Yesterday morning Sam headed off to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise over the ruins... Naturally, I slept in! Unfortunately, my alarm unexpectedly went off at 7:55 and I couldn't get back to bed (the walls of our guest house were bright yellow, south/west facing, with golden curtains... So it was bright). I didn't expect Sam to return until 1:00, so I rolled over and turned on a "quality" HBO flick. I figured I had plenty of time to be lazy, shower, find breakfast, and even do some shopping before he returned.
HBO flicks in Asia are hardly movies. They appear to be US rejects. Movies that never made it to theatres (at least no reputable theatre). Movies like "Blade V", "Killer Leprechaun III", etc. On this particular morning the HBO flick wasn't that bad... Some story about a 1960s game show hoax, evidently based on a true story. Nestled comfortably in bed with the AC blasting, not feeling guilty at all about wasting the morning away, I was shocked to see the door bust open at 9:00. Sam laughed at my typical behavior an proceeded to tell me that the sunrise was so amazing he didn't even need the rest of the day at Angkor Wat.
Half disappointed about being lazy and half hoping Sam would "shush" so that I could watch the movie, I smiled, nodded, and convinced him that hotel air con and HBO movies were GOOD inventions. (thank goodness he was tired from the early rise).
Promptly after the movie ended Sam jumped to his feet and said, "let's get out!". We headed out into the hot and sweaty streets of Siem Reap at about 12 (it was a staggering 99.5 degrees. In the shade). Sam pointed out that these people are early risers, work, and siesta until 3/4 pm. Clearly, we're idiots. We decided we would go souvenir shopping, but as I passed two, beat-up, red bikes on the side of the road with a rusty old sign on them reading "$1.5/day", I decided biking was way more fun than walking (and Sam had already refused to let me hire a tuk tuk for the day to chauffeur us around) biking seemed easier than walking and I was able to convince Sam that it would still provide us with ample exercise.
Once on the bike there was no controlling me. Weaving down dirt roads and exploring, my energy level soared! Sam stopped me and asked, where are we going? And we collectively decided we would bike to Tole Sap Lake. On the map it looks really close to Siem Reap... But Sam, who has considerably more map reading skill than I do, told me it was about 5 miles away. Sam and I are both stubborn, and half wanting to prove one another wrong we decided we would attempt to find it.
An hour later we began to see mirages of water in the far distance. Dying of thirst and our skin charring by the second we pulled over into a restaurant with hammocks and downed a coke (they didn't seem to have water, let alone diet coke). Despite our shirts being soaked through we pushed on... We couldn't be that far now.
Thankfully we weren't and about 15 minutes later we reached the end of the road. The end of the road was interesting. Bombarded by tour guides to buy a ticket for a boat ride we decided "what the heck". Tonle Sap Lake is huge. The water has lots of plant-life growing on it which create highways of westerners in boats with guides all taking us to view a village that people have created on the water. They build their homes of twigs and wood, floating on old empty oil barrels. They have a school, basketball court, restaurants, stores, even a tourist information center.
Tonle Sap Lake was the first time we encountered begging during our trip, and we both became inverted immediately. Mothers with crying babies in wooden boats and young disabled naked children floating in giant pots with sticks to row with, approached our boat and were all quick to ask for "a dolla".
Tonle Sap made us feel a little like we were at the Disney world of Siem Reap. But without the fairy tale. A spectacle. Where the locals are observed and survive off the expectation the Western heart will be guilt ridden and give in to their requests.
As we departed the boat we were relived. We retrieved our bicycles and began the long trek back to Siem Reap... Over 100 degrees in the sun... And there was no shade on the right side of the road. Once back in town we laughed at our "laid-back" day and my very burnt nose.... I wore my sunglasses all day, and have the tan-lines to back it up. Our late lunch and ice cold smoothies tasted so good.
We hid in the air conditioned hotel until the sun went down... Where we laughed that the story of a drunk Boston woman falling into the rails and almost died made international news. We did some shopping (I did a lot of shopping) once the sun disappeared and made it back to the hotel not too late to pack and get ready to move on from Siem Reap.
This morning we woke to load a very full bus and head onto Thailand. Our 1st stop is Koh Chang (an island on the south east side). So far our travel plans are way head of what we initially planned for. We are going to try and slow things down. Take more buses, fly less, and really experience Thai culture. Hopefully we are finished with being sick!
For those of you who are wondering, Sam and I are getting along really well. The biggest challenge has been being sick, and Sam took excellent care of me. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to return the favor... But he has a "super" immune system so I'll be shocked if he gets sick. But we like to see a lot of the same things and have been really good at compromising when one of us feels passionate/scared/excited about something.
I'm starting to miss everyone/everything (i.e. western comforts) at home, but I'm very happy to have Sam with me who reminds me that I'm beautiful despite my red nose and Afro hair.
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