Running Amok

It is never fun getting on the bus, particularly for any trip that exceeds four hours. Even the most comfortable of buses gets very old very fast. We wanted to go to Siem Reap from Saigon which is two six hour bus rides. We opted to do the first bide ride and then spend the night in Phnom Penh and then get up the next morning and do the second ride. I would highly recommend doing this and having a break between bus rides as it's really nice to have a moment to regroup. I also got up early and headed over to one of the swankier hotels and went for a swim before getting on the bus, which made the ride slightly more tolerable.

We arrived rather late in the day to Siem Reap (which is where you stay to see Angkor Wat) to discover our hotel was full and they put us into another hotel near by. We walked around the corner toward town and had dinner at a Cambodian restaurant. I had the chicken amok which is a local specialty and delicious. It's a peanut/coconut milk based curry with chicken and vegetables. A must try if you find yourself in Cambodia.

We headed over to the Angkor What? bar which is on Pub street - a pedestrian only area. Doug contently watched the soccer on T.V. while I was more intrigued by what was going on at the pool table. Particularly the variety of flirting and rebuffing of the players. We later ran into a group of people we had met in Hoi An and joined them at the table.

The next day we woke up, breakfasted, switched to a new hotel, and hit up Angkor. Angkor was a civilization built by the Khmer empire during the 8th to 13th centuries (I think) and it is amazing how enormous it is. The biggest Wat is Angkor Wat which was built in dedicated to the god Vishnu (also referred fondly by us as "our Bishnu"). There is also Angkor Thom which is the city with several other temples and ruins to see. I would highly recommend exploring it by bicycle - which is what did. It's a huge area to cover and it's very easy to bike out and around. It's amazing to see all the detail that went into building Angkor and imagining the billions of man hours and money that went into it's construction. We also enjoyed watching the groups of Korean tourists walk around in their bright red vests - they seem to always travel in groups of at least 45.

That night we were exhausted and had an early evening. The next day we relaxed in Siem Reap at the Prince D'Angkor hotel. For $8 a person we could use their pool and gym. The pool is big enough to swim laps in and there was at most 2 or 3 other people in the pool at any given time.

I was in the mood for Mexican so we headed to Viva (not really worth it) and then again over to Angkor What? Doug played a couple of games of pool with some guys at the pool table and then when they left, he gave me a lesson and I practiced some. A couple came over and wanted to play - so Doug and I were teamed up against them. Now if you know me at all you know that this is not my game. Doug, however, is quite good, so in the few cases we've had to play against another couple, as long as both of the other two players aren't super good Doug can more than make up for my deficiencies. Not so this game - I will simply tell you that I got two balls in and Doug only got one in. It was mind boggling. I have never seen him play so bad.

Once the game finally ended we went outside and realized it was totallly worth it. Clearly 32 (the god I've taken on in my time in Asia - there are so many gods here, so I've chosen 32 as someone who's probably important enough to be able to help me out if I need it, but not so important he has other things to do) knew what he was doing as it was way funnier to be outside.

There is no way that this will come across nearly as funny as it was - but I will just say that we had seen a guy at dinner that I had nicknamed Viggo, due to his slight resemblance to Viggo Mortenson, who was now dancing with anything and everything (mainly himself) plus a Mullet Man. The best part of Mullet Man was that he was talking to this girl and these two drunk girls tried to surreptitiously take their picture with him, but given that they were drunk it ended up being quite the debacle.

It was a hilarious last night in Cambodia before we headed into Lao.