Siem Reap Tired from yesterday, I woke up quite late and returned to work on projects on the computer while watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Jay planned to visit Angkor Wat today but still felt a bit sick and decided against it. Good lunch and some ice cream is a simple way to make you feel good. You can get giant coconuts in Southeast Asia for very cheap (< $1) where they simply chop it open and insert a straw into it for you to drink and they are delicious. And popcorn is an appetizer for some restaurants here. What did I have for lunch today? Snake and crocodile! They pretty much taste like tougher chicken and pork. Bug bits here are vicious and they grow to be humongous! Using bug repellent doesn't seem to help much for me. Warm body temperature FTL. For dinner, we decided to return...
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Siem Reap/Battambang So Battambang turns out to be a fair distance away. This isn't because it's far physically, but more because there are few highways in this country and to drive there, you need to drive out west and then down southeast for a total of about 300km (~190mi). We started early around 8am to drive there to make sure we got there on time and spent most of the day on the road to/from. When we stopped for lunch around 11am, the two school guides not-so-subtly warned us about the ice and cold water here. This is likely what has taken down Jay during this trip. After the long drive and getting lost several times because down this far, there are no road signs, we finally reached the school around 2pm and the school admins, advisors, the principal, students, everyone was waiting for us outside in a large tented...
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Siem Reap Angkor Wat day. Does it really get much more exciting than that? They filmed the movie Tomb Raider here and the temple they filmed inside is now referred to everyone as the "Tomb Raider Temple". Also, Angkor Wat stands for "City Temple" (or more accurately, a temple city). We woke up very early to head to the temples at 5AM for the sunrise. Was it worth it? I don't know, but Dan and I decided to head into the temples before the rush of people once they finish watching the sunrise and I think that made it worth it. Having the whole place to yourself is really creepy and awesome. Also, the day ended up being just Dan and me because Jay got sick and had to go home )_; Seems like he got food poisoning here. As far as I could tell, there weren't any real signs...
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Siem Reap: Late morning today. We decided to just relax today and take it easy before checking out the temples tomorrow. After a late lunch and wandering around to check out the area, we found a cool ice cream place (made with drinking water! it's important in Cambodia, fyi) with a room-long couch and WiFi to hang out in for a bit. We started to look for a Cambodian cooking class and were getting a bit disappointed because they were all either full-day classes that start early morning or half-day classes that start at noon, until we came across Le Tigre de Papier that had classes designed to be shorter with more sessions through the day. This turned out to be perfect for us because they way they teach is for each person to select an appetizer, an entree, and as a group, a dessert and then the instructor teaches...
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Bangkok/Siem Reap Dan finally made it out of India to Bangkok so it was off to Cambodia towards Siem Reap! Taking the bus to the border wasn't too bad but as soon as we walked over the border to try and get a bus to Siem Reap, the hassling began. Cambodia's first impressions are dulled by all these people trying to scam tourists. A tip to anyone trying to visit Cambodia: Apply and obtain the e-Visa online through the Cambodian government site! It's quick and easy and all you need is to print two copies (one to get in, one for departure). Taking the free government shuttle from the border to the bus station, as recommended online, a guide jumped on-board along for the ride and then during the ride told us that he could get us a cheaper ride into the city. We just needed to go through him....
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Bangkok Dan got stuck in visa-land trying to leave India so we will meet him tomorrow morning before heading to Siem Reap. What did I do today? Worked on Munomic and ate lots of Nooddi. A great day. p.s. Check out the latest Munomic project launched on 1/1/2012! www.touchedbyaprayer.com
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Bangkok Happy New Year! Hope 2012 treats you well. Being on the Buddhist Calendar means that Bangkok doesn't sleep on January 1st. That also means our new friends and I went out to the weekend market and I got a bunch of random gifts/souvenirs which amount to a bag full of yarn-ball angry birds and a very light, "Thai-style" shirt. This is way more comfortable to wear around than any other shirt I have. There was a magician at the mall! He had some cool tricks literally up his sleeve, even one where he pulled a bird out of an iPad. That was neat. Giant stitch dolls in a shopping mall? That's my kind of mall. This place is huge. The rest of our time here in Bangkok is pretty much dedicated to finishing up our current side projects while waiting for our friend Dan to arrive from his travels...
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