Angkor Wat

We spent 2 FULL days exploring the surreal temples of Angkor Wat in the brilliant city of Siem Riep, we were lucky enough to see the temple at sunrise, sunset and in the dark of night. No amount of words could ever do justice to the magnificence of these temples so I decided to pick some of the best pictures and let them do the talking instead. Here is some info about the temple from Wikipedia just to give you some background on the place...

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, in use by the 16th century,[1] means "City Temple": Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder, Suryavarman II.

Sihanoukville

In the mood for mindless beachlife. Sihanoukville is a 5 hour southbound bustrip. Get tickets, make the journey, and during the whole trip we're like 'what the hell is this guy thinking.' Usually charter busses play music or movies or both, and it's tolerable. WOW we endure 5 hours of boyband karaoke video, loud. No joke. The driver kept turning down the volume to blabber on his phone, then he'd turn it up even higher. By the time we arrive it's so loud earplugs are worthless. The hell is he thinking.

Anyway, Sihanoukville ends up being everything we hope for. 5 days blissed out on a tropical beach, lounging in beachbeds and hammoks. Jen gets over her jetlag and embarasses me at billiards everyday. We get excellent tans...




Here's the last 2 nights.





Irish guy goes to the bar and buys 2, then joins us on the beach and lights em up. 3 Swiss dudes, 5 Irish, 2 Aussies, and 4 Americans. 7:48pm; time for the happy hours. Begin at Oceans for $0.25 beer and I buy a round. The Aussie girls are fiery fun, dancing Napolean-Dynomite-like sweeping both arms in long frows, then prancing and spinning, smiling big and sweating in the nighttime mug.

At around 9 we head to Banana Bar. Dance floor is outside and in the center there's a tall pipe. It's rust-red with a small flame purring out top. There's a button behind the bar and when the tender presses it, the small purring flame explodes into a fireball, accentuating the craze and the tenders are drunk again already trigger happy. Fireballs keep exploding and lighting up the place. Haha it's getting warm. Then we bump into the very first people we met on the road! The awesome couple from Amsterdam! NO WAY! Hugging, smiling, laughing.




Move onto Reggae Bar. On the dance floor is an inflatable kiddy pool filled with spaghetti. 2 bikini clad girls with bob-cuts are wrestling in it, not holding back, being voracious— Jen says if they weren't laughing so hard she'd guess it was for some ex-lover. Agreed. Whole scene isn't sexy at all just ridiculous in the now common 'only-in-South-East-Asia' way, so an Aussie girl climbs ontop the bar.

Wake next day hungover. It's our last day. Still haven't left the beach village. We rent motorbikes then VRROOM inland toward the flea market, toward the shanties, toward the huge mountains and monuments, the lion statue painted gaudy gold. We VRROOM pass palms and ferns and person-size urns, pass broke-down shacks of parents, and their kids and cats and rubbish flies up as we race and yelp, so I stand up as I pass em all gleaming, everything seems blurred but exotic. VRROOM it's wondrous how the kids laugh alongside us, trying to keep up— and now it's raining but no complaining just gaining speed, increasing the rush— feeling the rush of water stinging my face, but keeping strong, leaning on, yelling for more MORE

We race through the city and end up at the harbour. A local's stark naked trotting down the road, wait what? We race the coast and end up back at the hostel.

Take the night off and watch a movie. We walk down the busy road toward the theater and the Swiss dude rolls one. Now in the theater lounging on couches and plush chairs. Swiss dude rolls himself another one and the theater owner (American man in his 50s) happily accepts a drag.