8/18/2013 - Days 3 & 4 - Its Temple Time

5 AM? I don't wake up this early for work, let alone when on vacation. The alarm clock going off besides my bed makes me question my sanity about trying to get a sunrise photo over Angkor Wat.  Vandy would be waiting though, so we slowly got moving and dressed in our best Tomb Raidering/temple exploring attire.

The first step outside made it seem unlikely that we were going to have much of a sunrise as the rain clouds that had rolled in over the evening continued to spit drizzle on us.  It promised to at least be a cooler day than if we had the sun beating down, so we were thankful for that.  It was still quite dark as we slowly picked our way over the cobblestone causeway that bridged the moat surrounding Angkor Wat.  Luckily, hundreds of other adventures were traversing the same stone path and became a small army of fireflies to light the way.  Alas, the sun stayed behind the clouds, but seeing the temple appear from behind the mist was incredible.

We would return later in the day, but now, it was breakfast time.  On the other side of the road were a variety of restaurants with thatched roofs and smoke rising from the backs of the buildings.  At this point, all I really wanted was some coffee, which turned out to be outstanding.  The local coffee was very thick with a chocolate hint to it.  After the coffee, a coconut and some eggs with sausages (which turned out to be hot dogs) I was fully fueled up and ready for more exploring.

The rest of the morning and afternoon became a bit of a blur as we bounced from temple to temple.  Bayon had its 216 smiling faces that made you want to walk around with a grin on your face as well.  Ta Prohm has become so synonymous with the Tomb Raider movie that everyone simply calls it Tomb Raider temple now.  Pretty crazy that the trees will actually grow up and over the temples and left unchecked, are actually what destroys them.  All the temples we went to the first day had either been restored or were in the process of being restored.  Day 2 would take us to temples that were still in their 'natural' state.

After 8 hours of scampering around, energy levels started to dip so it was back to the hotel to recharge. Nothing like a dip in the pool and a quick nap to gear back up for dinner.  We had been in Cambodia for 24 hours and somehow had managed to not cruise around in a tuk-tuk yet.  This is more of an accomplishment than you may realize as we had been asked to ride in one approximately 372 times.  Problem solved as we split into 2 groups for the ride to dinner and hopped in the cart being pulled by a motorbike.  Its kind of like being a little kid again, being pulled in an open air wagon behind a bike.  You know it would never fly in the U.S. but after paying $2 to get to our destination, you sure wish it was an option.

In the middle of dinner the sky opened up again and everyone got their first taste of a Southeast Asian thunderstorm.  Lighting flashing, thunder crashing so hard your teeth start to chatter, exciting stuff.  The silver lining for this was we had to stay for dessert since we didn't want to go out in the rain.  Finally, after some fried bananas and ice cream, we decided we couldn't wait any longer and headed for the doors.  We had never seen more than 3 people in a tuk-tuk, but given the rain, an ambitious driver told us all to hop in.  Somehow we all squeezed in, limbs askew but laughing the whole way back to the hotel.

Day 2 took us waaaaaay out into the country side, past rice paddies, water buffalo and a variety of fruit farms.  We saw a temple that was considerably older than the one's we had been exploring the first day and then a temple that was still being carved out of the jungle and will eventually be pieced back together again, like a giant lego set. Walkways had been set up, but with Vandy leading the way, you really had free range to explore and let your inner Indiana Jones come out.

All good things must come to an end and we had more countries to check off the list.  We bid adieu to Vandy, thanked him for all the great restaurants, information and answering all our questions and headed back to the airport to catch the flight to Hanoi so we could begin our journey in Vietnam.  While waiting for the plane, there may have been a Dairy Queen and a member of our family may have intentionally ordered a hot dog for a meal this time vs. being served as 'sausage' for breakfast.  Names will be omitted to protect the innocent.  I ordered a blizzard though, so I guess I'm slightly guilty as well.

The only question left for Cambodia was, would we be on a propeller plane?  I peered out the window, looking for our Vietnam Airlines plane.  There was a propeller plane on the tarmac, but was it ours?  20 minutes later, it left, and we were still in the terminal.  A little while after that, we were boarding a bus to take us to our jet plane and getting ready to head north.  Next stop, Vietnam!