March 20th, 2007
At 9:00am sharp, our 2 drivers Mr. ‘Lev’ & Mr. ‘They’met us at the lobby and kindly took us to the largest and oldest temple in Siem Riep, Ankor Wat. (I think mr. car accident was demoted and given a temporary leave of absense?!?!)
With the aide of Linda’s lonely planet guide and another supplementary book, we navigated our way through this massive temple, fully engaged with the 3 soaring towers and the unique carvings and architectural designs depicting the old culture, religion and old civilization of the Khmer.
A decision to scroll past some local vendors and food stalls came with some neat surprises. Many children of all ages were constantly approaching, trying to sell you something for the magic number: ‘1 dolla’. Many hot ticket items included; guide books/pictorial books of Angkor, Lonely planet books (of all over the place), hand held fans and postcards. ‘No-thanks’ was quicky met with persistance and a few more kids coming to sell out of competion. As these kids stared you in the eye, by osmosis you could really feel the frustration, the desperation and the poverty. Walking away with a Lonely planet guide for $2 was robbery (although most copies were photocopies), as was getting a couple of sets of postcards for a $1.
For lunch we stopped off at the Bayon II, a popular spot among the many tour groups here in Siem Riep. This place was high end; clean furnishings, air-conditioning, and well dressed servers. Menu however was reasonable as most items were in the 2.50 to 3.50 US range for decent stuff.
After lunch we spent some time walking through the ‘Old Market’, a local staple where you’ll find everything from souvenirs, vegetables, seafood and meat. Worst part of this place had to be the stench and the flys buzzing around the raw meat meat in the 30+ degree heat! I guess food quality control here is zippo.
A timely pass-by of ‘Body-tune’, a recently opened massage joint with a few locations in Thailand, led us all to try a 2-hour ‘thai massage’. For $25, we splurged but this place was clean, very modern and looked like someplace where you’d unlikely contract some disease.
After being stepped on, kneed in and hyperextended in all directions,, we all joyously shared our individual experiences at dinner. The ‘Blue Pumkin’ was funky and hip, WiFi equipped and quite popular among tourists. Lounging on sofas while eating pasta was great!
The night ended with some pool time where the 4 of us later used the ‘mens-only’ steam room, while 2 other speedo-ridden Japanese dudes wandered through thinking what the hell are 2 women doing in our changerooms?....i'm quite certain they actually didn't care at all!
At 9:00am sharp, our 2 drivers Mr. ‘Lev’ & Mr. ‘They’met us at the lobby and kindly took us to the largest and oldest temple in Siem Riep, Ankor Wat. (I think mr. car accident was demoted and given a temporary leave of absense?!?!)
With the aide of Linda’s lonely planet guide and another supplementary book, we navigated our way through this massive temple, fully engaged with the 3 soaring towers and the unique carvings and architectural designs depicting the old culture, religion and old civilization of the Khmer.
A decision to scroll past some local vendors and food stalls came with some neat surprises. Many children of all ages were constantly approaching, trying to sell you something for the magic number: ‘1 dolla’. Many hot ticket items included; guide books/pictorial books of Angkor, Lonely planet books (of all over the place), hand held fans and postcards. ‘No-thanks’ was quicky met with persistance and a few more kids coming to sell out of competion. As these kids stared you in the eye, by osmosis you could really feel the frustration, the desperation and the poverty. Walking away with a Lonely planet guide for $2 was robbery (although most copies were photocopies), as was getting a couple of sets of postcards for a $1.
For lunch we stopped off at the Bayon II, a popular spot among the many tour groups here in Siem Riep. This place was high end; clean furnishings, air-conditioning, and well dressed servers. Menu however was reasonable as most items were in the 2.50 to 3.50 US range for decent stuff.
After lunch we spent some time walking through the ‘Old Market’, a local staple where you’ll find everything from souvenirs, vegetables, seafood and meat. Worst part of this place had to be the stench and the flys buzzing around the raw meat meat in the 30+ degree heat! I guess food quality control here is zippo.
A timely pass-by of ‘Body-tune’, a recently opened massage joint with a few locations in Thailand, led us all to try a 2-hour ‘thai massage’. For $25, we splurged but this place was clean, very modern and looked like someplace where you’d unlikely contract some disease.
After being stepped on, kneed in and hyperextended in all directions,, we all joyously shared our individual experiences at dinner. The ‘Blue Pumkin’ was funky and hip, WiFi equipped and quite popular among tourists. Lounging on sofas while eating pasta was great!
The night ended with some pool time where the 4 of us later used the ‘mens-only’ steam room, while 2 other speedo-ridden Japanese dudes wandered through thinking what the hell are 2 women doing in our changerooms?....i'm quite certain they actually didn't care at all!
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