Avoiding white slavery…

A quick update…

The temples are unbelievable. I’m so glad I’m here. The four of us - me, Salina, and the blokes - spent an entire day there, starting with a sunrise at Angkor Wat, hopping from temple to temple, and going back to explore Angkor Wat again before calling it a (long) day.

Sunrise, Angkor Wat

I think my favorite was Ta Prahn, the temple that is being slowly swallowed by enormous trees. It’s where parts of Tomb Raider were shot, and I did take the Tomb Raider photo of the entrance with the roots of a gorgeous ficus cascading over the stones like a waterfall.

Amazing carvings of apsara, complete with belly fat!

 

Me and Selina

Entrance to Preah Kahn 

I’m not going to write a lot about the temples since I’ll post the photos eventually. The bad news is that i think (I hope!) i left my camera cable in saigon so it won’t be soon.

It’s still a little sad here - the poverty and so many disabled people. Some of the landmine victims have formed music troupes, playing traditional khmer music outside the temples during the day and in the posh traveler neighborhoods at night. They’re very good. I think i have spent more of my money giving 1000 riel here, 1000 riel there, to the beggars and musicians and incense ladies in the temples. There are just SO MANY that you can’t help everyone. Walking back to the hotel last night I gave my last riels to a man who was following me and touching my arms with his handless stumps saying “khmer rouge… BOOM! no hands…”

Landmine victim band

Well Salina left this morning, catching a plane to Bangkok. I am chilling with the Aussies this afternoon before they head back to Saigon, then I am on my own again. I’ve arranged a moto to go back to the temples and if the weather is nice, i will try to catch the sunset on Angkor Wat (me and 1000 other people - everyone knows where you need to be to get the best photos, it’s no secret). And tomorrow i will do another full day of temple exploration.

I got my ticket to Vientiene on Sunday, so Laos is ON. I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so… scared! (my eternal respect to the first person to name that reference.)

Hey, miamians. Any of you still there? I guess if you don’t have power you can’t exactly answer…

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2005 at 2:02 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.