I'm trying to think back on our previous ramblings and figure out if we've ever travelled with as little a plan as we set out with to Cambodia. I mean, people plan their trip to the supermarket, or Costco, sometimes preparing their list in the order they'll come to it in the aisles. Verna? And yet here we were, in another Country, in Phnom Penh, with only a vague idea of that we wanted to get to Siem Reap. Not least of all because it's a name we can pronounce and we heard there's this place there called Angkor What? that was worth a few days of sightseeing. We were also told to check out a place called "Beer, Friends and Dead Fish" and I assumed once we were close enough our noses would lead the way. Nancy mentioned that our tuk tuk from the airport took us to the bus station, but what I think she may have not mentioned was the sign in the tuk tuk that advertised the driver could also take us to the shooting range where we could fire live rounds with automatic weapons of almost all kinds, or if that wasn't enough we could blow up our very own cow with a RPG for a few hundred USD. (it's probably a good deal for them because with a few hundred USD they can probably buy a few cows) After much debate, we decided to save that for later in the trip and continued to the bus station. Well anyway, since we've already related our 7 hour bus adventure, I won't repeat myself except to say that if the bus ride was any less expensive the bus company would have to start paying their passengers for the honor of transporting them. I for one think this would revolutionize the industry and possibly make bus travel popular again! Hmm...was it ever popular?
Ok then, we found Siem Reap. It's actually a very quaint place, almost colonial feeling, especially with all the colonists walking the streets, eating at the restaurants, and drinking in the pubs. I know the place is a big tourist draw but I was still surprised to see as many "people from away" as I did.
Apparently Cambodia is rivals with McDonald's and have their own version of the two dollar meal deal. They appear to be winning since we didn't spy a MickeyD's the whole trip. We ate at the World Lounge the first night, it’s near Pub Street, it’s always refreshing to see a place that has it’s priorities straight.
Let see, arranged for Dee to pick us up in his tuk tuk the morning after we arrived and this ended up being a good thing since we could tell the other tuk tuk drivers we were all set for the rest of our stay. I'm thinking there was some sort of unfamiliar game going on here as we would be walking down the street and a tuk driver, lounging on his ride, would ask if we wanted tuk tuk, we would say no and continue walking. The next tuk tuk driver, parked right behind the previous driver, also lounging on his ride and just witnessing us decline the previous driver would ask us with much hope and excitement "tuk tuk?" This was sometimes repeated as many as ten times. Our consistent answer of “Day Ah Coon” (No thank you) following their questions.
So, with much anticipation and bated breath, well, several bated breaths, as it was dusty and about 20 minutes outside of town by tired moped, we headed off toward the temple complexes.
Undeterred by all the nay-sayers who warned us about temple burnout, we eagerly purchased the any three days in a week park pass. This was somehow different than the three days in a row pass for the same amount of money purchased from a separate window. We handed them our money, they smiled, we smiled, they took our picture and put it on the pass. Don't lose the pass or you'll have to buy another and keep them handy as they were checked at almost every temple. Pretty efficient really. For the record, all you nay-sayers have now made your way onto a separate list of what I call "people I should listen to".
Having not arranged a price with our tuk tuk driver for his services, we decided to make him work for his keep and when he asked; "what temple we want to go" we simply said, "you pick." This strategy worked pretty well as we never saw the same temple twice. Our first stop, after driving by the Angkor Wat complex and getting our first giddy glimpses of it, we continued on to the Bayon temple area.
That’s just the gate.
The towers in the back are the Angkor Wat temple. (Oh yeah, Angkor What? is a bar in town as it turns out) But more on this later. 
This is one of the 5 gates of the walled city of Angkor Thom (Angkor means city and Thom in Khmer means large). 4 of the 5 gates are accessible while the 5th, the Gate of the Dead, reserved to kill the slaves.
Each entry has 54 devas on one side and 54 asuras on the other apparently inspired by the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. The gods and demons worked together alternatively pulling the giant naga (snake) to mix the Ocean of Milk (river) to produce amrita, the elixir of immortality. Judging from the river this mixture is a mossy green color of some viscosity.
Our guide told us the number 54 was significant as it was once the number of provinces that Cambodia ruled which included most of present day Thailand, some of Myanmar and Laos. Not sure if this is fact or not, I'm not CNN and don't check all my references, except for those that I make up.
Me with the gate in the background, any likeness is purely coincidental.
Bayon, which looks like a huge pile of rock from a distance is located at the geographic center of Angkor Thom and because of it's eastern exposure is best photographed in the morning. 
As you get closer the pile of rubble begins to resolve and you start to have the impression you're being watched. This may have something to do with the 216 gigantic faces peering at you from all angles and heights from just about anywhere you stand. Many think these faces are modeled after King Jayavarman VII who built the temple around 1190 AD. Others believe the faces represent Lokeshvara, a Buddhist deity, projecting benevolence outward to the 4 compass points. This was one of my favorite temples, I liked the faces and proceeded to take many photos, see below.
If you can get over the gigantic faces, there are many smaller carvings throughout the complex that tell stories of events that happened to the inhabitants hundreds of years ago. Of course I couldn’t get over the faces, so I’ll have to see the smaller carvings on a future visit.
We spent the morning walking through this temple and the area nearby guided by these signs.
It’s not difficult imaging this place being swallowed by the jungle and there are swarms of workers fending off the leaves and vegetation that continually threatens to engulf everything and return it to nature.
The people who built these places loved their stairs. We certainly got a work out with all the ups and downs. If you visit, bring comfortable shoes for walking.
This one reminded me of Chit Zen Itza, that’s me climbing to the top to see what I can see. That’s Nancy, the wise, taking my picture.
The quote of the day today went to Nancy who, pulling out a reference to the Lord of the Rings that I didn’t even know she had in her said “I feel like we should have to speak elven to pass through these gates”
This is me speaking the little elfish I’m familiar with “Annon Edhellen edro hi ammen. Fennas Nogothrim lasto beth lammen.” Roughly translated, “Gate of the Elves open now for me. Doorway of the Dwarf-folk, listen now to the word of my tongue.”
From here we finished our walk through the Terrace of Elephants 
This is where we had arranged to meet Dee with his tuktuk and there were a bunch of stalls selling stuff that you had to wander by on the way out. Women were there selling their wares ranging from books, silk scarves, table cloths, and T-shirts. We only had an outdated Lonely Planet from 2005 so decided to buy the 2009 edition for 8 bucks. Nancy bore the brunt of the sales force, managing to escape with only about a dozen scarves, t-shirts and other knick-knacks and we hurried through to a place that looked good for lunch.
This is Nic (seated) and her friend? Sales associate? She’s 10 and was selling assorted stuff. She came and chatted us up after we had ordered and left as soon as the food came, then returned when we were done. She spoke English well and asked what state we were from. She said “if I can name your state and country capitol, and president, you buy.” and proceeded to tell us the capitols of Maine and Massachusetts, capitol of the country is Washington DC, that Obama was President and we had 300 million people living in the U.S. We asked her if she knew all the Capitols of other countries and she said, “do you know the capitol of Madagascar?” I said no and she told me, “Antananarivo”, then she semi-joking said “you buy.” Nancy ended up buying some post cards partly because Nancy had asked Nic if she had any before we ordered our meal and Nic was smart enough to go get some while we ate, and partly because they were interesting, polite and talkative kids. Plus I learned the capitol of Madagascar.
We found Dee and headed off on our next adventure but that’s another post.
