Siem Reap

The hostel I checked into put me in a $2 bed, even though I was willing to pay nearly anything (max was $8) to get somewhere less ridiculous. I was sleeping in some weird upstairs room, filled wall to wall with mattresses on the floor, every 2 sharing a massive mosquito net of a different hilarious, painfully far from pastel colour. No blankets. I stayed up for a wee bit playing on the internet before entering my hilarious bit of accommodation. When I got there, there was some asian guy in the neighbouring bed watching things loudly on his iphone. I said hello, introducing myself and he seemed both incapable of english, and uninterested, so I moved on, stuffed in earplugs, and passed out (this seems irrelevant, I know, but this character will reappear soon enough).

At 4am my horrific blackberry signature alarm clock blared and I cringed at the thought of only having had 3 hours sleep, but said fuck it, that's what people do here apparently, and I have to see the temples. For most of my trip until then I had been avoiding temples. I saw a few, and rapidly realised that they're not for me. Not that I don't respect what they are or anything, but after seeing one, I felt like I saw enough. They're pretty, but I'm either too ignorant or something to care. Contrarily, I could spend 2 hours in supermarkets in different countries.

I went downstairs and haggled my way for a tuktuk driver for the morning to get to angkor wat for sunrise. Fucking slowest driver ever, and we got there hella close to the sun's popup when I realised I literally had no cash. Fucking $20 entrance fee, and no, they would not accept laos currency. He drove me back to town for an atm, and I got enough to plug forward. I paid, got driven to the temple, and walked, taking pictures every so often of the sunrise behind the massive structure. There were heaps of people there, and after a bit of walking around, I was already sick of the stone structure... It all looked the same and there were way too many tourists taking dumb pictures for my liking.

I got breakfast at some stand, and then realised I had no idea what the fuck my tuktuk driver looks like, nor anything more than him having a red helmet. Good thing I was easily recognisable in my nutty as harem pants, because before I knew it he was waving hello, ready to drive me to the next temple. I opted for a one day tour, and the small version, so it would only be 3. The next temple looked slightly different than the first. I was mostly concerned with my desperate need to use the bathroom, and impossible sweating from wearing pants and a tee shirt, thinking that there would be a dresscode. I spent minimal time and when I found him he was mid breakfast and asked me to wait a bit. Of course I complied, and chatted with two brazillian girls who made me feel better about my temply views by also feeling similarly bored.

The last temple was another temple. That is all.

At 1030 I was on my way back and sat in the lobby, back on the internets. Not before long, as I was finally ready to call it nap time, when two people came from behind and asked me if I wanted to go swimming. I replied with a no, telling them I desperately had to nap, but after minimal convincing was back upstairs in my dorm, grabbing a swimsuit for the day's trip. The british girl and aussie guy had also managed to latch onto a guy from el salvador whilst I changed, and then the 4 of us were off, telling the tuktuk driver that we just needed to find a beautiful 5star swimming pool to use for the day, for no more than $5.

After rejecting 4 places-- too small, too expensive, too ugly, too this-must-be-owned-by-the-tuktuk-driver's-cousin, we finally found, outside of town, the winner. We drank beers on beers on beers and swam around, absorbing the sun, for hours. I was reasonably tired but decided to push through and try to have as much fun as possible. The chick, hannah, was an awesome 23 year old partier who I'm painfully looking forward to trying to see again for new years. Aussie paul a kind of aggressive drunk stereotype, 31 and from sydney, and our spanish friend nico, a 27 year old, singular dread wearing fun loving being. It was a funny day, and at 6 we were back at our hostel, all ready to pass out. I ended up waking up again at 1030 pm, and to fight my dumb day drinking hangover went down to reception for a big bottle of water.

I ended up meeting up with nico downstairs and his argentinian friend gonzo, and we went out walking through pub street and the night market trying to find two of nico's friends. No success, but it was still fun. Almost every third person we passed offered to sell us marijuana. Weird, but we went home and then we were up for ages, chatting in reception. I came to the realisation that my spanish is painfully subpar, but still fun. Ended up staying up way too late, but all good. I woke up early in the heat of our bedroom, went to have a shower with a found towel, and then sat upstairs for a breakfast before deciding what to do for the day. The power went out in the hostel almost immediately after I got out of the shower, so my interest in spending anytime there disappeared and I went out for a wee wander to the old market. About 1 block outside of the hostel I decided it was entirely too hot for my liking and decided to stop for a second breakfast at a place that offered free wifi, and $1 omelettes with a baguette. Easy. After a bit I was ready to face the world again and found my way to the old market, which was absolutely nuts. Filled with people everywhere selling seafoods, fruits, veggies, everything, and stalls after stalls of random crap to buy. I ended up buying a dress and headband (planning to finally do laundry and need clothes for when I send all my filthy stinky crap away) and then some sort of scarf at I figured could pass as a blanket.

When I was done with the smells I ended up spending 4 hours in an internet cafe booking heaps of shit, and skyping a handful of people. It was a good, relaxing way to spend the day away, and when I went to pay my hilariously cheap fee, I was given back a $2 bill. I tried to explain to her how epic that was, and how it was the first on I had seen in years, but that conversation was lost in translation.

On my walk back I got the usual 'tuk tuk? ' Offerings and asked them to take me to sihanoukville. Obviously, the answer was a laugh.

When I got back to the hostel I went for dinner upstairs and caught up with some friends from the day before. I noticed that sweet potato fries were actually cheaper than regular french fries. Unheard of. Before I knew it I was off to catch the night bus to sihanoukville!