Cambodia - Day 3 and 4

Jamie and I relaxed on Monday morning by hanging out in our guesthouse in Phnom Penh. The weekend and lack of sleep had finally caught up to us. At 2:00, our bus to Siem Reap left and we took the 5 hour bus ride there. It wasn't bad and we saw some of the Cambodian country side. Lots of rice fields and small shacks built on stilts.

We arrived the Crown Royal hotel around 8:00 pm and decided to just eat there. I had the fish amok and Jamie had the pineapple rice chicken. We have enjoyed the fact that the real fruit shakes in Cambodia are really cheap. All are under $2.50 and most are around $1. We were pretty tired, so decided to call it an early night. We had decided we would not stay in this hotel because 1) they were slightly overcharging us and 2) the only internet was in the lobby and they charged $1 per 30 minutes. Cheap by American standards, but I have mine own.

We disappointed them greatly by leaving but the place we have moved, Golden Orange Hotel, is just as nice and has free Wi-Fi throughout. The bathroom is a tub/shower combo with no shower curtain and luke warm water. We'll live. It is so humid here that a warm/cool shower actually feels pretty good. After settling in our new place, we set out to find some bicycles. We found some we could rent for $2 per day. Once again, we probably overpaid for these, but it'll be ok. We are saving ourselves from paying a tuk tuk driver anytime we need to go somewhere and not walk. Driving in Siem Reap is not quite as hectic as Phnom Penh, but still no sidewalks, so you just walk in the sandy streets with the cars, motobikes, and bikes.

We went by this Butterfly Garden restaurant because it sounded nice. It was decent and there weren't many butterflies. I was told that "a butterfly has died." We saw several dead butterflies, so we weren't sure what they were talking about. We tried to go see the miniture model of Angkor Wat, which was right next to our hotel, but it was closed.

We had to wait around until 5:00 to get into the Angkor Wat Archeological Site to purchase tickets for the next 3 days and so we could get this afternoon and see the sunset. It was too cloudy for the sunset to be very beautiful, but just being there at sunset was exciting for us. We walked around the main temple of Angkor Wat for about an hour, then biked the 6 km back to our hotel.

Tomorrow will be a packed full day of Angkor temples. Be sure to check back later for a full slideshow of pictures. If you haven't already, Google Angkor Wat in the search engine on this blog and read more about this magnificent place. For those who have been to the Mayan ruins in Mexico, Angkor Wat makes Chitzen Itza look like child's play linkin logs.