The temples

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Trip Start Sep 17, 2006 Trip End Sep 20, 2006

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Saturday, September 30, 2006

Day 2 (7:15am flight at 10:05am to Siem Reap, Cambodia) Got up at 6:30am - after much convincing and coaxing from my travel companions .. our flight was at 10:05am and we needed to be in the airport by 8:30am and the airport isnt exactly around the corner..Slept in the cab, slept part of the way to Cambodia on the flight..partially due to the fact that we were up boozing the night before and also to the fact that I have had barely any sleep for the past 2 weeks !.. got to Cambodia and was simply in awe..Siem Reap international airports has to be one of the most unique and beautiful airports I have ever seen.. was expecting a dodgy wooden hut like the ones I've seen before in really small towns.. Heading towards our hotel-City River Hotel, we saw amazing buildings and landscapes, despite having practically 3 hours sleep we were eager to jump out and start exploring...which is basically what we did, dumped our stuff at the hotel, took out our maps and started towards the Old town.. first stop : LUNCH at a place called the Socheata Restaurant where we had khmer food and coconut shake (which was excellent!) .. After lunch we wandered the streets of Old Town and realized how inconsistent the prices were.. For the same item and about 10 different stalls, I was offered every price possible from $1 -$10.. The street kids were impressive, they could probably speak up to 7 different languages including French just to convince tourists to purchase their goods..

Things to buy from Old Town Market:

souvenirs- $5 and below, scarves $1.50-$2.00, Tshirts at on ly $1.00 (what a bargain!), Lonely planet Guide Books.. I was offered a terrific price of $3.00 (take note that these books usually cost between $30-$50)

Beer prices are varied, initially I saw a sign offering beer at $1.20 and thought to myself wow thats cheap.. as we progressed along what the locals call "Pub Street" the beer prices were as low as $0.25 a pop! We took note of that place and returned to the hotel to freshen up before heading to one of Siem Reaps best watering/entertainment clubs.. The Temple.. a spread of good food, aspara dancing (local traditional dances) and vodka shots..
Take note me and Yo ended up having 10 and a half vodka shots each...needless to say that night ended with 3 of us getting absolutely plastered and C having to tend to P who spent the night over the toilet bowl.

Day 2 (Temples..) Got up bright and early (although we were perfectly happy staying in bed after the heavy session the night before!) left for the famous Angkor Wat temples at about 9:30am ... It was amazing, its hard to describe how incredible the ruins were and pictures would do no justice.. we spent the whole day at the temple park (consists of acres and acres of land) ..we did manage to visit the two famous temples: Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (which was where the filming of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider took place!) We decided to have an early night.. after couple of beers and vodkas *roll eyes* In Yo's defense we were on holiday...



Day 3 (Massage,Cambodian Cultural village)

We had a rather "interesting" day today ... we decided to have a rather relaxed morning and ended up at a massage parlor .. thinking we had our own individual rooms and a little R & R... NOPE they decided to put us all in one dim lit room side by side.. I wont go into details but it involved 4 topless girls being massaged, 4 cambodian giggling girls, massaging of pelvic regions.. its not as kinky as it sounds.. but I have to say it was a great massage!

Three giants next to the very detailed replicate of some temple..

We spent the afternoon at the Cambodian Cultural village and a huge shock as we walked through what they call the "judgement tunnel" , which is basically a display of disturbingly, graphic wax figurines of different forms of punishment for different "sins" .... some of the punishments/sins include "Breastfeeding in a temple" and the another "Having an abortion"

...not only did they have such horrific displays (which I thought was actually really interesting!) ... they decided to use real live human beings to scare the bejesus of the people who visited the tunnel... I have never screamed so many times.. repeatedly.. Ended the day with good meal.. and was all set for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur the following day..

Day 4 (Old town Market, last minute shopping and last coconut Shake)

My other travelling companions decided to spend a couple of hours before the flight to purchase some knick knacks from the market .. I had one target in mind to get my hands on a lonely planet guide for Thailand (my next destination after KL..) and to have my very last coconut shake.. mmm... manage to get both and then headed to the airport and said goodbye to Siem Reap.. p.s there is a $25 airport departure tax that people arent aware of... so be warned..

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