Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is everything I hoped it would be*, and so much more.

*Except there are no statues that come alive and fight you like in Tomb Raider... I can't say I'm disappointed exactly, since I didn't bring my semi-automatic pistols to fight them off, but I was kind of hoping...

Yeah it's kind of AWESOME.

Seriously though, this whole area is gorgeous. It's some of the most heavily forested area in Cambodia (said a tour guide) so there are monkeys, tons of birds, and beautiful ruins of Buddhist and Hindu temples scattered around the area. Angkor Wat is the most iconic, but there are dozens of other temples within biking distance. We woke up at 5am to bike to sunrise at Angkor Wat - you can see the towers behind me to the left. GORGEOUS!

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Courtyard in Angkor Wat as the sun rose

This post is mostly going to be photos since they speak for themselves. I met up with a group of Americans who are traveling after studying abroad in China, and we biked around the whole complex for about 8 hours yesterday. I biked another 10-15 km today to see more temples, and I still have one day left on my pass... maybe I'll be back for thirds! I still haven't seen even close to everything Siem Reap and Angkor Wat have to offer.

My trusty steed

The intact carvings are so beautiful!

Most of the temples are in various states of disrepair or ruin. The temples were largely abandoned or actively destroyed in the 12th and 13th century, when the kings of the Khmer & their conquerors stopped supporting Buddhism and Hinduism in turn and destroyed many religious relics out of spite.  Most restoration has only been in the last 20 years and is progressing slowly, but it's a World Heritage Site so hopefully UNESCO and other private organizations can keep up the good work. These sites are too significant to be lost!

Ruins at Prah Khan

A MONKEY! I'll spare you the photo of it sticking its butt at me...

Baphuon Temple

Sleeping Buddha - can you see the face on the left side? 

You can lead a horse to Angkor Wat(er). The end.

 There were smaller temples scattered around the area as well, and being on a bike made it very easy to stop off and explore whenever we saw something between the trees.

Max checking the map...

Stone faces at Bayon Temple

All the temples had Buddha offerings and incense. Very beautiful!

Fig trees have overgrown some of the temples, like Ta Prohm

This is what existed in between temples. Beautiful grass and skinny cows.

Tomorrow I go to Battambang for a day or two - I've heard it's gorgeous and am very excited to see for myself!

Phnom Penh day 2

Alright, I'm a tourist.

I visited the National Museum in Phnom Penh to learn about Khmer history, and to see some of the artifacts that were rescued from Angkor Wat/Siem Reap (since the temples have been looted). 

The gardens in the National Garden are a rare place to find greenery. Very pretty!

I couldn't take photos of the exhibits (technically) but you can kinda see some in the background...

Today I visited S21, the genocide museum, and the Choeung Ek killing fields. I'm not sure what I can say about it... except I'm glad I went. Wow.

Beds with chains still attached.

Markings for the different cells.

Cells

Stupa at the Killing Fields

Shrine

I also visited the Russian Market, which was basically a large warehouse full of tourist shops.  

Unrefrigerated meat. Yum.

Dustin and Roger, two friends at the hostel who also went on our journey

Fountain

Tuk tuk near Independence Monument

Phnom Penh

I've made it to Phnom Penh, a busting sprawling metropolitan. When I arrived from Kampot, I found out that my hostel had given away my bed and had to hustle to find another; I came across a very seedy $6/night "guesthouse," but I did get my own room and a fan so I can't complain.

I met up with some fun people at the Sunday night market and we ate BBQ grasshoppers and enjoyed the riverfront. People are so friendly!  Here are some photos of the grasshopper eating extravaganza. Luckily I'd already tried them so I could pretend like it was no big deal, but was funny watching the girls (and guys) squeal as they tried it! The Cambodia woman selling them was eating them like chips, so she put us all to shame.

I ended up moving to the hostel where my newfound friends were staying for tonight, so won't have to worry about the weird place that I stayed last night. I like this spontaneity - even the not-great stuff is still a good story, and then it leads you to good things somewhere else!

Hanging out with people from the hostel.

Eating grasshoppers! Mmmmm bbq flavor.

Most of the touristy things in Phnom Penh were shut down today because it's Cambodian Independence Day, so I went shopping for new sandals (I found some!) and walked around with Helena (Finland), Amy (Texas), and Josh (Australia).  I also found an awesome Indian food place - a tummy-filling meal was $3 and SO DELICIOUS! I'm never leaving SE Asia. Only sort of joking.

Velkommen Hostel! Great place to meet people and hang out by the riverfront :)

Sausage IN the crust?! BRILLIANT! I haven't actually tried this because I'm both intrigued and disgusted

Tomorrow I'll be doing more touristy stuff while I wait for my Thailand visa to process. Hopefully it all goes smoothly and I can get out of here by Thursday night, head to Siem Reap, and then back to Phuket! I already miss diving and being near the ocean...

Cambodia: Les Mangiers, Kampot

I made it Cambodia, more specifically Kampot, with no trouble. What a beautiful place!

I arrived at the airport yesterday and had a few hours before my ride to Kampot, so I was able to get passport photos taken and printed right down the street.  The woman airbrushed my photo!! I have no moles or blemishes in the printed photos... luckily they're very small photos or else the Thai embassy may be suspicious of the fresh-faced person they expect and the reality: me.  It was so funny watching her edit the photo though! She made it look so easy, and now I have (even) less respect for Hollywood...

Phnom Penh to Kampot

Les Manguiers is a fantastic inn and restaurant located in Kampot, about 2 hours from Phnom Penh and located near the coast. Thanks Sam for the awesome recommendation!




The inn is located on the river and has gorgeous views of the mountains around, plus great biking and kayaking. I took advantage of both today and had a FANTASTIC time! Of course, on the bike ride I got horribly lost and ended up biking on a muddy road for 45 minutes away from the mountain I wanted to climb... but it's all part of the adventure, right? And I found the mountain and managed to climb it without hyperventilating too much. I LOVED IT! Everyone is incredibly friendly and all the kids say "HELLO WHAT'S YOUR NAME" as loudly as they can when you walk by.

I can understand why Angelina Jolie adopted Cambodian babies, is all I'm saying.

The bike ride was beautiful, and then I kayaked along the river and through palm plantations. Very pretty. There were a lot of really fun and friendly people around today, and Les Manguiers encouraged groups to explore the area together. What a wonderful paradise :)

Gorgeous green fields everywhere

Palm trees all over the place. If you think about it, they are such an odd shape.

View from the top of Phnom Soak, a small mountain about 5km bike ride from Les Manguiers.

A cow in the fields. Love it.

Delicious fried fish (I usually steer clear, but it's a fixed menu here)

Rabbits... these are delicious too, but I don't know if they eat them...

Kayaking on the river!

Patong

I planned to spend two nights in Patong before leaving for Cambodia, because I've been told by countless people that it's just "what people do in Phuket."  And it's only for 2 nights, which anyone can survive... right? Patong is located about 30 minutes from Phuket town and has a large beach surrounded by malls, small shops, and lots of tourists.

Lots and lots of tourists.

Large groups of large tourists.

It's known as one of the biggest party towns in Southern Thailand, and I can see why - lots of bars, lots of ladyboys, lots of prostitution.  Now that I've been here, I can definitively say that I don't need to come back! But I met some nice people at my hostel and managed to stay out of trouble and have fun. The beach was beautiful and the night markets are great; it's a lot of "other stuff" that I don't particularly like or want to be around. Luckily I'm with like-minded people, so it's still been a really nice 1.5-day excursion.

Two guys playing football with Santa hats. Holiday spirit is alive and well in Thailand!

The beach at Patong

Thai cupcakes - filled with a chocolate mousse and with jellies on top. Strange...

Tiger Hotel has lots of wooden tigers painted on the side. SO ODD.

I also saw James Bond and was entertained and bored at the same time. I love a good chase scene, but they were a little excessive. That being said, the ending made me sit up and I enjoyed it overall. I'm glad I was able to see it in theaters :) in Thailand, tickets are $4 and you choose your seat beforehand on a seating chart, like choosing a seat on an airplane. So different! I like it.

I can't wait for the hobbit to come out. I plan on taking 3 hours out of my Cambodia travels to bask in the glory that is J.R.R. Tolkien!!

Goodbye for now Thailand, hello Cambodia!

Khao Sok - in the running for "Most Beautiful Place. Ever."

I just got back from Khao Sok, a freshwater lake ~1.5 hours drive from Khao Lak, and I think it's definitely on the short list for "Most Beautiful Place Ever."

The cliffs around Khao Lak are made of limestone. This is not surprising given how many reefs are around, because limestone is composed of accumulated coral & skeletons. The limestone erodes into the most stunning, textured, steep mountains I've ever seen. It makes Half Dome seem silly (yes I realize Half Dome is granite) because there are some of the most insane, enormous structures coming out of the lake.  Khao Sok formed after they put in a dam in 1982, so there are still trees emerging from the depths and you can DIVE!

View from where we did our first dive

Freshwater diving was a new experience for me, and kinda freaky. There are incredibly sharp thermoclines, where warm and cold water separate, and you can see the light change as you go deeper. Around 70 feet, the thermocline shifts so there is NO light. It's like doing a night dive in the middle of day, surrounded by silt. Creepy, kinda scary, but AWESOME!

We went for 2 days, 1 night. The first day, we arrived around noon and promptly went for a dive along one of the more sloping sites, so there were plenty of fallen trees. Around 22 meters, it went pitch black and we literally couldn't see 2 inches in front of our face. That's the first time I've been in totally dark conditions during the day and 100% unable to see. It was scary at first, but once we group together and went a little bit shallower, it lightened up and wasn't so bad. I had just seen "The Impossible" about the 2004 tsunami, so I had all these horrible images in my mind of trees and people mashed together underwater... that definitely didn't help either. BUT it was still an awesome dive once I settled in, and we saw lots of cute catfish :)

It was so dark and silty at 50-60 feet depth that I was using a flashlight during the day. Reminds me of Monterey...

Grimy tree boogers! EW!

We also went to Catfish Cave, an iconic site because there's a large cavern with an opening from 12 to 18 meters in depth. It has stalectites and stalegmites - it just happens to be underwater. AMAZING!

Exciting about diving :D

SO COOL!

Underwater caves! WHAT!?

At the entrance

Above water, there were also some very impressive caves. We walked through one of them and oggled the beautiful structures that are still really well preserved, despite all the tourists who walk through. I've been pretty impressed with how the Thai people structure tourism; the Similan Islands Marine Park closes for 6 months of the year to help it recover, and many of the other sites have a lot of protection as well. Yay! More for future generations to enjoy :)

We stayed in floating bungalows on the lake. These were built from bamboo poles and 2x4s, and seemed precariously stable, if that makes sense. We didn't fall through the bottoms, but it was a close call because some of the planks were old and tired. But there was also kayaking, night safaris (on loud boats that scare away any of the monkeys, etc), and good food, so no complaints here!

Floating bungalows where we stayed

Bungalows floating on the lake. AMAZING

I'm off to Cambodia in a few days, so I'll be packing and prepping and getting excited. This trip was incredible and I think the dive in Catfish Cave was probably the single coolest dive I've ever done. Not the most comfortable and easy, but definitely worth it and SO AMAZING. The world is such a beautiful place and I'm so lucky to be able to visit this part of it!