Our arrival in Cambodia- Hot at Angkor Wat

Crazy Temple Doorway

Surprise dinner guest

<Callie>  When we arrived Cambodia, a man named T ( not sure how to spell it ) picked us up at the airport. On our ride to our hotel, we got our first glimpses of Cambodia:  families of five riding on one scooters, cows roaming around, tuk tuks everywhere, and much more.

We ate dinner at a place in town.  My dad and all of us had a little surprise.  We were eating dinner and my dad jumped because something rubbed his leg. We looked down and there was a very skinny cat looking at him!  It kept us company all through dinner.

Camryn and I at Preah Khan Temple

Touring with Chena

The next day we woke up fairly early and got ready for one of two days we would have in Siem Reap touring temples.  We waited for our guide but he was late.  Dad decided to call him and the guide told us we had booked for July, not June!  :-(  Our guide called his cousin, Chena, and she took us on the tour that day instead.  She was funny and really nice!  We saw 5 temples and they were all mind blowing.  It was hard to believe they were still there and standing after close to 1,000 years!  The wall carvings were very detailed and beautiful.   My favorite was the second largest temple in Siem Reap called Preah Khan because there were many secret rooms with statues and incense.  Plus there were many doors that looked like a mirror.  A cool thing about the doors was they got smaller as you went further into the temple, forcing you to bow in respect or else you would hit your head!  At the last temple we visited, we saw a really long snake but our guide told us it was good luck and unusual.

As we were walking around the temple, Chana showed us a cool type of plant that if you touched it,  its leaves closed up instantly.  On our ride home, we stopped to see monkeys on the side of the road.  We saw one monkey with an adorable baby on her back and our driver gave the monkey part of a pineapple.  The monkey took it quickly and ate it right in front of us!

That night I lost my third tooth on this trip!  Crazy!  Now I've lost a tooth in Hawaii, Bali, and Cambodia.  I only have 7 teeth on the bottom instead of 12.

Angkor Wat

On our second day, we met up with our original guide, Sarak.  He took us to the famous Angkor Wat, the biggest temple in Cambodia.  It was huge and beautiful with epic carvings, but we were steaming hot!!  Sarak told us stories that went with the carvings.  Mom and Dad got to climb the tallest tower in that temple, but Camryn and I weren't old enough.  It was amazing how well preserved it was after all these years.  The last temple (used in filming Tomb Raider) we visited had trees growing on top of it.  It looked like a scene from Indiana Jones!  There was a cool room called the echo chamber where if you pounded on your chest, it would echo really loudly inside the chamber.

King's Entrance - Angkor Wat

I tried a cashew nut shake at lunch and it was surprisingly not bad.  Food here is called Khmer food. Its different but pretty good!  I was to supposed to take a tour of the town and markets today, but something didn't agree with me and well.....its just not been a pretty day.

I'll write again soon!