Tarantulas, Temples, Tuk Tuks and travelers diarrhea

SIEM REAP ANGKOR WAT CAMBODIA

CURT AND CELIAS VIEW

After a brief yet infectious stay in Bangkok we picked up and flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We timed our arrival well managing to get there just in time for a outbreak of hemorrhaging Dengue Fever which caused mass internal bleeding as well as aching bones.
Nice.

We stayed at a semi dubious guesthouse opposite the lake ( read swamp in the case) fairly close to the centre of Siem Reap. Outside our little establishment were street vendors who seemed to sell coiled snakes, pigs snouts, something we think was rat and .....Oreo cookies. The world is bizarre.

Curt got pretty sick here, typical travellers stuff (he wants me to put explosive ass) and his general wellbeing wasnt helped by the smell of fried rat outside the window. So naturally like everyone else in the world we had one major reason for being in Siem Reap...Angkor Wat.

I had no idea it was so big! By far and away, bigger than any other temple, holy place or lost city that I've been too. While the atmosphere at Macchu Picchu might have been more intense and the pyramids are undoubtedly older, ( and Ephesus is just boring and crowded) Angkor Wat just goes on forever with temples and sacred sites. The whole thing stretches over a area the size of Manhatten and every part of it is different. We were stretched for time but took in the major temple sites over a day and a half.

We were under some sort of a unlucky curse at Siem Reap though, to start with we arrivied at Angkor Wat for sunrise only to have it rain for the exact twenty minutes that the sun was coming up before settling into your average thirty degree day. Next and perhaps most tragically, a buddhist nun startled me in one of Angkor wats temples asking for a donation in return for a blessing and the famous red string. I jumped and dropped my camera and now five days into the trip it doesnt work!

So we have missed some great pictures ....Five days into the trip..sigh And after all that we somehow managed to miss our bus by some weird thing where we keep getting told different times. That turned out to be sort of cool as our tuk tuk driver just dropped us on the outskirts of town and we got the crowded local bus where everyone stared at us ( but nicely) for five hours.

Finally we arrivied into Phnom Penh where we have spent the day exploring the Killing Fields and S-21 Museum...