Angkor Temples and Siem Reap

On our first morning in Cambodia, we went into the old town area of Siem Reap to do some laundry, get breakfast and explore. The main drag "Pub Street" kind of reminds me of Key West (except for the lack of roads here and all the mud). Sales pitches are relentless throughout the town, cries of "ladeeeee, you want t-shirt" following us everywhere we went. In the afternoon, Josh and I took a Khmer (Khmer just means "Cambodian") pottery class, taught by 2 young men who couldn't speak or hear, but have learned how to teach on behalf of the cooperative. They guided us, taught us how to use the manual pottery wheel and we each made 5 pieces.  The class included one piece for each of us that they dried, glazed and fired in the kiln. It was so much fun and I think both Josh and I have more throwing clay in our futures!

Yesterday we visited the Angkor temples.  We signed up for the "short tour," which was a private tuk-tuk that would take us to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Kao and Ta Prohm (along with a few others that we elected not to visit because TF - "temple fatigue"- had already set in).  Mr. Bunlorng, our driver, was supposed to pick us up at 8:00 am. While we were finishing our breakfast around 7:30, the sky opened up and the bottom fell out. Pouring rains accompanied our visit to Angkor Wat.  The rains slowed mid-morning, and by noon it was hot and super humid. Angkor Wat is massive, the largest of the temples, with intricate carvings throughout. Angkor Thom is known for the faces carved into the sides and Ta Prohm is the "one from Tomb Raider." (It rented for $10,000 USD per day during filming.) I think I enjoyed Ta Kao the best.  It was the smallest, the oldest (built in 10th century) and the tallest. We climbed almost 100 steep stairs to each the top, from which we had a gorgeous view. We learned that Angkor Wat was built and dedicated originally as a Hindu temple, but shifted to Buddhist and is still used for worship by Buddhists today. There were many offerings and shrines to Buddha throughout the temples. A one-day ticket to visit the temples is $20, but apparently only about 1/4 of the money from ticket sales goes into restoration of the monuments. Actually, most of the restoration project funds come from foreign aid. We noticed that Ta Kao is being restored by China and Ta Prohm is being restored by India in collaboration with Cambodia.

We returned to the hotel to clean up and have lunch and a giant monsoon hit while we were in still in the room. Strong winds and heavy rains led to a small downpour in our ceiling, which eventually grew much larger until we worried that the roof would cave in on us.  One of the staff helped us get moved into another room a few doors down.  Later yesterday evening, during a lull in the storm, we took a tuk-tuk down to town and had dinner at the best little Cambodian restaurant...I'm attaching some pics, we all loved it!

Today we walked across the bridge over the Siem Reap River to a little cafe nearby for breakfast and have spent the rest of the day in and around the pool. We met a couple of families visiting from Bangalore and also 2 couples from Australia. We plan to go into Siem Reap town later tonight for dinner and will leave tomorrow morning to head back to Thailand. We have one night in Bangkok (!) and then go north by overnight train to our next destination. I will likely post again once we reach Chiang Mai and get settled in.