So Steven was beyond ill, the last 2 days have been rough for him and his invincibility cloak he brags about was demolished as the poor guy spent more time in the bathroom then visiting Ankor. Thank heaven for electrolyte tablets and antibiotics. He stayed in the hotel yesterday and I ventured out on my own. A couple apparently becomes closer after all you discuss is poo consistency for 2 days... but apparently there is a double standard... We can discuss Steven's poo.. but not my own.. but I digress. :)
So I decided to cheap out and only pay $2 for a bike with a basket instead of the $3 for a mountain bike. As I was leaving the town, I thought, you know you should really turnaround... then thought, nah, it won't be that bad. I then proceeded to bike over 45 km in plus 30 heat. At the end I couldn't care if I saw another temple, and I almost paid a guy to put my bike in a tuktuk and go home.. but I persevered and paid for it later.. but in the end it was worth it.
I did the big circuit of the Angkor area and believe me it was stunning.. over 800,000 people lived in the area over 1000 years ago, and the intricacy of the walls, pillars, ceilings was incredible. It took over 37 years to build Angkor Wat, I couldn't imaging how long it took to build the entire empire. It was stunning.
I finally made it back went for a mandatory massage and then Steven and I sorted out where to go next. We originally wanted to go down to Phnom Penh and then to the killing fields, but we are not overly impressed with Cambodia. Don't get me wrong its beautiful, but it is very tiring to have people constantly ask you for money. I am not trying to sound self-absorbed, or non-helpful, its just that you can't help everyone and we tried to help out someone here and there, but it broke my heart I can't help everyone. Yesterday, I met one of the guards and she asked me if we needed a tuk tuk for today, I said sure. We ended up paying him $30 for the day and he was so thankful. He was incredible and though our tuk tuk broke and I almost fell out at one point we wanted to give him what he deserved. It's hard to see so much poverty around you and I feel terrible for living like a queen around them. As such, we are returning to Vietnam tonight and will make our way south to the island of Phu Quoc, which, coincidentally, my friend Janet who I work out with will be staying at the same hotel over the same nights.. can't wait!
Today, we did the small circuit and we saw the Ta Phom which is the visual you think of when you think of Angkor and tomb raider.. trees have over taken the temples and fences and it is beautiful. There are also a lot of dark corners and I managed to hide behind one and successfully scare the shit out of Steven. So worth it. It still makes me laugh.
We then took a tour of the floating villages south of Siem Reap. This was an awful experience for me as I can't believe that they are just ripping out the river banks to make the river bigger so more tourists can get through, that most of the stopping points just ask you for money, and we ended up buying food for an orphanage and the kids ripped the bags open and through all the garbage into the river... then when we got back, we had a tip for our guide and he told us it wasn't enough and that each of us had to pay him $5. I hated the entire thing. We also know now why Steven got sick, the fish he had was from this village, the water was so dirty and the people just shit in the water, so it all makes sense.
We were thankful to finish that tour and be back in town. Our flight leaves at 10 tonight, so it will be a late night, but we are welcome to it.
Overall, I loved seeing Angkor, but we definitely have liked Vietnam better so far, Steven is definitely partial to Vietnam as the 2 days of being sick has left a bad taste in his mouth.. no pun intended.
Regardless, the trip was definitely worth it!
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