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ANGKOR WAT!!!!! |
30 degrees – much less humid
The weather is definitely
different here. When we set out at 8:00 this morning, it is actually a bit
cool. That doesn’t last long, but the humidity stays somewhat reasonable, so
it’s not totally oppressive.
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ID for the day |
The aim of the day is to visit 4
archeological ruins – Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Bantey Srei and finally Angkor
Wat. Each of these sites are different from each other, but equally
fascinating. I have absolutely no idea about anything to do with the history of
these sites - our guide is excellent and I feel quite educated if not exhausted
by the end of the day.
These archeological ruins are the
only tourist sites/places that I’ve ever been to that requires a photo to
enter. It is very slick and fast; for the 19 of us, pictures and then the ID
that we had to wear for all of our visits took about 10 minutes.
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these giant trees are everywhere |
Lunch is at what is described as
an ‘international buffet’ –this description is applied to most meals we have as
part of tours and have learned it is code for ‘western’ – familiar, but not
very exciting. Today, in addition to spaghetti and meatballs there is a good
variety of Cambodian dishes. Yesterday we learned about Amok – a Cambodian dish
that can be with different meat and today it is on this buffet. This one was
fish Amok – a bit sweet (I liked this, Chris not so much) with coconut and
lemon grass. It was then packed into a banana leaf cup. More ‘local’ beer was
to be drunk…this time in bottles with interesting pull tops. Although these
beers were included with our lunch, draft was for sale for 1.25 for a pint and
4.00 for a pitcher.
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living tree roots |
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Sanskrit writing on Angkor Wat |
Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site featuring ruins of the Khmer civilization. This is the biggest
site of all 4 and takes the longest to visit. Carvings cover what seem to be
thousands and thousands of feet of wall here – wall carvings cover all 4 sites,
but these are probably the most impressive. This is very close to Siem Reap
where our hotel is so the drive at the end of the day isn’t long which is
excellent as I am dusty, hot, sticky and don’t want to know what I smell like!
The guides throughout Cambodia
refer a bit but not a lot to the Khmer Rouge time in the 1970s. We see a few
reminders of that time through people with missing limbs due to landmines, but
less than I expected. I wonder if it’s still too recent to talk freely about
those times.
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decorate all of the walls |
Before dinner we had about an
hour before our evening activity of dinner and a show. Our hotel bar had 2 for
1 happy hour so, it was a very quick shower and change so that we could get a
drink in.
The dinner and show was at a
nearby hotel – although our hotel is lovely, this one has the charm ours doesn’t.
Ours is more of a business style hotel while this one has more atmosphere. The pool
area where we have dinner is lovely. We are the only ones there, which means it
is quiet, and there is music and lighting that makes it very relaxing. For the
19 of us there is enough food to feed about 100, which makes us feel a bit uncomfortable.
Lunch was a bit like this – off course we like to think that somehow this food
gets used, but I sometimes wonder if we think this to lessen our guilt over
wasting so much food. Anyway…the best thing I had was bok lo hong (a Cambodian papaya
salad) – it was delicious other than the fact that it burned my mouth off! Wow!
It was definitely the spiciest things I’ve eaten so far. I’m not sure what made
it so spicy – it was delicious, but HOT!
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leading up to Angkor Thom |
Dinner had an accompanying folkloric
show which we are typically opposed to because of the audience participation
element. Audience participation seems only to be during shows European shows. Asian
shows are more serious and with no need of a silly tourist element. This one
was great.
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folkloric show |
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sign in the hotel elevator |
Although we were back before
9:00, we were just so beat that we couldn’t even drag ourselves to the bar for
one last drink.
Sheryl – yes, the school was part
of the tour, kids in Cambodia go to school only half day until they are in gr
7. Then lots of them quit as the jr high and more in senior high schools are
far from their homes.
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happy hour |
3 comments:
That's interesting about the schools. Thanks for filling me in! I also find your huge beer interesting as well!! It's a great photo!
Everything is so different there, that living tree is incredible!
Love those giant trees!
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