The Beautiful Angkor Temples!

Hello family and friends! 

Sorry that this blog post is a day late and a dollar short but we crashed at 5 PM yesterday. We were unpacking our things because we had to move rooms at the V&A Villa (which we have decided to extend our stay at) due to Sasha’s irresponsible shower taking. She broke the nozzle of the tub so the water wouldn’t stop flowing, which is a huge waste of water (don't worry, they shut it off using the main water pipe nozzle). So we packed up our things and were moved from the second floor to the first floor. Now we have prime access to the pool and outside because we are close to one of the exits. This means that we can run outside to catch the few minutes of monsoons that come throughout the day, which we LOVE. The rooms are almost identical, with the only difference being that our new shower has no tub or separation from the rest of the bathroom (which Leah loves! Sasha has yet to try...)

Its a little warped, but you can see that the shower is just a spout on the wall!

So anyway, yesterday morning we woke up at 4AM to head off to the Angkor Temples in order to catch sunrise. We met our new Tuk Tuk driver, Sovanna, outside the gates and then took off! As we were approaching the gates of the temples it was still dark and we heard a car alarm going off. As we got closer we saw what must have been a motorcycle/car accident. The motorcyclist was lying on the ground about 100 feet from his motorcycle and the car was smashed into a tree. One of the vehicles must have belonged to a fisherman, because there were live fish flopping all along the road. Police were approaching and there were people watching. It was a very hard site to see, one that we wish we could have avoided. We can only hope that everyone survived and wish the best for their families.

The Tuk Tuk pulled into the Angkor Temple ticket booth at around 4:45 and it was already busy. We stood in line for about 10 minutes to get our picture ID for $20USD each. Then we loaded back into the Tuk Tuk and were off to our first stop: Angkor Wat, the most famous of all the temples. Sovanna dropped us off at the wall overlooking the entrance of Angkor Wat, where we sat and saw the reflection over the water in the dark. The sky slowly started to change from black to blues and purples, then a little red. We were wondering why so many people where walking into the temple before sunrise— as we wanted to see the sunrise OVER the temple. We later found out, however, that what we were looking at wasn’t actually Angkor Wat, but really just the entrance. Once we walked in, we saw the actual temple, and the beautiful sun peaking over its left side. 

Walking to the real Angkor Wat

There it is!!

Us

And there it is!

There were sooo many people

Another pic..

After the sun rose, we started to walk to the temple via the left walkway, thus avoiding the crowds of the main entrance. As soon as we approached the sandstone building, we were amazed at just how huge it was. We were able to get a few pictures without anyone photobombing from behind. We spent the next hour or two walking through the beautifully detailed halls, taking way too many pictures. Once we got to the far right side, we stopped for a little while to rest. That is when two adorable monkeys came and sat with us and a couple other tourists. They perched on the side of the doorway for a few minutes, only about two feet away from us (they seemed a lot less afraid of us than we did of them), and then proceeded to climb to the roof of Angkor Wat. It was quite a site to be seen. Their silhouettes on the top of the temple were breathtaking. 

Soosh!

The door was so detailed

After the monkeys could no longer be seen, we began our walk out of the temple. Toward the exit/entrance there was a whole line of shops selling pants, postcards, food, drinks, etc. We stopped and bought a fresh coconut, where we watched as the woman used her machete to cut three lines in the top, then pulled out the triangle shaped hole. She gave us a straw and a bow and we were on our way. About 10 doors down, we stopped at “Anas” restaurant, where we split a banana and nutella pancake. So yummy. Ana had been the one just an hour earlier who had told us where to go to see the best view of Angkor Wat. Great saleswoman indeed. 

After our light breakfast we found Sovanna outside of Angor Wat. The walk out was just as beautiful as before. We visited 7 other temples, which were all stunning. It’s so unbelievable to think that these amazing pieces of architecture were built A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. It was really hot and we quickly became tired. At one of the temples a man approached us and showed us through the temples. We were wary at first because we thought that he was going to charge us as a tour guide. He got Leah to hike up a set of horrifyingly steep stairs. Sasha followed her, figuring that she had to do some daring things on this new adventure. When the three of us were at the top he offered to take our picture, which was nice. He then handed us a clip board that explained a school that he worked with and then he flipped the sheet over, a donation sheet. Leah immediately wrote her name down, but only wrote down a $1 donation. Sasha then handed him another $1 bill. This did not please the man. He gave us a really disappointed look and then we left. We may never know if this was a scam or not, but regardless he needed those $2 more than we did. Then we faced a much harder task, making it down the stairs on our own. There was a moment Sasha thought that she was going to miss the step but Leah took her foot and helped her down. A man was watching us struggle and later we ran into him and he said to us, “you made it down alive!” 

The view from the top was amazing though...

The last temple we visited included a temple and a large “swimming pool” (really a large lake). We saw a cow and some children bathing in the water as we sat down with our feet dangling over the edge. About five minutes later we experienced our first monsoon. The water came and went very quickly, but in the few minutes it was like being in a shower. We loved the water but quickly regretted our choice of wardrobe (Sasha was wearing a white shirt and Leah a white skirt). We rushed back into the Tuk Tuk where Sovanna had already put down the rain shields and then we were on our way home. A few seconds down the road, the raid stopped so Sovanna pulled over to put up the shields (as it gets way too hot if they remained down). There, on the side of the road, we learned our first five words of Khmai (we decided to learn 5 words a day).

This is our horrible spelling, which is so wrong but helps us know how to pronounce everything: 

1. Thank you— aah koon
2. Goodmorning— arone su s-dey
3. Hello— su s-dey
4. No — aah day (no thank you— a day aah koon)
5. Yes — ba (for men), ja (for woman)

We arrived home and as we wrote earlier, showered, moved, unpacked and crashed. 

Before we end today’s blog we want to write about something that has touched us both, even though Leah witnessed it a lot while traveling around SE Asia years ago. That is the children outside every temple running after you to sell you their postcards, magnets, flutes, etc. for only 1 dollar. Many not wearing shoes, they surround you and ask over and over again to “please buy my postcards.” Because we went on a Saturday, we don’t know if these kids were home from school because of the weekend, or if they don’t go to school at all, but we do know that if they successfully bring home money each day, that is an incentive for their parents to not send them to school at all. It was hard to say “no thank you, no thank you, no thank you” all day, especially when so many of these kids are younger than the kids we babysit and love at home. 

Today we are off to see JWOC for the first time, we have Sovanna picking us up at 11:20 to take us to meet the librarian, Nesa for 11:30. We think we are just touring and meeting everyone today, though we are not entirely sure. We will see when we get there :)

Love and miss you all back home,

S&L 

PS: We literally have over 300 pictures of the temples (we went a little crazy), that we of course could not post on here. If you are interested in seeing more, Leah will be posting the majority (not all 300 though) on Facebook later on today or tomorrow, so stay tuned:)