i <3 siem reap

Our hotel in Siem Reap - The Golden Mango Inn - has been great. They are friendly, accommodating, and oh-so-helpful with arranging transportation for sightseeing.

Alyssa, Mariela, and I got an early start this morning with our tuk tuk driver, Sopon. The hotel owner had written out a list of temples for us to see in the best order to avoid crowds.

The weather was cool and perfect. It's never that cool in the morning in Bangkok. I loved it.

The first temple, I think, was my favorite. Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple, is nearly 1000 years old. It's beautiful and green and peaceful. Massive trees have taken over parts of it. Their roots snake down over the stones like anacondas on steroids.


We stopped for lunch across from Angkor Wat, one of the most well-known (and crowded) temple complexes. There, we were harassed by children selling souvenirs. They stood around our table the entire time we were eating, trying to cajole us into buying something.

I looked through one boy's postcards, but didn't see anything I liked. He seemed bitter about this, calling us "stingy tourists," and telling us never to come back to his country again. He kept pouting, "Why you look but you no buy?" He was probably eight years old. There were a couple of girls selling bracelets, too. They made me sad. Kids shouldn't have to go out and harass tourists every day to earn a living. Kids should be in school laughing with their friends.

After lunch, we went to my second favorite temple: Bayon, the temple of faces.

Tourists like to take photos posing where it looks like they're standing nose to nose with a big stone face. It's like Cambodia's version of the holding-up-the-Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa photo.

We saw a few more temples in the afternoon, but had to call it a day around 2:15. The Cambodian sun was almost unbearable; I've never sweat so much in my life.

We headed back to the Golden Mango, napped, and relaxed until dinner time. When we started getting hungry, we walked down to the front desk to ask about food options. They offered us free transport to a restaurant near the Old Market.

We spent 40 minutes shopping, ate some delicious Khmer curry and chicken amok, and headed back to the hotel. One of my first goals after getting back to the U.S. is learning to make Khmer curry and chicken amok.

Overall, a lovely day. Siem Reap gets two thumbs up.