7-27 Siem Reap

For just $6 each, we got bus tickets to Siem Reap, which is a small city on the outskirts of the Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom temple complexes. I found a good tour guide and tuk tuk driver for us online from a travelfish.org article recommendation. The average around town is $25/day for a tour guide and $12/day for a tuk tuk driver. We met our driver (Vanny) at our accommodation: The Royal Angkor Palace Hotel ($30). Vanny Pech is a 26 yr old with a wife & kid and is trying to make it through his English and business courses at a local university. He was funny, friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English well, which we were pretty happy about. It was 5pm at that point, which is when the park officially closes. We sped out of town 8km to Angkor Wat to see sunset. We drove along a massive square moat 100m across and a full 1km length on each of it's four sides. We stopped at the entrance of Angkor Wat, the famous Buddhist & Hindu temple built in 1,100 AD. Out front were a dozen kids trying their best to sell drinks, bracelets, books on Angkor Wat, and apparently marijuana. We walked down the only causeway connecting Angkor Wat from across the moat. It was incredible to view the main wall/facade from across the water as the sun, now very low in the sky, lit the sandstone up to a bright golden brown. Vanny isn't a licensed guide because in order to pass the licensing test, you have to not only pass the test, but bribe the administrator $4,000USD. Since the temples were closing soon, Vanny was able to accompany us and give a few details. We got some great pictures at one of the reflection pools at the front of the main temple. Even at sunset with a cold beer, we were hot & sweaty. Tomorrow is going to cook us alive. After the last bits of light lifted off the walls of the temple, Vanny took us to a nice place in town with a buffet and cultural dancing performed by lovely ladies. We each had about 3 plates of food and washed it down with an awesome Spanish Cabernet. The cultural dancing was performed by 15 ladies. Vanny taught us how to say 'beautiful woman' and 'I love you' just in time for us to whisper it to them on stage during photo ops after the show. We got some funny looks and smiles. After dinner, Vanny took us to Pub Street, which is nothing but, you guessed it...pubs and clubs. Inside Temple Club, we enjoyed $2 pitchers and played pool. Chris got a bit upset when a 6ft tall ladyboy dressed like Mini Mouse quickly & sneakily kissed him on the cheek. We met tons of people that night from all over, including Mexico, Ireland, UK, Denmark, Canada, USA, and more. Vanny had a beer with us a short while before we went home to rest up for the long day ahead.