Weary Templers

What's up Chilliwack?

This morning we left for Angkor Wat bright and early... well, it wasn't supposed to be bright, but it was getting there... and fast.

Turns out our wake-up 'sunrise' call didn't come at the time we requested....

HOWEVER it was JUST beginning when we hopped on our bikes and headed the 7km (at 5:15am no less) to Angkor Wat.

We biked as fast as we could. Half way I began to feel quite ill.

As soon as we got to Angkor Wat, the famous creme de la creme of Cambodia...
...such a source of national pride that it is displayed front and centre on their flag...

I puked. At Angkor Wat. Front entrance.

Just me, Stu, and hundreds of other tourists and sales people.

Adorable, right?

It was okay after that. Sunrise was quite nice and we got a killer deal on breakfast because EVERYONE was vying for our attention.

Stuart and I accomplished what they say can not be done: we saw (almost) the entire small circuit AND big circuit in ONE, count it, ONE day on bikes!

Mind you, it was long... it was a COOKER... but it was actually pretty fun!

The roads going from temple to temple are lined with huge shady trees and if you're lucky, monkeys!

We were lucky!! We saw a whole monkey colony hanging out on the sides of the street!
And when Stu looked up... what did he see?
An ADORABLE baby kitten in a small tree.
It was the cutest picture.
Little kitten up a little tree, surrounded by little monkeys.
Everything's better in minature.
Well.. not EVERYTHING, but at least furry animals.

The temples were pretty sweet.
I mean, they're a wonder of the world so they'd better be sweet!
I think it was cooler than stone henge.
It cost a LOT to get in... but our bikes were a buck a pop so I think we were okay.

We ended up getting an illegal tour guide for $1 for a little while to show us around Bayon. It was fun but totally weird because everytime he saw a Cambodian he walked way ahead of us like he wasn't with us so he wouldn't get busted.
But the real tour guides were like $10 and this guy knew his stuff so we were okay.

At the end of our tour with him Stuart and I were mauled by red ants. They bite hard!

Next:

Our lunchtime goal was to get iced coffee four for a dollar. I told Stu he was crazy and that three for a dollar would even be amazing.

We got to the stalls (which we heard were quite pricey) and women everywhere were BEGGING us to eat at their stall.

They argued with one another (not even us!) making the price lower and lower and lower... it was then that Stuart moved in with his proposal: 4 iced coffee's for 1 dollar.

BAM!

We got our meals for $1.00 and four iced coffee's for a dollar! Cést trés impressive, non?

We spent the remainder of our time there talking to a little girl who I ended up interviewing. (I MAY have a little gig with the Langley Advance writing travel stories... MAY, don't spread it around)
After interviewing her I got pictures of her alone, with me, her family, etc.
She sells flutes in one of the stalls, her sister persuades people to come to the stalls, her mom cooks, and her dad owns it.
We talked about their house, their family life, what they do for fun, how much they work, her aspirations, etc.
Then Stu and I went to her school and I talked to a teacher there about the school, poverty, etc. Took pictures of him and some students and the school.

It was totally fun!

We powered through the rest of the temples, but I have to say, the part that was the most fun for me was the biking around. It was beautiful. The second best: all the trees that were growing over the stones of the temple with their roots drooping over. It looked awesome!

Took some pictures and had a full full day...

I think we were there for about 14 hours.

Worth it? I think so. Looking back it was loads of fun and pretty spectacular.