Siem Reap, Angkor Wat

http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/rtwilli4/

I arrived in Siem Reap on Dec. 30. I did not know what to expect and figured it would be over run with tourists because of Angkor Wat. It actually wasn't that bad at all. I liked the town. You can go anywhere on foot, everyone is very nice and loves to teach you the language, and there was a "Pub Street" where the younger crowd hung out (local and traveler).

I had made some friends on the bus ride who I went out with for New Years. Nick, Zaza, Nicole, and Dennis were all ready to go out and party, so we headed to Pub Street. At the first bar I walked into, I ran into Trevor, Larissa, and Adrian; some friends I met in Krabi, Thailand. Right away we had a huge crown of people for New Years and began to drink lots and lots of buckets. Weird how you always run into the same people when you are traveling.

We all kind of got separated but the whole street was full of Khmers and foreigners and we all danced right into 2008! Buckets buckets buckets....I am definitely bringing the bucket Idea home with me.

For the next three days, I roamed around the temples of Angkor Wat. Basically, almost 1000 years ago, the Khmers ruled a major portion of Indochina and built giant temples and cities. I could go on, but you should just look it up. These structures are amazing though, and definitly fullfill the hype. The more popular ones are crowded, but they are so huge that it is easy to climb into a part of the temple that no one else goes too. I enjoyed the smaller ones much better though.

I had a guy names Mao drive me around on his motor bike and take me to all of the different places. I told him that on the first day I just wanted to get away from all the tourists. At 10am on New Years morning I would usually be in bed nursing a hangover. Instead, I was at a small temple in the middle of the Cambodian Jungle, all by myself....nursing a hangover! That first day was awsome. There is really nothing like riding through the rice fields and villages on a motor bike. I think I had just as much fun on teh bike as I did at the temples that day. Mao was really smart and we spent a lot of time teaching each other our respective languages.

For the 2nd and 3rd day, I went to some of the larger and more impressive temples. There were more people, sometimes too many. But these temples were crowded for a reason. They are simply amazing. The place really did make me speachless. The labor and attention to detail that went into this place was unbelievable. You'll just have to check out the pictures. http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/rtwilli4/