Monday, December 17, 2007

Next stop: Siem Reap, Cambodia

As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew that I was feeling better. All of my stomach aching had passed, which I was thankful for as I needed to catch two flights before I would be in Siem Reap. After breakfast, we headed over to the airport with our bags much more full than when we had arrived in Laos. Maybe Ibought too many handicrafts, t-shirts, and wooden carvings... The security at the Luang Prabang airport consisted of one x-ray machine at the entrance to the building. After we entered into the building, it no longer mattered if we were checking our bag with liquids or if we were carrying it on the plane. James was carrying 3 machetes that he purchased for his brothers & himself; no one would have known if he carried those onto the flight.


We had two legs of the flight; we would make one stop in Pakse prior to heading onward to Siem Reap. The flights were thankfully uneventful, and when we touched down in Cambodia, I knew we were back in a well-traveled area. The Siem Reap airport was fairly new, with large wooden columns to help support all of the stone. The floors were polished marble, and there was even art. A plethora of cameras & security systems tracked incoming visitors - it was quite different from the Luang Prabang airport.


We picked up motorbike taxis into town for $1; which I was extremely surprised about considering how modern this place was. Our first pick for a guesthouse was at the Red Piano, which had received good reviews from several travelers on www.travelfish.org and related travel sites. Our luck could not have been better - they had a room, albeit only for one night. We didn't have to slog around the city looking for a place to stay. Our taxi drivers wanted to discuss being our drivers for our three day trip to the Angkor Archeaological Park. We came back to discuss costs after checking in; my driver wanted $50 for 3 days of carting me around to the ruins. After I scoffed at the cost, I told him that I didn't want to pay more than $10 per day, and we eventually settled on $12 for the main temples on Day 1. James & I were intent on finding better costs, but this is as good as we could do within 15 minutes of arrival. We agreed to meet them at the guesthouse the next morning at 8am.


We headed out to wander around the city to try to get our bearings. The heat seemed oppressive, since we had just came from Laos. In reality, it was probably only about 90F during the day, but the humidity made it seem much warmer. We found a place to eat some lunch, and then we continued to wander around for a while. For the remainder of the day, we planned for our visit to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, using recommendations that we found online. Here's what we came up with after much discussion:


Day 1: Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat

Day 2: Bakong, Banteay Kdei, Sras Srang, Ta Prohm, Pre Rup

Day 3: Banteay Srei - we thought also about visiting Ta Keo, East Mebon, and Ta Som


See the following link for some information about the Angkor Archaeological Park - I didn't know too much about it before I visited, and I had absolutely no clue the colossal & intricate the ruins are. http://wikitravel.org/en/Angkor_Archaeological_Park


At dinner, we got back into the swing of a modern city. With dinner, we weren't drinking rice whiskey that had been fermented in a 30 gallon plastic barrel in a farmer's field - we had a few $1.75 cocktails!

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