Angkor WHAAATT!!!

OK, so it's been about 10 days since I left Cambodia, and if I don't write something about my final vacation week soon, I'll never get around to it. On to the highlights!

Alone with the waves and the cows.

So in the last entry I mentioned that I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, which is in southern Cambodia along its relatively short stretch of coastline. I'd heard a lot of negative things about Sihanoukville, along the lines of it being crap or dirty or a waste of time, but I really enjoyed my 2 days there. I think the beaches are underrated, honestly, and I didn't even get a chance to go see any of the offshore islands which are supposed to be stunning. I stayed in a guesthouse in the main tourist area of Serendipity Beach and I honestly wish I'd taken the time to find something more off the beaten track, as some of the isolated clusters of huts and bungalows I saw on my long long beach walks looked pretty damn enticing. Serendipity is at the far western end of Occhuteal Beach (I still don't know how to pronounce that), which is a white sand beach probably a couple of miles long. On my first day, I walked along the water's edge, feeling the warm waves lap up around my ankles as I directed myself eastward, watching the string of bars and restaurants gradually peter into nothingness as I marched further and further down the coast. At the end of the beach, I ran into a big headland that separates it from the next massive stretch of sand, Otres Beach. So after walking over the giant hill, I naturally decided to walk the full length of Otres as well, basically just going until I could go no more. By the time I reached the end of Otres, I had been walking for 2 hours and there was no one around but me and a bunch of cows (yes, cows on the beach, which is awesome). The water was shallow for quite a long way out and I just wandered in, basking in the unbelievable weather and quiet solitude. It's so rare to be in such a beautiful place, especially a beach, and just have no one in sight. Man, I loved it.

Yay for travel friends!

I spent the entire second day having cocktails on Serendipity Beach with a new friend I made named Mickey who is a travel photographer from Italy. And like, a legit travel photographer; his photos are regularly used on websites and magazine spreads and as the cover image for Lonely Planet travel guides like the one for the Seychelles. (Just in case anyone wants to marvel at some beautiful images and get really jealous of a 30-year-old dude's life, here is his travel portfolio.) It was another awesome opportunity to meet someone fun and interesting, which was definitely one of the recurring themes of this trip. I bade Mickey farewell when it came time for me to board the night bus for the 12-hour trip from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap, aka the worst night of my life. I stupidly thought that the use of beds on a bus as opposed to standard seats would ensure an actual night of sleep, but I didn't take the time to consider the horribly deteriorated condition of most Cambodian buses and roads. Try to imagine the loudest and most violent roller coaster you've ever been on, multiply it by 5, and then think about going to sleep on it. My first day in Siem Reap was a total waste, as I was just a cranky, exhausted brat all day and could barely leave the hotel room. A classic example of "if it seems too good to be true..."

Look, beds! This won't be so bad..! FAIL.

After spending most of the day alone, my friend Jonathan arrived from Hong Kong and we went out to eat some Khmer BBQ, which consisted of our own grill with noodles and vegetables and 5 different kinds of meat, including beef, shrimp, crocodile, snake, and frog legs, all of which was delicious. And then we prepared ourselves for 2 solid days of templeing in and around Angkor Wat. We adopted a tuk-tuk driver named Hian who drove us around for several hours a day, taking us to all the major temples and sites in the Angkor area. I'll post a couple photos from each, with my impression of the site:

Ta Prohm:  The temple where Angelina Jolie filmed parts of the movie "Tomb Raider". (You know, back when adopting a foreign child was a new and novel idea for her.) Relatively overgrown compared to many other temples, it gives you an Indiana Jones vibe, especially with all of the massive trees (complete with insanely gigantic and invasive tree roots) growing on top of the ruins.

Inside

Outside 

You almost expect the tree roots to come to life and attack the innocent passersby.

My reaction shot.

Tourists taking photos of the "Tomb Raider" tree for posterity.

Banteay Srei:  A much smaller and more distant site that is recommended due to the incredible detail on the temple carvings, which for whatever reason have not been worn away as drastically as in other temples. I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I saw it early, otherwise it would have been quite underwhelming. In fact, it seemed as though each site we visited grew progressively bigger and more impressive, which was an unintentional stroke of luck.

Monkey statues are cool.

The carvings were often very curved and deeply inset. No idea how they did this stuff.

You can see just how intricate the designs are all over this place.

Kbal Spean:  Oy. This place came recommended by the hotel staff, but Jono and I could have easily done without it. Miles and miles away from anything else, requiring a 30-45 minute hike up the side of a mountain in the heat, all to see a bunch of figures and symbols carved into the riverbed. I mean, it's cool that people were able to literally carve the riverbed into something meaningful, but it lacks the oomph and punch of the dozens of actual temples around and soaked up hours and hours of precious time to boot.

Waterfall. Thrilling.

Ta Som:  Like a smaller version of Ta Prohm. The best part about this one was the way the tree at the back of the temple looks like it's swallowing the place whole.

I'm fairly certain this doorway will eventually collapse in on itself.

East Mebon:  Honestly, after a couple of weeks, this one doesn't even stand out in my mind at all. Some of the smaller ones kind of bleed together in my memory.

Pre Rup:  Our first Temple Mountain. This terraced pyramid-like design was a favorite among the old Khmer architects as it represents Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu gods and center of the universe. Actually, the thing that surprised me the most about Angkor was that the temples really demonstrate the hybridization of Hinduism and Buddhism that is apparently prevalent in the Khmer belief system. It's not like in Thailand, where people adhere to a much purer form of Buddhism, which I wasn't aware of previously.

This was a big tourist destination for photos of the sunset.

Angkor Wat:  The granddaddy of them all. We started out Day 2 by heading to Angkor Wat at 5.00 AM in order to catch the sunrise coming up behind the temple complex. Along with everyone else in Siem Reap apparently. It wasn't quite as magical as you'd like to hope for. But once Jono and I started walking around the temple itself, it was pretty damn cool. The place is enormous... I tried to get photos of Angkor Wat with people in the frame so that one can actually understand the sense of scale involved. Can you spot them all?!  ;)

Bayon:  Bayon is the main temple inside the Angkor Thom complex. It was also Jono's favorite and my second-favorite, mainly because it looks like something out of a child's fantasy. We're talking "Legends of the Hidden Temple"-style stuff here, complete with giant creepy faces littering the sides of every spire and every tower. It was majorly badass and everything one would think of when one imagines a giant ruined temple in the forest.

Endless doorways. 

Preah Khan:  Another massive rundown temple à la Ta Prohm. At this point, Jono and I were desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the omnipresent and obnoxious Chinese tour groups so we sped through this one rather quickly.

Neak Pean:  Most of the temple complexes were surrounded by moats, but this one was unique in that the center of the temple sat in the middle of a pool of water thought to heal diseases.

Beng Mealea:  And finally, the last temple on our journey but certainly not the least, my absolute favorite of all the temples, Beng Mealea. This one was well outside Siem Reap, 2 hours on a tuk-tuk, but for me it was well worth the trip. Due to its remote location, separation from the main temples, and relatively recent date of discovery, the Cambodian government has left the temple largely untouched, save for a wooden walkway built to help tourists navigate the unwieldy site. Trees and plants are growing everywhere, rubble has been left as it was found, and the whole area has an air of mystery, as if it were truly a place that time forgot. And the best part is that the wooden boardwalk is intended as a guide but not as a way to hem in visitors. We were allowed, even encouraged, to clamber all over the ruins, skipping and hopping and climbing amongst the ruins as if we were kids running over the boulders on a beach. It was so much fun. I loved every second of it. It was truly the best location to end my holiday.