My plans for today changed several times before 10:30am. I
woke up and enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast while I waited for the Grant
and Mitch so we could head to the temples together. We had originally planned
to leave between 9:30 and 10 so when there was no sign of them by 10:05 I
figured they left without me and came up with a new game plan. I was still
feeling pretty shattered so I was going to have another lazy day and maybe go
for a massage. I had to check out of my room first though because I was
changing dorms and by the time I came back downstairs with all my stuff they
were sitting in the bar eating and waiting for me.
It took us a few minutes to get all of our ducks in a row
but we were soon off to Angkor. I bought a 3 day pass and the boys only bought
a 1 day pass so I stuck to the itinerary they wanted to do since I would be
able to go and explore on my own a few more times. I stupidly wore flip-flops
thinking we wouldn’t be doing much walking since we were taking a tuk-tuk, a
decision I quickly grew to regret.
We spent the whole take visiting temples and ruins, climbing
a ridiculous number of dangerously steep stairs and trekking through the forest
around the temples. We got scammed in the first temple we went into, I kind of
knew it was going to happen I just didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it
was. I can’t remember the name of the temple but within minutes of entering we
met a Cambodian guy who started showing us around and telling us about the
temple. He even took pictures of the boys giving eskimo kisses to one of the
faces on the temple wall and one of me being kissed on the cheek by the face. I
knew he was going to ask for money at the end, especially after he made sure to
tell us about his fake leg and how a landmine had injured him as we were
exiting the temple. I was expecting to pay him a dollar or so each, a
reasonable amount in my mind since he spent about 20 minutes with us and we
were paying our tuk-tuk driver $15 for the whole day but when we tried to hand
him small bills he said we needed to give him $5 each. We probably should have
just given him $3 and ran, I mean he never would have caught us with his bum
leg but we stupidly forked over the cash and agreed to ignore anyone who
approached us in any of the other temples.
We visited a few more temples before stopping for lunch but
on the way back to the tuk-tuk to head for a lunch a little girl who was about
8 years old latched onto Grant, following us for about a mile trying to sell
him postcards, he kept refusing and she kept following. This girl was so
persistent and I felt really bad when he turned around and bought a bracelet he
didn’t even want from another little girl who just showed up out of no where. I
was also a little worried that the first girl might get beaten if she went back
with no money after being gone for so long. The children beggars were all
through the restaurant where we went for lunch as well. I kind of liked one of
them though; he was about 9 years old and dressed in yellow shorts and a
matching shirt. He asked us all where we were from and when the boys said they
were from England he told them the capital city was London and that James Bond
come from England and when I told him I was from Canada he told me the capital
was Ottawa. He told us he collected coins and showed us a few from his
collection and asked if we had any English or Canadian coins, I happened to
have both so I gave him a Canadian quarter and an English 10 pence. I don’t
normally like to give money to beggars but I mean there isn’t much you can do
with foreign coins and he was just so cute.
We visited a few more temples after lunch including the
famous Angkor Wat, which was pretty incredible. The whole area was really
interesting to visit though, especially learning about how the Khmer Rouge had
cut off the heads of all the statues during their reign and sold them in
Thailand. Some of the statues have been replaced and others have remained
headless. It was also interesting to learn a little about Hindu, although like
so many things I have gotten a taste of on this trip I need to do more
research.
As we piled into the tuk-tuk to head home we were all
drenched in sweat and our feet were caked in dirt. All I could think about was
jumping in the pool when I got back to the hostel but the breeze along the way
cooled me down and I ended up washing my feet in the shower instead of jumping
in the pool. We hung out in the hostel bar and our group of three grew to a
group of 8 before we left for dinner.
It looked like I was going to be the lone girl in the group
but seconds before we left someone recruited another girl to join us and we
were off. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant we went to but they had
the most ridiculous menu set up ever. Everything was printed on long hard
boards but you needed three of them to see the whole menu, it was very
inconvenient and disgusting. I ordered a noodle dish that ended up looking like
maggots but tasted quite delicious.
After dinner we made our way to Pub Street to hit up the
clubs. It was crazy early still but the clubs were already pumping the tunes so
we decided to stick around. We spent the next several hours bouncing between
Temple Club and Angkor What. Both very cool bars with very different vibes, it
was kind of weird actually since a lot of people seemed to be bouncing back and
forth the way we were.
Being the only sober person around got old pretty quickly
though so when Grant decided he was sufficiently drunk and ready to head home I
was happy to join him. I suggested we walk as it was nice outside and only
about 5 minutes to the hostel but he insisted we take a tuk-tuk. I’m pretty
sure he is now regretting this decision because shortly after we got home he
burst into my room, turned on the lights, and very loudly started telling me
about his phone. I quickly ushered him out of the room and into the hall to
tell me what happened. I remembered him having his phone in his hand during the
tuk-tuk ride so I don’t know how he possibly could have lost it but he did. I quickly
checked his room trying not to wake up his roommates then walked into town with
him to try and find our tuk-tuk driver. The mission was a complete failure and
we weren’t able to find his phone, even after we tried to call it back at the
hostel, although that might have worked if he could have remembered his number.
Today was pretty action packed and the night was full of
dancing and repetitive conversations so I am pretty exhausted. My three day
pass allows me two more visits in the next 7 days so I think tomorrow will be a
laid back day by the pool.
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