After the rocking night out (go read the last post if you have not) Angkor Wat day was off to a rough start. We had originally planned to get up early, maybe rent bikes and ride around town then meet the tuk tuk driver at 1pm for the tour. Best laid plans... I sort of got up at 1pm wanting to kill myself. It was the type of hang over that makes you swear off alcohol... at least until the next time. I told Justin there was no way I could make it at 1pm, he bitched about it (f him he made himself puke instead of taking the hangover like a man) before heading downstairs to tell the tuk tuk. We pushed back the start until 2:30. I barely managed to get downstairs to eat some lunch hoping the food would help me get over the hang over some. It did not. I spent the rest of the time on my back in the room hoping I wouldn't shit myself or puke on myself at some point in the day.
At 2:30 we loaded up for the tour. Downstairs I told the tuk tuk driver I was sorry but last night was a little rough. He got a good laugh out of it. The first stop of the day was Angkor Wat and just as we pulled up it started to rain. Not quite the rains of Saigon but enough to make me want to cover my backpack with the DSLR camera in it. But where oh where would I find something? Never fear because just as we stopped at the Wat 5 kids surrounded us in the tuk tuk, literally throwing ponchos at us and telling us to buy from them. I thought the rain may taper off eventually but when it started to get heavier I relented and had one of the girls get us blue and yellow ponchos. I am not sure if we looked smaller sitting in the tuk tuk or whether the girl just didn't care (betting on the latter) but the ponchos she gave us must have been kid size. The sleeves barely came down to my elbow. But they covered me enough and covered the backpack also so we made our way through the rain to the Wat.
Now I don't know how many of you have seen pictures of Angkor Wat or even heard of it but it is awesome. It is surrounded by a huge moat with a stone bridge leading in. The main temple area, which was the center of Buddhism at one point in history, has been rebuilt with the original stones and some reinforcement where needed. The outside walls of the temple have carvings, 100s of feet long that show famous stories from the Buddhist faith, like Vishu fighting demons or the demons and good guys pulling the serpent to churn the milky water (don't ask cause I don't know). The inside is just as awesome with a huge spire, the 100 Buddha statues (not that many left really) and just old looking architecture. It is also located in the middle of the jungle, not much development nearby other than the cafe and restaurant for tourist. We were even treated to a local monkey who decided to come into the ruins and walk around, not paying any attention to the people there. Overall it is a great temple, should be one of the wonders of the world and I recommend people go see it at some point.
After Angkor Wat we drove into what I guess was either a city at one point or just a huge temple area. We drove through the original stone gate, wide enough for 1 car or tuk tuk to go through at a time and each side of the road having the angels and demons pulling the serpent again. Inside the walls were multiple temples spread around different areas. One was the temple with the faces on it that are quite famous. It was pretty neat and I got some good pictures of it with the SRL in between rain. We stopped at another that was way back in the jungle and had trees growing out of it. With the rain coming down again the place was a little flooded which made it look even cooler. Unfortunately our time here was cut short as the temples were closing at 5:30. So we loaded back into the tuk tuk and headed into town for dinner.
Now for most of the day I had been going back and forth between feeling like death and feeling ok. During dinner I started to feel like death again so we got the bill, walked down the street to grab out laundry (we had it done by some internet cafe for $5) then tuk tuk home. The rest of the night was spent at the hotel watching Fashion TV (we'd been living by this channel in Vietnam since it showed hot white girls) and using the internet. The next day we packed up early for our flight back to Saigon for a 1 night stopover before Singapore. Siem Reap airport surprised us again when it had a Dairy Queen, which was good, and a $25 departure tax, which was bad. Another quick flight on a prop plane and we were back in Saigon and not to happy about it. Siem Reap had been a nice, quiet, relaxing time. Except for the night of bad decisions and day of regrets.
It is pretty amazing how far we have come since the 2 scared kids that got dropped off in Beijing. This time we didn't even bother having the hotel pick us up opting to use a taxi instead which is much cheaper. We checked back into the same hotel, said hi to the same guy that works the desk (I don't think he ever leaves the building) and walked the 6 flights of stairs to our room. Last time we had been one floor down but still had to walk up and down 5 flights of stairs anytime we wanted to do something. Maybe this is why Saigon didn't gel with me to much. Either that or the blatant anti-American attitude (they even have an Anti-American National Holiday, March 15th I think) which is very funny given a lot of stuff is priced in USD and they accept USD for payment.
After a quick meal we headed back to the room as my stomach was still a little rough. But after a little while it managed to calm down and we headed back to our favorite bar to play some pool and (gasp!) have a beer. I told you I never learn. We played a few games of pool, reflected on the fact that our time in Asia was coming to an end, talked to Yuki a little bit and then headed home. The next morning we were up and out the door around 12:30 for our flight to Singapore. Now we had heard good things about Singapore Airlines from Andy and Lucy (Brits from Koh Samui) so we were expecting it to be nice. And it delivered. All the seats have tvs in the headrest and on demand tv and movies. Unfortunately it was a short flight but I did manage to watch 75% of Kung Fu Panda. I plan to catch the rest when we fly to South Africa in a few days.
Landing in Singapore was like arriving in heaven. Everything was in English, I saw familiar food everywhere, familiar shops and western style clothes. And the best part of all - no motorbikes! Those bastard things make so much noise honking all the time and it was really starting to get to me in Vietnam. We used the metro to get to our hotel, something we have not used since Hong Kong and then found a nice white guy from America to show us to our hotel. On the way he gave us some insight into the area, like where the movie theatre was so we could see Batman and where the 4 floors of whores were so we could get prostitutes... The hotel was another upgrade from the original booking, costing us a little bit more. But it is beyond worth it. We are on the 15th floor overlooking the city, with comfortable beds and the best shower I have ever felt. This isn't to say the other places we stayed sucked, but just like a Motel 6 in the US will do a Hyatt always feels better.
After showering (the first time I have really felt clean in a while) we headed out to get food and tickets to Batman. We walked down the street marveling at all the stores - Orange Julius, Burger King (with English speaking staff!), Borders, Apple Store, a huge movie theatre and a mall all within 2 blocks of us. I almost started crying. Any trip exhaustion I was feeling was immediately wiped away and I started to wish we had more time in this mecca. After getting tickets to Batman we went to Burger King for dinner (i love fast food). For the first time in a while I could get a large fountain soda with ice and not worry about getting sick since the PM of Singapore says the country will pay your medical bills if you get sick from the water.
Now none of this is to take away from the other countries. We had fun in almost every place we went, some times a little to much fun, but this was our first real taste of home in 2 months. Japan is western but with a distinct twist and Hong Kong is western but with a underlying Chinese feel to it. But Singapore is all western all the time. It really feels like an Asian America from the shops and buildings to just the diversity of people. It really is the perfect spot for us to recharge our batteries before spending 2 months camping around Africa. And that is what we intend to do. No site seeing, no racing around trying to do stuff. We are just going to stay in our little area, spend way to much time on the computers, get Europe all planned out and finally upload the past month of pictures and video. So get ready for that cause it is going to be a shitload.
