Angkor What?

The LanguageCorps program provides specific weekend trips in order to adventure away from the hotel and see the country we are in.  This is also one of the reasons the program charges a lot of money; hotels everywhere you go, tuk tuk rides, buses and classes are all provided during your stay, everything except food.  Not too bad of a deal now that I think of it.  Anyway, this weekend we travelled to Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat temples.  Our group is a very large group we have 19 people when usually the program has only a group of 12, so the bus ride was a little cramped.  The other thing that made the bus ride 8 hours (usually 5 hours) was that everyone drank (not me though too much sugar and I don't like beer), so that meant there were a lot of potty breaks.  One of the bathrooms you literally had to squat near a tiny hole in the ground then use a bucket of water to wash away your mess (no bueno), but something that is common here and in most rural areas of China.

Best part of the bus ride was stopping at Spider City.  This small stop is definitely the highlight of the trip because this is the stop where you get to taste fried spiders, fried cockroaches, baby chickens, fried bananas, fried crickets, toasted locus flower seeds and fried frogs.  I bought a spider ($1), a cup of crickets ($1) and a bag of fried bananas ($1).  Crickets tasted super bad, spider was alright and the bananas were amazing.  I also tried the lotus seeds and it tasted similar to meat.  Most of the ladies loved me because I'm not tiny so they kept touching me to see if my boobs, butt and tummy were real (this is common in this culture its not meant to be rude, but how they communicate).  The annoying thing is the children. Now don't get the wrong idea I love children, but these children are taught to annoy the shit out of foreigners or tug at their heart strings in order to get our money for whatever they are selling, most get the money and give it to their parents anyway not for school or their sick sibling.  No matter, we all pick a kid and buy something from them like fruit or a bracelet, but right after you buy 50 more kids come over and say "How come you no buy from me?" "You should buy another." And literally they can cry on command. Don't look them in the eyes or speak to them most of the time they will go away and find someone else.

Once we arrived at the hotel, which was on the most random dark ally street ever, we realized how beautiful it really was, especially in the daytime.  Most of the walls and furniture were intricately carved wood that was polished.  The way to my room with my Russian friend who was my roommate for two days (she is a lot of fun) was pretty much like a maze down three halls up really steep steps and down another hall.  The room was nice with two beds and a TV, with a ceiling fan and a nice big window but no refrigerator so my insulin wasn't cold.  The hotel also has a nice rooftop pool, which is amazing after a long day of climbing temples in the humidity.  We all went to Happy Pizza (aka place where you can order marijuana pizza).  I did not order the Happy, but some of the girls did and they didn't taste it but in about two hours they felt it.  Apparently the pizza was similar to New York pizza.

The temples themselves would take about a week to explore all of them and that's if your fast.  We had one day so we got to see 4, one which was Angkor Wat and another was the Jungle Temple (Tomb Raider movie was filmed here).  Each temple was built in a different time period by different people and was ignored for so many years until the French rediscovered it.  This place is also one of the reasons most tourists come to Cambodia, without tourists Cambodia wouldn't thrive as well as it is (60% of Khmer people rely on tourists for money).  Since so many Khmer people rely on tourists, they learn English and French and even Russian in order to talk to tourists, especially for buying things. They use children here as well; I bought a bracelet for $1, but my friend bought 3 for $1 so they know how to get you.  

My chinese friend an older women from China taught me how to bargain, so when I went to the Night Market and used these skills.  A shirt that would have been $25 in the US, was $8 here but I would look at it ask how much and say something like this "Oh the other store had it cheaper, I guess I should go back there." or "The material is too heavy for me" or even when you just shrug and walk away they will always say "Wait, I have discount for you!" The shirt winded up being $6 and some pants was $7 (I bought the pants first to break the ice on buying other things works great) and this dress for my Russian friend was originally $14 and I got it down to $11 (This dress would have been worth $30 in the US).  You can also plan bargaining strategies with your friend as I taught an australian girl we met at the hotel how to bargain and you kind of tag team where one friend will say "We saw that in the other store for cheaper" then you just walk away while the friend looks torn between leaving and staying they will definitely give you a discount then.  After the Night Market we drank a bit at a club, I literally had one really sweet drink and went home at 11pm with other early birds.  It was fun though my first real bar and club.

The next day we left the hotel on our way back home, but we were stopping at one last temple.  This temple was the practice round for Angkor Wat which as never completed finished.  This temple was the most fun and the one in which I wish we could have had more time to explore.  I sweated so much it was ridiculous but literally we were climbing over things like boulders and mud, hardly any real stairs.  Right next to the temple is an orphanage.

During the bus ride my Russian friend --------->
was blowing up balloon animals while I formed them into little dogs, these we planned to give to the children instead of money or candy.  The children loved it but there were too many kids and not enough balloons.

I had one in my hands in the beginning and a women motioned me over.  Naturally I walked with her, into a dark alley and began to think "hmmm probably not such a good idea" but then she pointed to a hammock and there lay her sleeping baby girl, literally the cutest little girl I have seen while here.       <----  She is the one in the picture.

Tomorrow we will be renting a boat for 2 hours, only $40 but since our group is big we each have to pay like $2, this boat will travel around the river.  We can play music on it, BYOB, and it's a double decker boat so the top is a lounging area with couches and the bottom the dancing section.  Thursday is the last day of official classes so we will go drinking near the river (I will get a $1 Margarita).