Wow has time flown by! We finished up our project on Thursday, completing the last of the 250 surveys and translating the final ones. On Friday we tied up a few loose ends, and we caught the bus to Siem Reap. All of our hard work really paid off because we ended up getting most of Friday off, and the opportunity to leave on the (safer) bus, rather than taking the taxi of death like we ended up doing for Sihanoukville.
Siem Reap was a very beautiful and cozy town, with lots of cool bars and restaurants along several streets, the main one being Pub Street. Friday night we ended up relaxing, and on Saturday we set out to explore the town. We walked around pub street and found one of the main markets. It was so clean and had some of the nicest things we have seen thus far! It was easy to get carried away...especially with all of the beautiful things made of silk! We ended up taking a break and had 50 cent beers on a street side patio of one of the many restaurant/bars...and as usual got approached by children and disabled (from landmines) people to buy just about everything under the sun. For dinner we set out walking in the direction of Pub Street. Along the way, we had the unfortunate encounter with some giant wasps. All of a sudden they were all around me...and I ended up getting stung 5 times. Matt got stung once on the arms. We both agree they were the most painful stings we have ever experienced...I was hysterical...screaming and running around. I drew quite the crowd. Fortunately I didn't have a serious reaction to them - they were just painful. Matt on the other hand, was not so lucky. His arm became SO swollen and painful. We were pretty worried about it, but it has gone down since then. I guess he is lucky in the sense that he was only stung once. So all in all, that really put a damper on our night.
The next day we set out very early, at about 5am - before sunrise. We rented bicycles and biked the 5 or 6km to The Angkor Wat complex, and arrived just in time for sunrise to take pictures. The complex is kind of like the temple Disney Land of Asia. Lots of different temples to go explore, food stalls and souveneirs galore. The main attraction - Angkor Wat was really beautiful and very impressive from the outside, but when we went in, I found it a bit disappointing. There wasn't really much to see or do inside of it. Next up was breakie at a stall, and then we hit up Bayon, a temple within Angkor Thom (another large temple complex), known for it's huge face carvings. We stopped to explore some other smaller temples and visited my favourite of them all, Ta Prom. It was a giant temple completely taken over by the jungle, with giant trees and vines forcing their way through the crumbling walls. Afterwards we biked back to the guesthouse we were staying at and took much needed showers and naps.
The next day Matt and I set out early and donated blood at Angkor Children's Hospital. Both of our blood types were in need, and it was a very sterile and reputible place. Hundreds of tourists donate every year and it is advertised in guide books, so we felt comfortable doing this. Later on, we had a tuk-tuk take us to what we were told was a floating village, but really he was just taking us to a ferry that would cost $15 a person. We decided against it, not really thinking it would be worth it. I am glad we didn't because on the bus back to Phnom Penh I talked to someone who had done it and they said it was a complete money grab. Our driver then took us to a shooting range where we shot an M16 rifle. They have all of this left over ammunition from the war that they are now using as a tourist attraction. It was expensive and not really worth it...but it was still kind of a fun thing to do. You can even buy chickens to kill...or pay a huge sum to shoot a rocket launcher at a cow, which is nothing short of disturbing to me.
That night we went to the night market, which was really cool. At the market we had our feet 'massaged' by fish. We got to put our feet into this pond full of these little fish and they would eat the dead skin off of your feet. Just before you put your feet in they all swarm to the surface, hungrily awaiting. It felt SO strange...some of them were nibbling fairly hard too! It was quite the experience!
So anyways, that brings me to today. We spent 5 hours on the bus to get to Phnom Penh, and then caught our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We are spending the night here at an airport hotel and then tomorrow we are off to Thailand to start our final project working at with elephants at the TECC.
That's about it for now! Will write again when I get the chance...
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