BLOG IS BACK!!!!......

The blog is back.. don't ask how... don't ask why. Anyway I've moved my posts from the other site here. There are photos up at the other site, so I may just still use it unless I can find another way of hosting a photo album for free. Well, carry on then.....

So we arrived in Angkor Wat at maybe 11pm at night. The bus driver was obviously told to drive to a specific guest house, which I'm sure he got a cut for. So what would you do? Get off the bus after a slaughtering ride and you are standing right outside a guest house. Its late, there are freakin mosquitos everywhere and it hot...

Our room was alright. Not really much to look at. All we knew was it had 2 beds and a toilet. I presume it the same at every guest house around the area, but there were scooter drivers waiting on the ground looking to strike a deal with you. Our guy, who was for some reason named Sunrise, was pretty cool. He spoke enough english and seemed like an alright guy. Of the choices of tours 1, 2 or 3 day tours, we thankfully took the 1 day option. This of couse meant covering quite an area. All together I think there are 9 main temple sights to visit. Each unique and enormous. So CRACK OF DAWN, 5:30am we were woken up by our driver Sunrise, no pun intended, and his mate (Doch). The area where the temples were locate was national park and entry was $20US to get in! Of course Sunrise was omitted this in his sales pitch the night before.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - the main temple was quite amazing. It was shit early and there were hundreds of people around all waiting for their kodak moment. After that it was off to Bayon (another temple). I guess the names don't mean much to you guys, actually to be honest they don't mean much to me either. You see we were on a self guided tour, meaning we were tightarsed. So we didn't get many facts or figures, but the place is big. Its huge. And every last bit of it is made from stone of some kind. Different temples were made from different materials. And its all so detailed. Walls are carved with patterns, there are buddah faces everywhere and theres just so much of it.

So we went from temple to temple for the ENTIRE DAY. Climbing UP and DOWN stairs some of which were greater than a 45degree slope. Seriously. Any still there are hundreds of people including crazy middle age japanese ladies climbing it. We covered 7 of the 9 temples which was nuts. We had walkded so much on so little sleep that we asked to head back to the guest house for a power nap before carrying on. But it was worth it. Its gotta be done. I can sit here and try and describe the grandure of it all, but you have to see it to believe it.

That night we had dinner with our drivers. We said to take us to a local place for food. The guest house served food but it was expensive and even Sunrise wasn't sure what it was like. Loc Lark. Thats the name of the dish. It was stewed pork served with a fried egg.. sunny side up. Doesn't sound like much but it was fantastic. We ended up walking the streets after dinner. (Apparently thats not a safe thing to do. Good thing I know kung fu...)

We were out of there the next day. Headed for Phenon Phen. There we stayed at a Lakeside guest house. Now before I left, I had come vaccinations, including Yellow Fever. (inside joke..) What I opted out on was malaria tablets. You just had to keep taking those things. So the doctor said you should be fine just stay away from large bodies of fresh water. Lakeside guest house it was, didn't really make the connection at the time we checked in. That same day we visited the War crimes museum. Its a former school which had been turned into a prison. Anywhere up to 5000 people were in this tiny place. We walked around ourselves and it was just erie. Hard to describe, but the air was thick. Didn't smell of anything in particular, just thick. Everything was so still and you just couldn't smile the whole time you were there. There were beds that people had obviously died on with photos of their bodies on the walls. It was 4 3 story buildings that had about 4 or 5 classrooms on each floor. Some rooms were left for mass detention while other were split into smaller holding cells. Either way they all had the same feeling. At the end there was a video interviewing some guy who was actually there. He tell a story of being forced to club people in the back of the head so they and how soildiers tied children to trees and beat them to death. Not cool. I'm glad I went but sorry to see what it was all about.

Next Blog: Vietnam and the Malaysian gay community.