime, I was all better. We went to a Cambodian restaurant and had some delicious food. After dinner Tom, Grant, and I decided to walk around a bit. We ended up finding a place to get a $6 massage for an hour. It was amazing! We sat in these nice chairs while they massaged our legs, feet, arms, back and neck. It was tons of fun too: Grant couldn’t stop giggling, and when he wasn’t laughing we were all singing. Grant and Tom were singing more so than I was, but we were still singing a LOT. Disney songs (yes, both of them are more obsessed with Disney than I am (or even you, Rachel)!), a few rap songs, little bit of Smashmouth. The girls massaging us were sooo entertained by us. They were laughing more than we were. They also thought we were all professional singers. After that, we hit up a cheap internet café (50 cents an hour) and I was able to AIM with a few friends, which was really nice. We caught a $3 tuk-tuk (which is a little cart attached to a man on a bicycle) back to the hotel and hit the hay. It had been a very long day.
Day Three: We got to sleep in a little later, so that was nice. We didn’t leave the hotel till 7:30am. There were two options for the morning: we could go see more temples, or we could check out a floating village. A bunch of us decided to do the floating village, and I am so glad I did. It was absolutely amazing. The homes honestly float on the water. There are made out of wood and float in the lake. In the rainy season when the lake is fuller their homes extend almost to the surrounding forest. There were even cages with pigs floating! There is a hospital and a school on land, which the kids have to canoe to in the mornings. Right next to the floating village is stilted houses. In the rainy season, it looks like their houses float as well, but we were there during the dry season so it was just houses on really tall stilts. After checking out the village we headed back to the hotel for lunch and got enough free time to relax and pack up before heading out to see more temples. We saw a few more cool places, including one that was really high with tons of steep steps that we absolutely had to climb to the top of. Then the last one we went to was the one where Tomb Raider was filmed. I would LOVE to play hide and seek in there; it would be so much fun. The only problem was the heat, so we decided that we didn’t want anyone else to get heat strokes and settled for walking through it. My camera had died by this point, but I’m going to get pics from Tom. Finally we headed to the airport for our flight back to Vietnam. We got back around 8:30ish, so Tom and Grant and I decided to head back out and check out the night market. We were really looking for DVDs but found out all of them had closed for the night. We ended up stopping by the tailor that had made Tom and Grant’s suits to pick them up. Tom got a lime green suit made (lots of guys got suits made and girls got dresses made because it is really cheap to get a tailor here…though I didn’t get a dress made because it just didn’t work out and I didn’t have the time) and he got an all white one. Grant’s suits were white and orange. The suits are awesome, and the boys look hilarious in them. The white suits look pretty sharp too. We were pretty exhausted so we tried to hail a taxi home. The driver barely spoke any English, and though he told us he knew where he was going, he didn’t. Luckily, we had run into some other SAS boys at the tailor and saw they were taking motorcycle rides (it was really cheap to just hop on the back of a motorbike with someone and get a cheap taxi ride anywhere; no worries, that was NOT for me) back to the ship. One of the guys had to wear a bright pink helmet, and we passed him while were driving towards the ship. It worked out because we were able to get our taxi driver to follow him, after some sign language and picture-drawing communication, that is. We made it back well and alive, and it ended up being another good but long day.
Back in Ho Chi Minh City for the last day. I went to a Water Puppet Performance in the morning, and Tom and Grant were also on that trip! So was Kate. The water puppets were really cool. I’ll try to explain it: the stage is pretty much a pool of water, and the background is a pagoda with bamboo shades. The puppets just pop out from under the water and move. You can’t see the strings or the people working the puppets (who are hidden in the pagoda behind the bamboo shades). It was a bunch of short vignettes; there was no real plot. They had dragons that spit fire and water, there were dogs that chased a ball around, fishermen, deities, and tons more. Afterwards two of them came out and showed us how to work the dragon puppets. It was done by 11 in the morning and we were downtown, so we were able to walk around for the rest of the afternoon. We hit up an awesome bootleg DVD place. I got so much stuff, and I really hope it works. If it doesn’t, I won’t be heartbroken bc it was all so cheap, but I still hope they play. I’m going to test them and make sure. I got a Disney collection one: it has about 12 discs with about 8 movies on each one, and it’s got soo many good ones (Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Monsters Inc, Hercules, Cinderella…and so many more) and it only cost TWENTY bucks! Isn’t that nuts? I also got a scary movie compilation one that has great stuff like The Shining and Saw and tons of other ones I’ve never seen before. I also got the full ten seasons of Friends for $8, the full seven seasons of Sex and the City for $6, and both seasons of Heroes for $3. Next we went to the Ben Thanh market and I got a really nice necklace for about ten dollars. It was originally 25, but I was able to get it down. All I had to do was walk away…twice…but it worked. It’s coral. Then I got a rolling duffle-bag suitcase, because the ship and the Miami airport completely ruined mine, for only $15. It’s nice and big, so that was an important item I made sure to get. After that I was about shopped out, and ready to start heading back. Tom and Grant left to buy Japan railway tickets, so Kate and I stopped at a café for smoothies before heading back. Tom, Grant and I are totally watching Kronk’s New Groove (well, fingers crossed that the Disney DVD actually works) tonight, so I need to get a little bit of homework done. That’s about it for Vietnam, though. I really enjoyed both Vietnam and Cambodia and can’t believe that I’m going to be in China in two days! And guess who’s on my China University trip? Yep, Tom and Grant…and Amy, who I love also. She also did the Capoeira class with the three of us and she hangs out with the two of them all the time, so I’m super excited for China…despite having to write a few papers and take a test in those two days before we get there. Au revoir!