Cambodia Day 3: Boeng Melea

On our last day I wanted to go out farther and see Boeng Melea, which was one of the temple sites that has essentially been left how it was found, with no restoration attempts. It was super cool to see the jungle taking hold, and I did a little exploring in neat parts of the temple that I think were technically off limits. We had some extra time so we fit in the "lady temple", and Bakong. Our driver took us to some trusted restaurants, and we had amok, and my new favorite, cashew chicken.
-Bateng Srei (lady temple)
- Boeng Melea
-Bakong

Bateng Srei is neat because it is the only temple built of pink sandstone, which is the hardest sandstone. That means all the carvings are the best preserved there, and it's a really good look into how the temples originally must have looked. It was relatively small and actually pre-dates most of the other temples.


Boeng Melea was exactly the Indiana Jones temple I wanted to see. It was really hard to capture it's full feeling, even with pano shots. I hope Garretts camera shots turn out.


These decorative footstones were everywhere. I loved them. It seems like it must have been a lavish place to be walking on works of art. Its surprising they still let people walk on them. We had our chicken amok served in a coconut and I got a picture- mostly because Garrett's scruff is a rare and handsome occasion.

I think this might have been the only picture we took at Bakong. It's the monastery next to the temple. I think we were getting a little camera tired.

We flew out that night on separate flights, because the travel agency that booked mine couldn't do both of ours, and my flights were too expensive to get on when he was buying tickets. On the 12 hour flight home, after a few hours in I got extremely sick. I spent the majority of the flight too weak to move and sometimes even sleeping in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet and leaning over the sink at the same time.  At this point I'm still thinking I must have malaria. I almost missed my connecting flight in Detroit, and they had to open the boarding back up for me thank goodness. A night in the Detroit airport in that state might have actually killed me. I was actually considering missing my flight on purpose and going to the hospital there. When I made it to SLC, we decided to try a night at home before I went to the hospital, just to see if I could tolerate fluids. So far I'm doing ok, but still battling hydration, and in a lot of pain. I'm so stupid for not taking my malaria pills. I will not be making that mistake again. Hell hath no misery like malaria on a 12 hour flight.

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Cambodia day 2: The big temples

This was our big day. We hired a tour guide and saw all the major temples.

-Angkor Wat

-Angkor Thom
-Ta Prohm

This is the classic Christmas card shot. Our tour guide was actually a pretty good photographer. He was a young dude that loved to make jokes.

He also had all the tourist shots nailed, and suggested this one.

Bayon temple in Angkor Thom: 

I wanted to take this shot because this spot reminded me of the face in the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. 

Ta Prohm has most of the iconic shots. A few movies were filmed here, and the trees on the temples have been left, because they're so cool looking.

Panos are great but they have such terrible resolution.

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Cambodia day 1: Small temples to start

 June 25th day 1 in Cambodia

1400 I've never been treated with such lavish servitude in my life. We were greeted at the airport by a lady dressed in full traditional costume, who gave us a full tour of the resort, and explained our 24 hour personal butler/chauffeur service. Our chauffeur was wearing a long sleeve tight costume that looked like something sewn for a play, but took off the jacket after the first stop much to my relief. It had to be unbearable in this extreme humidity. 

1545: There really is no end to the intricate detail in every insignificant corner of the temple grounds. We've only been to two"small" temples on the outskirts so far, and the attention to detail makes Disneyland look slapdash.

Every little foot stone and column has tiny frills and the subtle remains of what must have been beyond even our modern imaginations.

Ornate architecture is a value the world has lost. We found a security guard/ tour guide- or rather he found us- and started explaining the significance of the burial grounds and various structures in Preah Khan where the queens were buried. Of course he wanted a tip but we paid it willingly because the narrative was worth it.

We're going for a real tour guide tomorrow at the big temples. I'm excited what Garrett gets on his nice camera.

  1723: Dy, our driver has our time perfectly slotted to see things in order of interest and relevance. It was a great plan to use this service, cause  otherwise I'd be completely lost with the immense amount of things to see and do. He brought us to the perfect temple to watch the sunset, the top being a great overlook. The stairs were a climb though.

- East Mebon

-Preah Khan

-Pre Rup (sunset)

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Day 3 in Phuket: Phang Nga bay

June 24th Day 3 in Phuket

   I could explain today but the pictures do it so much better. 

We went on an absolutely fantastic speedboat tour or Phang Nga bay. At first we were taken into hidden little coves, and then we found a really nice beach to relax on.

We got out and did a bit of snorkeling but the coral is all white because the water is warm during El Niño. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Dili.

I followed a little beach trail that led to the other side of the island where we found a bunch of nice shells and coral on the beach that we took with us.

We went on canoes again through the mongrove trees and saw walking fish, tree crabs, and at one point a snake lizard thing our guide called a dragon.

They called our boat rower Bob Marley.

They brought us to a pirate cave that really was very impressive and preserved considering all the un-policed tourists that probably go through there every day.

It led to a little opening to paradise in the middle of the island. It was very surreal.

James Bond island is named after the 70s Bond movie that was filmed here, and made this spot iconic. We need to watch the movie again. The guide gave us little guns to dramatize the pic. 

There is a little Venice type village called Panyee on the water with a big mosque in the middle, and a very tasty lunch. We got to know a Belgian couple that told us about their wild adventures in Africa. 

Garretts favorite stop was probably the island with all the monkeys. He took a lot of pics but not many of them turned out. 

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Phuket day 2: Zip lining

June 23rd, Day 2 in Phuket

  We decided to leave a day for exploring instead of booking the whole trip. It was a good idea. We slept in, enjoyed our hotel pool, laid out, ate a late breakfast, and just lazed around all morning. Very dreamy. I took a fancy to seeing the jungle again and suggested a hike, but Garrett wanted something more thrilling and less sweaty, so we compromised and had the hotel arrange to have us picked up for some jungle zip lining.

It was a shorter trip because we wanted to have the afternoon to explore the beaches. We had fun zipping around with an Aussie couple and screaming a bit here and there.

    After we decided to try out Patong beach in the daylight before the nasty strip club girls came out into the streets. The beach was immaculate white sand and a constant flurry of soccer and partying. I decided to skip on the parasailing idea after seeing each trip lasted for about 30 seconds, but watching the Thai men jump up on the sail strings with no harness and swing around like monkeys in the air was really the show of the night. Garrett also indulged me to no end and bought me everything I looked at. The prices were dirt cheap. Rain came super suddenly so we bought delicious kebabs and zipped back to the hotel in a party tuk-tuk. We even saw some dude traveling by elephant on the side of the road on the way home. This place is crazy, and so much fun. 

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Phuket Day 1: Jungle trekking

June 22nd Day 1 in Phuket

Ti-Nuan was our elephants name. I had to write it down before I forgot it. She was a pretty little thing with lots of pink on her face that was fond of snacking and very nice to let me sit on her head.

I asked what our Mahouts name was and he told me, but it was impossible to pronounce let alone remember. The minute we got on I was giggling like a child. Garrett I think got more entertainment from my lack of self command than the elephant trek. We went through a river, and it has rained that day so the banks were wet and muddy.

Ti-Nuan slipped down the muddy slope and I was very frightened, because the Mukout actually got off the elephant for that part and we were alone. Later when she was breaking up a palm leaf she whacked me in the face with it. I think they secretly have an attitude for being made to work. I love it. The place we went only has the elephants work for 2 hours a day, and uses only positive reinforcement for training, thus the occasional disobedience.

Thailand is cracking down on elephant abuse, and I feel like the ones we were with were healthy and treated very well.  

   We visited a monkey temple where a few of them climbed up my shirt to get my bananas.

I screamed with fright and everyone stared at me.

  One of my unexpectedly favorite parts of the tour was lunch with our group. We ended up with a spectacular smattering of couples from around the world. The Australians were very talkative and silly, the couple from Worchestershire England were quieter, and the two from South Africa had some neat stories to tell too. We had a great time comparing our countries and culture, especially because those are places you hear very little detail about. The England friends tried to teach me how to say Worchestershire the correct way- something more like "Wistah", and we all laughed at each others accents and the stereotypes we've all seen and heard about each other. It was great fun. The food was tasty too. 

   The canoe trip surprised me in a good way.

I thought it would be a lazy river type slow cruise, but right from the get go we were on small rapids. It was quite a long time, and we saw snakes in trees, and all sorts of cool jungle vines and plants. It was a fabulous way to see the jungle.

   The ride home was pretty long. I fell asleep, and then in the evening we swam in our porch pool and walked up the street and had some Thai food at a little restaurant. It was a huge success of a day. 

    

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