Angkor Wat, Reunions, and The Terribly Untasty Turantula

I figured Laos would get one final shot in before I left, so I wasn't surprised that my journey from the 4000 Islands to Cambodia didn't even come close to what was sold to me.  I was supposed to take a VIP bus with WIFI all the way to Siem Reap, leaving at 8 in the morning and arriving at 10 PM.  Here's what really happened.  After taking the boat across to the mainland, we had to wander up to the bus station, without being given directions.  We then had to fill out some forms and leave our passports with the guy running the buses. The bus was supposed to leave at 9:30, but at 10:05 I was still watching a girl throw up in front of the bus.  Once we got to the border, everyone was told to step off the bus and then walk across the border with their bags. Afterwards, everyone sat there for an hour and a half, with no idea what was happening.  However, we did finally get our passports back.

You'd think that maybe we could leave at that point, but no.  Instead, we waited another 45 minutes before taking off.  The bus we were on was so shitty that 1/3rd of the seats were stuck in full recline mode.  It was so packed that the aisle was filled with stools.  After an hour or so we stopped in a place called Strung Trang, where an Australian couple apparently ran out of money.  Since there were no ATMs they needed someone to lend them $100, so I volunteered, despite the narcissistic comments of others on board saying I would never get my money back.  My parents told me that you should help others if you can.  Eventually we stopped and switched to a local bus at 9 PM, which was a pretty good indication we weren't going to arrive in Siem Reap by 10 PM like the schedule said.  

We finally got in at half past two in the morning and we had to tuk tuk into town so the Aussie's could pay me back.  We were also joined by a couple of German guys I met on the bus, Max and Paul.  We ended up having to take 2 tuk tuks, and when they dropped us off a few hundred meters from the real center of town, the Aussie girl proceeded to yell at the drivers for ripping us off.  The Germans and I were just like whatever, lets just deal with it.  After we hit up the ATM and I got my $100 back, I set off with Paul and Max to find a guest house.  As we got close to the place we were trying to find, Garden Village, a British guy popped out of a bar and told us he was buying each of us a beer.  By the time we got to the guest house, it was 4 in the morning and they told us that they were fully booked.  We asked if we could use the wifi for a few minutes and as we were surfing the web a couple came down to check out.  It turns out they were in a 3 bed room.  I don't know how this shit happens, but it's awesome.

The next day we didn't get up to much other than exploring town a little, but we proceeded to get super hammered that night.  Four of us at the guest house decided to split two bottles of whisky ($4.50 each) to pregame before heading to the bars.  I thought I was an acceptable level of drunk, but then I saw photos the next day that I don't remember taking, so apparently it only took 1 day in Cambodia for me to return to a rampant level of blackout drunk.  It's hard not to be an alcoholic when beer is nearly as cheap as water.  Beers in bars are typically 50 cents to $1.  The cheapest I saw was 35 cents.  Cambodia is also pretty interesting because they use the American dollar as their primary currency and then use the Cambodian Riel as change.  4000 Riel equals one Dollar, so if something is $2.50, you would pay using $2 and 2000 Riel.

If the rooms are full, you can always sleep on the volleyball court :)  Capitalism FTW

Ahh the Laughing Chinaman Baroso Bomb...my favorite drink

Max and I spent the next day exploring the Angkor Wat, which in Khmer means City of Temples. At one point, a tuk tuk driver on the street yelled at us asking if we needed a tuk tuk....while we were riding in a tuk tuk.  The locals here are too good.  Our first stop was the main Temple of Angkor Wat, which was my personal favorite.  You could spend hours inside searching all the intricacies of the stone work.  Max also learned that there's a carving of a dinosaur hidden somewhere inside, but we never saw it!  There's no despair from me though, gives me a good excuse to go back later and prove my various theories on extraterrestrial inter-dimensional time travel.

This is only the entryway that leads to the courtyard of the temple

Perfection, no?

These carvings stretch around the side of the main entrance, depicting various stories.  I think this one depicts when my great great great great great great great great great grandfather, Genghis Sean, took over half the known world.

Apparently some people thought it would be really cool to defile the upper level of the temple.  I blame Canada.

That's not me being disgustingly sweaty, it's just that my body can't contain all of my awesomeness and occasionally some leaks out

After spending about 90 minutes there we headed to Angkor Thom, which houses the Bayon Temple, where I let my inner Buddha flow.  The temple was really cool because it had a ton of faces carved into the pillars, so they stare at you when you walk through the complex.  We viewed three more temples that day, including the temple that was used in the Tomb Raider movie, Ta Prohm.  Ta Prohm had a really cool walkway that led to the temples, which are being overgrown by trees. 

The temples were absolutely spectacular, every time you stepped through an entryway you had no idea what to expect on the other end.  The amount of detail put into every piece is truly extraordinary and you can't help but stare in awe sometimes.  I didn't get the same otherworldly vibe of energy like I did at Machu Picchu, but it was the next closest thing.  The day also coincided with what would have been my dad's birthday, so it was pretty cool to fulfill one of my bucket list items on that date.  Very serendipitous indeed.

It was also pretty hilarious to roam the night market and interact with all the locals.  Max and I journeyed through various shops.  One girl came up to me and said,  "You very handsome, you be my boyfriend, ok?".  Then we passed by a couple massage parlors where the girls just surrounded us and grabbed our arms, so we couldn't walk without breaking their grips.  "You want massage?  We have private room, just for you."  It's hilarious, ridiculous, and kind of sad all at the same time.  But the one nice thing about the Khmer people are that they leave you alone if you make it clear you're not interested.

Pretty little girl, I've got my mind's eye on you.  What you gonna do?

Reach out a finger and touch the globe.  Wherever it stops, you've got to pack your bags and go

Tomb Raider Temple 

The wisdom's in the trees, not the glass windows

Sevens are overrated

I went back on my own for a second day to view the outer temples and get another glimpse of Angkor Wat.  I started at 9:30 and was ready to dominate the day, but five steps into my first temple, my flip flops broke.  The same flip flops that I had bought the previous night to replace my other pair of broken flip flops.  Apparently I don't catch breaks, I just make them.  Since there wasn't anyone selling shoes, I decided to just go barefoot, which in a weird way actually me appreciate it all more.  There were a few pathways that were pure gravel, which sucked, but otherwise it was an amazing experience.  The locals had a lot of fun having a go at me about being barefoot, they're pretty hilarious.

A lot of tourists (especially the Asian ones), don't really care if your taking pictures.  They'll walk right in front of you and hold up their camera in front of yours.  Apparently common courtesy has become common discourtesy.  However, I don't think anyone has ever respected me, and in all fairness I give them no reason to, so I can't get too upset.   After the five outlying temples were complete, I went back to Angkor Wat to make a few time lapses and watch the sunset.  Not a bad way to spend a few days.

The reason a lot of statues are missing heads, arms, left testicles, etc. is because the temples were constantly looted during various wars/takeovers

Preah Khan, my favorite of the day two temples

If life is just a gamble, then gamble if you want to win.  Oh life can be so easy, so let the wheel of fortune spin

Dragonflies soaring through the skies

You might be expecting something magical behind this entryway...Nope, just some stalls full of pants

Further proof that mankind has always loved boobies.  Boobies are not only round, they make this world go round.  #RespectForWomen

Can you imagine this being built 900 years ago?  Insane ............Also, Aliens

The next few nights I met up with Tom from my New Zealand Stray trip and eventually got to meet all the people he was travelling with on the Stray Southeast Asia tour.  One of the girls from his bus was also teasing me, telling me how good looking our children would be.  I was just thinking where has this girl been all my life?  If only I had joined Tom on that bus trip, I could have had a shot with a beautiful girl!  Instead I have only cold, wet tears to keep me warm at night.  Universe infinite, Sean 0.

The only thing I had to do the next day was buy a bus ticket to my next destination.  It was literally a 1 minute task and I walked by like 20 ticket booths, but I just couldn't summon the effort.  When you're unemployed, the thought of doing anything remotely similar to work is quite daunting.  That night I met up with the Austrian/German girls from Laos, who had finished Vietnam and started working their way through Cambodia.  Julia has arachnophobia, so we decided to conquer her fears by eating a tarantula.  I'm not sure how sanitary they are, but you just have to roll with it.  They fry up tarantulas, put them on a platter on a food cart, and then leave them outside in the elements until some idiot(s) decide to eat them.  For all you know they have been sitting there for five days, but at least the dirt from the roads gets kicked up to provide a nice seasoning.  The final result is you eating a cold, dirty, greasy, fried tarantula that still has hairs on it.

The girls were supposed to eat the legs and I was supposed to eat the body, but there was a lack of desire to have more than one or two legs, so i ended up eating 3 as well.  When the time came to eat the legs, Julia dropped hers on the street, but she picked it up and finished it off.   She said there's no five-second rule when you're eating a spider, and I can't say I disagree with the logic.  After the legs were taken care of, I had to eat the body.  I won't go so far as saying it was the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten, but it tasted like death laced with despair.  You couldn't stop chewing it, it just broke into smaller crunchy bits; It never actually dissolved or became mushy.  After 40 seconds or so I was able to swallow the larger chunks, but there were still little bits stuck all over my mouth, so we had to get beers to wash it all down.   Tom, Max, and I also kept the girls out late, till about 3:30 in the morning.  They tried to claim I'm a bad influence, but....Na it's probably true, I'm a pretty terrible person.

What fears?  Lend me your hands and we'll conquer them all

What woman wouldn't want to make out with me when I'm sporting Tarantula tongue

Follow your bliss :)

Since I didn't book my bus ticket, I had to wait another day to leave, so I made sure I carved the necessary 60 seconds out of my morning to get a ticket this time.  It's a stressful and challenging life that I lead.  It was only $4.50 for a 4 hour ride including pickup from my guest house... Unreal.  As we searched for tickets a local guy also electronically opened his door as Tom was walking by to freak him out and then bust out laughing.  People here are awesome!
 We all met up for lunch at a place called Genevieve's that Tom found;  The owner gives 10% of profits to the staff each month as a bonus, and another 10% to NGOs.  He also teaches English to kids for an hour each day.  The innate kindness of others is pretty spectacular sometimes.  There's actually quite a few places that have similar setups throughout Cambodia.

That night we all shared a few drinks and said our farewells since everyone was heading in a different direction the next morning.  Tom was making his way to Vietnam, Max was going to Phnom Penh, I was going to Battambang, and the girls were off to visit the temples.  Goodbyes don't seem to last too long in the travel world though, so I'm hopeful I'll see them all again! Battambang is known for their bamboo train system...You don't even want to know, but that's a story for another blog.

Random GoPros

Situation number one, it's the one that's just begun, but evidently it's too late...

Situation number two, it's the only chance for you, it's controlled by denizens of hate...

Situation number three, it's the one that no one sees, it's all too often dismissed as fate

Situation number four, the one that left you wanting more, it tantalized you with it's bait...

Situation number five, it's the one where you will thrive, so go, why would you wait?

Jack Johnson - Situations 

In order to get stones to the higher levels of the temples, holes were cut into their sides and then a pulley system was attached to an elephant, so when it walked forward the stones were lifted up.

Everything is possible