Siem Reap/Angkor

The bus journey from Phnom Penh was better than I expected. After many nightmare bus/boat rides I was expecting the worst. The bus left a bit late, but we got to Siemp Reap in the promised time of 5-6 hours.

I checked into the guesthouse I had in mind without much hassles from tons tuk tuk drivers and hawkers at the bus stations.

The guesthouse tried to charge me with rate of $1 = 4200 riels which highest I ever seen. After some haggling promising I'll staying at least 4 nights, the rate was back to 4000 the standard.
My room had a fan and good ventilation and plus that Siem Reap is a bit cooler than PP, so I felt pretty comfortable while in the room. There is no hot shower, but one does not need it. Also no TV, so boring nights for me. One can't complain too much for a $4 room!

I then went to book a flight to Laos and found out that there is no flight for Thursday day(thanksgiving), so I have no choice but stay one extra day and leave on Friday. So I am all set for flights to Laos and from there to Bangkok (open-jaw).

Siemp Reap is extremly dusty (and other cities as well), my eyes (with contacts) do not like it a bit.

After Cambodia I will be 1 day ahead on my schedule, but I probably will stay longer than the 6-day planed for Laos and will most likely going to negative.

The beggers and cripples are much worst here than in PP. On top of that hawkers and moto bikers like that of Vietnam, constant bombard you with offers. Every few minutes at a road side restaurant, you'll get a begger or cripple come calling. I think my Vietnam exeprience has immunized to most of it. I know many people here are truely poor/hungry/cripple, but the corrupted government has stolen so much of the tourist money for themselves instead of helping their own people.

My first sigtseeing to the Angkor area was to catch the sunset at a small hill top temple. The short climb up was pretty difficult, but that does not prevent million other tourists coming up to get a peek at the sunset. Well, no photo pleasing sunset that day, too much cloud at the sunset point as usual.

The real sighseeing for me starts on Day 2 (started at 5 am to catch sunrise over Angkor and for the next 12 straight hours of sightseeing) and lasts until Day 4 since I bought a 3-day pass. I hired a moto bike driver for 3 days include the sunset on day 1 for $30, but after day 2 we agree I can finish the whole thing on day 3 and I agree to pay him $25 for his service. I rented a bicycle on day 4 and rode to some minor sites that I did not visit the days before or too touristy before and visited my favorite site for a quiet reading on my next destination. It was nice to seat in the crumpled temple that is being consumed by the jungle with only the sound of birds, falling leaves, and wind. OK it was not that perfect, few tourists did find my quiet spot....

I really enjoyed my temple visits. I was afraid I might be tired after 1 day, but I think 3 days was perfect for me. I know some people got sick and tired of seeing the temples after day one, I guess they are city folks. The bike ride was great on the last day of visit since it allowed for slower pace and riding in the jungle was awesome as well (although riding an uncomfortable bike and behind exhusts of many buses was not good for the health). This place definitely is one of highlight of my trip despite the touristy nature (timing is key to avoid the massive crowd). Also the weather was relatively cool and sunny (except day 4 - cloudy which is good for bike riding, despite of this and shady road/path I still sweat a lot from the backpack on my back)

I am only able to upload very limited pictures (I took a lot) because the upload speed here in Cambodia is extremly slow (128kb/s)

So happy Thanksgiving everyone, I had a massage this afternoon to celebrate it.
And I joined Lisa, Shirely, Gill, Yana, and Mark for get together dinner.

Tomorrow morning (it will Thankgiving night your time), I will fly to Vientiane Laos.