Good Morning Siem Reap!
The view from our hostel is amazing! The weather is warm and I feel really good. Except mosquitoes are biting me. I somehow almost always underestimate those little buggers, so I insist on closing the door even though it’s like super hot in the room because the AC isn’t working. So, not the most comfortable 3 nights. What was nice about this hostel was that the four of us could stay in one room together 🙂
We get up fairly late and go out looking for food. Rebecca and Tory recommended a place, where we can put our feet in water and the fishes will eat the dead skin. Usually if you go somewhere else, you’ll have to pay a couple of bucks for that. I liked that the experience was free with your dining experience.
I don’t know about the rest of Cambodia, but a lot of prices in Siem Reap were quoted in U.S. dollars. It felt kind of weird using U.S. dollars again. haha I noticed that a lot of the prices on the menu ended in .50. How many quarters do you think people carry with them? Not a lot. I think they are hoping that you round up and then they give you the change equivalent in Cambodian currency. Now that I think about it, I heard somewhere that they don’t accept U.S. coins, which kind of makes sense. If they are exchanging U.S. dollars to Cambodian currency, the exchange place will most likely not let you exchange coins.
Our meal was 5.50 – 6.50 per entree, which compared to U.S. standards is cheap. I kind of thought it was expensive, only because I knew what the price could be. No way are the locals eating 5.50 for every meal. But, I get it. We were in a touristy location. I can’t really complain, because it could be more expensive. And if I am only paying 5.50 per meal, imagine how much each employee is earning as a wage. Probably not much.
After lunch, we found a “tuk tuk.” It’s more of carriage in the back, but it’s different from the tuk tuks in Thailand. I think we paid $20 USD for four people for the whole day.
When we got to the entrance of Angkor Wat, the tuk tuk stopped by the ticket booth. We got out and bought our tickets. (1 day for $20 and 3 days for $40) Rebecca and Tory got the 1 day. Tracy and I knew we were at least coming back for the sunrise, so we bought the 3 day option, even though we didn’t have that many days in Cambodia.
On our way we go! There were lots of tourists and I can imagine it was so much different probably just 10 years ago. The tuk tuk drops us off and we’re taking pictures and I see these group of kids. My reaction was “does anyone have candy?” When I came 5 years ago, that’s what my family did. I still remember the kids being able to say the word, candy, in Chinese which impressed me.
The other girls felt giving them candy was a big no no. By giving them anything really, even candy keeps them away from school, enabling them in a way. We didn’t spend much money there, knowing how we spent our money would affect them. I really liked the way that this blogger explains the children of Angkor because many of us have similar stories.
The temples are gorgeous! It just feels like I’ve stepped into another time. I kept trying to imagine a city of people living in the city of Angkor 900 years ago! I kind of wish we had a tour guide just to know what to pay attention to, but it’s a hit or miss with tour guides. Content with just walking around and taking in the ruins, we finished with a stroll through the “market area.” Not really market, but a bunch of Cambodians are selling souvenirs, skirts, bags, postcards, etc. We did buy 1.5 liters of water for 1 USD. Side note: It is humid in Cambodia, even at the beginning of February. With the amount of walking we were doing, it didn’t take long for my clothes to stick to my body.
I’m curious as to what the tuk tuk drivers do while they wait for us. Our tuk tuk driver always gave us a time to come back to the tuk tuk, and they are good at locating you, haha. We didn’t even need to look for him among a see of tuk tuk drivers and their vehicles, because he pulled up in front of us. I suppose he has to keep a close eye on us just to make sure we don’t run out on him or get a different tuk tuk.
He took us to a nearby restaurant where we all shared a snack and continued on the “tour.”
I wish we spent more time at the Bayan Temple. I don’t know why I really liked this one, but it had beautiful etchings.
Next, we went to Ta Prohm, which is famous for being the filming location for Tomb Raider. This one was also special in that you really got to see how powerful nature is. The banyon trees just grew around and over and on the sides of the ruins. There were giant trees as well.
Last stop was Bantea Kdei. Suprisingly, this temple wasn’t swarming with tourists at the time, which really affected the atmosphere and made the our experience unique. I remember Tracy, Rebecca, and I weren’t even walking with each other. We kind of all split up, looking and exploring. It was so peaceful. This temple was not restored as well as the others so we really got to see ruins. While I was imagining a city full of people at the other temples, at this one, I was imagining what things might have caused certain stones to crumble. It’s kind of depressing, but I also thought about what war would have looked like at these temples and pictured treasure hunters stealing what they could carry.
It was amazing though to see the sun set behind the temple and to be able to walk through these temples that had so much history.
|
| Cambodia is so beautiful 🙂 |
Templed out for the day, we headed back into town and ate at an eclectic restaurant called Chopsticks. They had all sorts of foods and on our way home, we got $3 foot massages. The massage was great, but we learned afterwards that they don’t wash the towels they use to wipe our feet. I didn’t want to think about how dirty my feet were after.
Tired from the day, I crashed and went to bed around 12 I think. Early morning tomorrow to go Ziplining!
Total steps for the day: 13,326
In case you missed my other posts, here are Day 3, Day 2, and Day 1.
