Off the Couch and On the Road

I must firstly apologise if you are insanley bored reading what I am doing everyday. I want to make it sound more exciting, really I do, but I think I end up just churning out whatever I’ve done that day, which seems like it’s coming across more boring than it actually is.

For example, I may take a bus ride, which sounds boring, but on that particular bus ride, I may see a little man standing on top of a water buffalo, playing a flute. In the middle of a rice field. Playing a flute. As you do. See? More exciting than it first seems, yes?

But apologies aside, If I don’t keep a record of what I do every day, I know I will forget in two weeks, so this is for me as much as you, ok? So quit your whinging and think of how much work you are avoiding because of me. Ah, not so boring now am I…

Ok, back to me (because I can) - we decided we were templed out and spent the day by the pool swimming and sunbaking. Um, and that’s pretty much it. Although, as you can imagine, it was much more exciting that I am making it sound. You know how it is.

-Sarah

We left the hotel at 5am to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat the next morning, having only an hour or two of sleep, which was amazing. (The temple was amazing, not us. We looked like shit.)

It’s a truly beautiful temple, massive in size and well-preserved, and we sat on the stone step ruins of the Angkor Wat library watching the shadows slowly life to reveal the stone detail.

It started raining shortly after, which was even better, as the thousands of tourists dissappeared into their coaches and we had some space to wander, climb and explore this sacred sit on our own. Two things pissed us off though - two girls in singlet tops and short shorts wandering around, which was so disrespectful, and a Christian group who were actually holding mass within the temple, the pastor wearing his robes and everything. We stopped in the middle and stared incredulously at them, saying ‘Buddist, people, this is a Buudist temple. Seriously! Do monks go into the Vatican to worship? Seriously.’ We realised later that’s it’s Easter. But still, seriously.

After our healthy dose of temples, we ate breakfast on site, visited the landmine museum and slept in the afternoon, where we ate lunch, visited the markets and went to the hospital to donate blood, where we got a whole box of orange cookies afterwards. Each. That hospital rocks.

That night, we had cocktails at the Angkor What? bar - which has written on the blackboard behind the bar “This is not a tourist information centre, so shut up and drink.” So we did.

-Sarah

Angkor Wat is pretty much the historial highlight of this trip, so we were all pretty chuffed to fly into Siam Reap the following morning.

Siam Reap literally means 'Thailand Defeated', in reflection of the various times the ownership of Angkor ... [Continue reading this entry]

The next morning we had to take the public bus across the border into Cambodia. We were imagining the worst - giant tuk-tuks filled with chickens and pigs - but were pleasantly surprised when an air-conditioned bus drove us the ... [Continue reading this entry]