Angkor Wat and On to Kuala Lumpur

by Sarah Ann
for Friday, July 19th

Today was our last day in Cambodia. We got another hotel breakfast, packed up our suitcases, and headed off to see more temples. I have to say, the Angkor Wat temple complex is really quite amazing. Not only is it huge-- you can drive long ways and still be in the complex-- but the sections where it has survived, you can see very intricate detail. We started at Bayon temple inside Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was actually an entire walled city and now has lots of building ruins to see. Bayon temple is a very large temple and known for all the faces that are everywhere. There are lots of corners, stairs, and passageways to walk down, and we enjoyed exploring it. There were also drawings on the wall that told stories. After that temple, we walked to nearby Baphuon temple. This one had an age limit on it because of steep stairs and big drop offs. Christian was too young and my feet hurt so I stayed down with him.

At the Bayon temple

Bayon temple is known for the giant faces everywhere

one of the carvings on the walls 

sitting outside Baphuon temple

Once the rest of my family had done there exploring, we walked through the jungle, stopping at temples on the way. For once, there were hardly any tourists. Most of them were ruins you would see in a movie, and we enjoyed climbing around. But by that time, the Cambodian heat had worn us all out. There was an ice cream truck, and, well, sometimes ice cream is a necessity. We have been getting a cold treat, often smoothies, almost everyday because it is so hot.

Preah Palilay, one of the temple ruins in the jungle

After a much needed stop, we began our trekking back through the jungle to meet our driver. We stopped at a few more temples, including terrace of the elephants, which had elephants on the walls, and terrace of the leopards, which had little leopard statues. We then met our driver, and stopped at a few more temples on our way to the airport. Overall, I have been quite amazed at Angkor Wat. 

We paid our van driver. One interesting thing here is that while the official Cambodian currency is Cambodian riel, most everyone uses US dollars! Using US dollars brought a much needed stability to Cambodian after lots of conflict, and now everyone is used to it. The one exception is with change: people never use US coins. Instead they use Cambodian riel, since one dollar is worth about 4,000 riel, and they can stick with paper money.

I also wanted to say one thing about food. We loved the food in Bangkok - but everyone knows there is good food in Thailand. Taylor ate pad Thai for almost every meal because he liked it so much. In Cambodia, we loved the food just as much. It was pretty similar. In both places, we drank lots of fruit smoothies. They are so refreshing when it is sooooo hot. 

Christian and I at the Terrace of the Elephants

Baksei Chamkrong, one of the smaller temples

My Severs (overuse injury on my heels) is still a limitation so by this point I was doing as little walking as possible and didn't climb up the temple

After sitting around at the airport for a while, we heard some announcements. Understanding the loudspeakers at airports is already hard enough, and having accents doesn't help. When we decided that they had announced it was our flight, we gathered all of our stuff and ran out. We had sat down on the plane and buckled when my mom reached for her phone in her computer bag, only to find nothing there. Suddenly she exclaimed, "Oh no! I forgot to unplug it." You see, back at the gate, she had plugged in her phone to charge. In the rush to get out, she had forgotten to pack it. She darted off the plane to try to get her phone. I was the only one sitting next to her, and I sat there nervously, thinking of all the stories of planes taking off without all of their passengers. Luckily, the plane didn't leave, and she arrived with her phone. Turns out she had to run back, get two of the airport security people to get her phone, prove it was hers by scrolling through the pictures, and then give them her passport number in case she got into trouble. I was glad both my mom and her phone made the flight.

Here I am ready for my flight from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur

The flight went pretty smoothly. We then went through immigration and customs (I got another stamp in my passport!) and then found a place to eat. Next we headed to a taxi. Turns out Malaysia, just like Thailand, drives on the left side of the road. Malaysia drives on the left side because the British were there, and people contribute Thailand's driving to when it was under Japanese control in WWII. The city was very modern. Aside from driving on the wrong side, it looked like it could be a US city. We got to our apartment on the 16th floor, and headed off to bed. I can't wait for some Malaysian adventures!