The first full day in Cambodia we met out driver outside at 10 am. The goal for the day was the Landmine museum followed by some of the temples that were farther out. It was a long drive out to the museum, 30 km, and with the tuk tuk probably only doing 40km/h it took us a while to get there. We first had to stop and buy the required tickets to the temples, which cost us $40 for a 3 day pass. But it gave us access to every temple in the area and would work for the 2 days of temple visiting we were doing. After buying the passes we set off for the landmine museum. After we got out of town a little bit we started to see the less touristy areas. Cambodia is beautiful, all green and the people are really nice. They seem to have kids everywhere, same as most of Asia but here they don't seem to clothe them until after the age of 2. So everywhere we passed was close to the same - stilt house, naked babies, smiling little kids, some gasoline in Johnny Walker bottles for sale, snacks and drinks, few tourist items and animals everywhere, from chickens to dogs to cows. We must hide our kids in America better or we just don't have as many kids as Asia. And the kids are funny, they look like miniature adults really. They are doing things you don't normally associate with kids, like riding bikes to big for them, manning stands or selling stuff. But they are all pretty damn cute.
We got to the landmine museum and paid the dollar to get in. Not to much to see here, just some articles on the walls and pictures with tons of deactivated mines and explosives. I bought the requisite t-shirt (same one Aaron has only in red) and made a dollar donation. Next stop was our first temple of the day. And it did not disappoint. A big problem with most of the temples in Asia is that they are constantly redone, being rebuilt or repainted quite often. But not Cambodia. While there is some preservation going on the Wats look like what you would expect an ancient temple to look like - ancient. They are partially collapsing, weathered stone and they look amazing. Most of the ones we saw this day were smaller than Angkor Wat and seemed to be in clearings rather than in the jungle. We visited about 5 or 6 on the way back to town, each pretty spectacular.
Another funny thing about Cambodia is the kids selling stuff. When we pulled up to the first temple the tuk tuk was surrounded by little kids selling stuff. Mostly shirts, drinks and souvenirs. But they all look at you with the sad eyes and beg you to buy something. And they are relentless, but not in an annoying way. They all seem to know the same English and recite the same sales pitch. At one point I had two girls both telling me at the same time that they would remember me when I came back out and to only buy from them. I told them both maybe and ran for the temple entrance where a guard kept them out. Through out the day we had kids following us, trying to sell us everything and surrounding the tuk tuk every time we stopped. Probably a good prep course for Africa.
When we were eventually templed out we headed back to town to grab some lunch. We had gone from 10-5 without food and were starving. We ducked into the Red Piano again, since the food was pretty good and cheap. After finishing the meal I asked Justin if he wanted to hang out more and check out Angkor What? a bar that is pretty famous in the area. This is where things started going badly.
The bar is basically all about drinking. The slogan on the shirts says "Promoting irresponsible drinking since 1998". The menu consisted of beers and pitchers of cocktails. Yes I said pitchers, not glasses. And the worst was they were running a special - buy 2 pitchers and get a free t-shirt. Now what made us think drinking pitchers of Red Bull and Vodka and Vodka and Tonic was a good idea is beyond me. Even in my best drinking years I could never handle that. But the allure of a free t shirt was to much so we paid the $11 for a pitcher each (even though the shirts were only $4). We settled into the pool table and started into the pitchers. At some point Justin decided we both needed t shirts, so after finishing pitcher one we got another round and another shirt. The rest of the night started getting blurry at this point and my memory seemed to be turning on and off but I was able to patch some of it together. The way I remember it is we got a table, were joined by 3 girls from Canada who shared a shot of Absinthe with me (not a good idea), I chatted with them and some other people (kid from Malayasia, some other people who I will never remember or see again), got up and started dancing at some point. In my memory the entire bar was dancing, with people on the tables and booths, me spinning some British girl on the dance floor, the Canadian girls finding and dancing with me. Justin puts it more at me dancing in the middle of a bunch of people and every once in a while someone dancing with me also. At some point I ordered a 3rd pitcher (terrible idea) so we could get a 3rd t shirt. I don't think I ever drank any of it as I passed it around the bar and at some point a guy dancing on the table had it and spilled it all over me. We eventually stumbled out to total darkness on the street, found a tuk tuk driver and took the trip home, with him almost wrecking when he went on the wrong side of the road. In the room Justin called Melissa (it was 3 am for us then) then gave me the phone while he went into the bathroom and started throwing up. I talked to her for 30 minutes but the only thing I remember is her saying I was slurring my words.
The next day, and I do mean day as I didn't move until 1pm, I wanted to die. I felt miserable and was trying to remember what the hell happened. Justin was feeling better, having cleared out his gut of some alcohol before it had time to set into his blood stream. But with it being our last day in Cambodia I had to man up and go see the Wats. But more on that later. Typing this story just makes me want to throw up thinking about all that alcohol.
