Siem Reap, Cambodia - Angkor Thom

--Touring the Angkor Ruins--

The hotel's tuk tuk was BEAUTIFUL.

Our ride to the Angkor Complex

A view of Angkor Wat

The gate to Angkor Thom

Angor Thom

Established in the 12th Century
(This was our FAVORITE)

Haleigh was like a CELEBRITY.

She had her picture taken at least 10 times
in this sitting alone.

Traditional Cambodian dress 

You had to be 12 years old in order

to enter this temple.  While the others

explored, Ammon and I took a walk.

Our tuk tuk driver, Kim - from our hotel, 

patiently waited to take us to the next spot.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - Shining Angkor

Look what I woke up to!

A CUTE boy in a mosquito net.

NO - He didn't NEED it -

it was just part of the decor

but he loved the security he felt

having it wrapped around his bed.

After a good nights sleep and

a GREAT little hotel with VERY

helpful and friendly and HONEST

staff - things were looking much brighter.

The view from our window

There was SO MUCH wood in the hotel.

The walls, the ceiling, all of the furniture -

even the bars on the windows were carved wood.

A FULL view from our window.

Rather than having shampoo in little bottles

they had it in this CUTE little pot 

with a spoon to dispense it.

Our room was on the third floor.

Here is the staircase going up to the

forth and down to the second.

The lounge area on the 3rd floor.

The spiral staircase going down to the lobby

was made, stairs and all, of BEAUTIFUL mahogany.

Carved wood walls and furniture in the lobby.

The lobby entrance.

THE RESTAURANT - located to the 

right of the garden entrance.

Ready for breakfast!

The wood frame with the doors is

the breakfast menu.  The utensils were

all wrapped in paper napkins to 

keep them sanitary.

Viewing the menu.

Notice - even the fruit on the table

is WOOD.

Shining Angkor Hotel.

The garden entrance.

Looking out to the street.

Ammon - chillin' by the pool.

He's excited to try it out after our

day of touring the temple ruins of Angkor.

Bangkok and Cambodia TRAVEL TRAUMA!

When we left the Grand Palace complex we

traveled by TAXI.  The plan was to go back

to the Renaissance Hotel, get our bags and jump

in the van we had scheduled to take us to the 

Thailand/Cambodia border.

The TRAVEL TRAUMA began when we

were having difficulty getting a taxi driver who

would use his meter.  Taxi drivers in Thailand 

are known for ripping foreigners off by not using

their meter and charging WAY too much.

Since there were 7 of us traveling we

required TWO taxis.  We were short on time 

(our van would pick us up at the hotel at 1:00PM

and it was 12:15PM) and patience by the time we

pinned down two taxis.  In a RUSH Fred, Joel Hiatt

and I jumped in one taxi and the kids and 

Linda Hiatt jumped in the other.

A perfect set-up for TRAVEL TRAUMA.

After a two minute drive the driver in front,

whom had the kids and Linda in his car,

stopped, got out and came to CONSPIRE with

our driver.  We could tell they did not have our

best interest in mind.  Fred kept saying 

"Go back to your car and get us to our hotel."

After a couple minutes the driver went back to his

car and our ride resumed. 

Fred told our driver "You need to go FAST!  We have 

another ride to catch in 30 minutes."  With that, the

driver pulled over and refused to go any further.

Driver: "Because you tell me 'go fast' I will not drive."

Fred: "You WILL go and you will go NOW!

Those are my children in that other taxi!"

ME: - MOTHER BEAR instincts kicked in

and I yelled "Those are my CHILDREN go NOW!"

It must of snapped the taxi driver to his senses.

Not only did he get moving, he picked up the pace.

I WAS NOT HAPPY - we lost the other taxi.

I WAS SCARED!!  Where were they?  Why didn't

we pay more attention and make sure we had one MAN

per taxi?  After 5 minutes (which seemed like 5 hours)

of playing catch up we saw them.  NEVER has 

a green and yellow vehicle looked more 

BEAUTIFUL to me.

Our journey from the Renaissance to the

Thailand/Cambodia border was long

(FOUR HOURS) but uneventful.

TRAVEL TRAUMA resumed as we stepped out

of the car to walk over the border into Cambodia.

Men, like pesky little GNATS, swarmed around

us telling us to "go here" and "go there" and 

"you need to buy visa here", "you no cross border

without visa".  We knew what they were telling us

was wrong.  We had been told - cross the border

and go to the border control office to get your visa,  so we

ignored the gnats and continued on our journey.

When we got to the border control office,

we were issued Cambodia visas, cleared immigration

and took a bus to an abandoned travel station.

We were told we would be able to get

a ride to Siem Reap there. It was a RAT RACE.

To make a VERY LONG story short

Fred worked out a deal with two couples

from Italy and a mini van driver for the

12 of us to travel together.  As we opened the

back hatch to load our luggage the driver

pulled out an already stored pallet and

pilled the bags on it.  He proceeded to  tie

the bags down with rope, covered them with a tarp

and closed the hatch as far as it would go.

Linda kept checking the bags throughout the

ride to make sure they were still there.

The two hour ride was LONG, CRAMPED and DARK

(you could see fires burning in the fields along the way)

but we made it to Siem Reap.

Once there, we transferred to two tuk tuks

for a 20 minute ride to the hotel.

VERY tired and annoyed I was seriously

wondering if all of the TRAVEL TRAUMA

would be worth it.

After a good nights sleep we will see what 

tomorrow brings.

Bangkok, Thailand - Wat Pho, The Reclining Buddha Temple Complex

The temple ticket office

BEAUTIFUL temple complex

We were very careful to watch our belongings.

The Reclining Buddha

160 feet long.

Now those are some BIG feet!

Worshippers at the temple 

purchase a bowl of coins.

There are 108 bowls lining one wall 

of the temple. 

Each bowl represents a characteristic

of Buddha.

Parishioners take their coins.

and drop them one by one into the bowls.

Some give food offerings instead of

coins.  This lady baked enough muffins

to fill 108 bags with 4 muffins each.

Large statue of Marco Polo

Prayers are offered to this Buddha.

It is a RULE in Thailand to never show

the souls of your feet.  We were not 

allowed to sit with our feet pointing 

toward the Buddha.