"Let's get the Tuk Tuk out of here..."

Whew... ok. Where to begin.

Well, the beginning I suppose. Met up with my tour crew and our lovely tour leader Cat. After some shared dining and an early to bed, we got up and ran away at 7am. (Ugh... jet lag...) And then it was the long and only mildly totureous bus ride to the Cambodia border. The weather was iffy and kept tossing buckets of rain at us. But it wasn't until we'd ditched our bags (lovely porter kid trekked them across the border for us) and were making the hike into Cambodia that it really began to pour.

Now let me pause a moment here to describe the rain in this neck of the woods. In Vancouver we're used the rain. Long months of slow brain numbing rain that muffles everything in dreary blanket of grey. But here... here the rain thinks it's a Mai Thai kick boxer and he's doing his darnedest to get you to the ground. There was no 'Oh let's just duck under this umbrella or poncho'. No no no silly girl, you'll be blasted with water at fire hose like pressures and forced to wade through newborn rivers that were dry streets only moments before. Oh yes... and THEN you have to have a 4 hour drive in wet clothes along an erroded and frankly already potholed dirt road.

Let me stop you there dear reader. I am by no means complaining... well, maybe a little. But here's the thing: I loved every minute of it. I cackled like a witch on laughing gas while the downpour was in progress. Hyenas would have been put to shame. It was so much fun!

And a wet backside aside, the Cambodian country is beautiful. Endless fields of brilliant verdant green rice fields broken up by solitary trees, alone in their seas of green. This made all the more spectacular with the god rays and tumultuous clouds left as after effects of the heavy rain.

We arrived in Siem Reap late in the day. Just long enough to have dinner together and sample some of the local Cambodia foodstuffs before heading to bed. (I had a lovely soup-curry called Amok, which is a local awesomeness.)

The morning came blindingly early. 4:30am to be precise. But this we had been told was necessary for our goal for that morning. Sunrise at Ankor Wat. Oh. My. God. Absolutely beautiful. Then after returning to our hotel for breakfast (Guh... still not used to having fried rice for breakfast... least the mango was to die for!) We headed to Ankor Thom and were treated to the restored beauty of the Bayon. Named by the french because of the banyon trees they found festooning the temple tops. Lovely... tho I did find myself unexpectedly wrangled into lighting inscense and praying before Shiva. But oh the embarassment! Not only did I not have the slightest clue what to do, but my damn inscense wouldn't light! So there I was stuck on my knees trying to get out of the way of the real hindu worshippers and I couldn't get my darn stick to ignite. I ended up sticking the thing in the sand pot anyways. Oh well... hopefully Shiva won't mind, I did have the best intentions! Yes... angering a god of destruction would be bad... I don't need none of that.

From there we headed to Ta Phrom. Site of the filming of the first Tomb Raider movie and I'm sure many other more relevant historical ongoings that our tour guide neglected to mention. However, the beauty of Ta Phrom lies in stark contrast to the Bayon. Ta Phrom is being eaten by the jungle and is being left that way. I guess the idea is to show you how the temples were found in their raw jungle state.

The end of the temple tour brought us back to Ankor Wat. But we were pretty fried, so we just shambled our way around the temple and tried not to fall down the impossibly steep stairs.

After a blessedly cold shower (God it's hot here!), we romped outside and straight into another downpour! However, this time we hopped on a bunch of Tuk Tuks and were treated to their hectic and crazy driving around the town. Keep in mind the heavy downpour. Funny stuff, I laughed my head off. Especially when I had to put up my umbrella to sheild myself from the torrents.

Now we're headed to get foot massages. Beause well... I can't think of a reason other that it'll be fabulous!