Day 81: Sunrises and Sunsets

Even with a few days left of this amazing adventure, I continue to experience some incredible opportunities. Over the weekend I rode 7 hours by bus to explore Siem Reap, a tourist town in North-Central Cambodia. Siem Reap is the home to one of the most incredible ancient wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. The temples and ruins dispersed throughout the area are 800 years old and were once home to one of the most powerful civilizations in Asia. Exploring such an incredible, cultural symbol of Cambodia was one of the most extraordinary things I have ever done. 

I was hoping to travel up to Siem Reap with someone but all my friends were busy or had visited the temples before. My friend, who I was meeting up there had also already visited Angkor Wat so at the time being, before I began my travels, I planned on exploring the temples on my own. However, on Friday when I boarded the service van to catch the bus, I sat next to a lovely woman from Australia named Rebecca. We chatted a little and I told her about my plans for seeing the temples on Saturday. Almost immediately she said to me, "Well, I would like to join you!" Just like that, I had someone to explore with. 

So the next morning, Rebecca and I woke up at 5 AM and headed to the first of the temples, Angkor Wat, to watch the sunrise over the ruins. There are actually many different temples in the Siem Reap area and only one is called Angkor Wat. It is of course the most famous, but there are many more just as impressive. Rebecca and I visited 3 main temples: Angkor Wat, Bayon in Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm. There are dozens of other temples but it would take days to see all of them. Our wonderful tuk tuk driver took us to what he said was the best 3 and that alone took nearly 6 hours with us leaving with sore feet and the increasingly sweltering heat for lunch around noon. 

The day was far from over though. After a much appreciated foot message and swim at the pool, I joined my friend Hannah, also an intern in Cambodia from Oregon, and my dodgeball friend Gazza on a trip to watch the sunset at another temple, Phnom Krom. We hiked to the top of a small mountain where a modern temple is located and just in their backyard lies a 9th century ancient temple. There, behind the temple, we sat on the steep cliff's edge and watched an incredible sunset over the Tonle Sap Lake.

On Sunday, my friend Hannah and I headed out at 8 AM to the Kulen Hills for the day. There we visited a temple on top of the hill, the carved sandstone riverbeds of the Kbal Spean, also known as Thousand Linga, and stood under a beautiful 25-meter waterfall. Hannah actually swam up to the falls but I did not. I know, I know, I would have but I was wearing the last of my clothes and would have to keep them on the rest of the day and through my 7 hour trip back home.... 

After this trip, we relaxed, shopped around a bit, and at 11 PM I boarded the night bus to head back to Phnom Penh...which was an adventure in itself. The seats are beds and the roads are ridiculously bumpy. When I finally arrived in Phnom Penh at 6:30 AM on Monday, I probably had slept no more than 2 hours. But every bump was worth my weekend trip to Siem Reap and I will never forget the incredible sites I was so blessed to see. 

Yesterday was my last day at COCD but I will talk about that in my next post. 3. DAYS. LEFT. I am tearing up just thinking about it. It is still NOT over!! I am here and I am living this incredible adventure with a wide smile every day because there is no other way! 

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.

There were what seemed like 1,000 people crowded around this pond to watch the sunrise!

 Monkeys!

My new friend, Rebecca, who I met just the day before :)

 More monkeys!

 On to stop number 2, Wat Thom.

The incredible Bayon temple. Each head has fours faces facing north, south, east, and west.

And lastly stop number 3, Ta Prohm (which many refer to as the Tomb Raider temple).

About to start our journey up to Phnom Krom with my friend Hannah.

:D

My friend Gazza :P

The incredible sunset at the top of the mountain.

Monks playing in the Thousand Linga river.

So the plant below is sugar palm. We were told that in order to create the fruit, the 'male' plant and the 'female' plant need to 'breed.' To do so, the tip of the 'male' plant is cut off and both plants are placed together inside a bamboo rod for a few hours. Then the stork flies in and BAM!, sugar palm fruit is made. Too much information for ya?

Hannah and I relaxing after our long day :)

View from my bed on the night bus.