Angkor What?

I traveled to Cambodia alone, expecting to spend my time trekking through jungley temples alone, relaxing by the hostel pool, and going to bed early. Instead, I made a dozen new friends and adventured with them together. This is what I love about hostels: solo travelers come together from all over the world and travel together for the few days they are staying there--you are a!ways surrounded by a dozen new friends. My first day in Cambodia, I visited the temples alone, which was still fun, but my second day I joined a Dutch girl named Marit and we explored together. This was advantageous for several reasons: not only was she a fascinating person (traveling for 8 months - amazing!) and good conversationalist, we also were able to take pictures for each other which far exceeded my selfies from the first day. Marit also introduced me to her other hostel friends, and we played pool that night with an Aussie named Nathan and a very, very French guy named Pierre. By the end of the night I only just had the French pronunciation down to his satisfaction. Amazingly, Nathan and I won 3 games in a row in spite of me handicapping Nathan, although I did manage to land 2 balls in the course of the night. I didn't realize my ineptitude for sports descended even to bar games, but there you have it. In spite of his losses, Pierre remained blazingly and comically confident, exclaiming in glee every time he hit the ball, even if he scratched.

Everyone had such an interesting story: Marie started out her journey in Nepal for 6 weels, learning to be a yoga instructor; Nathan just landed his dream job but was contemplating quitting to travel for a year (for my coworkers who are reading this, don't worry, I'm not planning to follow suit), and Pierre planned to move to Ho Chi Minh to start a tapas restaurant.  Nathan came from a place in Australia where travel is not at all common; when he sent pictures of the Angkor Wat ruins to his family, their only comment was "eh, it's a bit run down, isn't it?" , which I found hilarious given that they are 1,000 years old.

Anyway, Angkor Wat, the part that you actually want to hear about. Angkor Wat is a set of Hindu/Buddhist temple ruins in the jungle of Cambodia, built by ancient kings over 1,000 years ago. Different kings built different temples, so construction took hundreds of years. The temples lay in ruins until a few decades ago, when restoration projects began. There are still many collapsed areas of the temples, but there is still a fair amount intact that took my breath away. Both the scale and the detail is astounding: massive sandstone blocks set together to make beautiful and enormous temples, and around every corner lay intricate carvings of dancing women, Buddhas, vines, elephants. 

Below: giant heads everywhere, carvings, creeping tree

Below: temple ruins, Angkor  Wat sunrise, tourists trying to take picture of sunrise,

Below: temple sunset, I am the Tomb Raider, temple layout

Angkor War and Siem Reap were lovely, and I wish I had more time to explore them and Cambodia in general. Marit told me of a tranquil area in East Cambodia with beautiful jungles, elephant sanctuaries, and no WiFi; I'd like to stop in Pnomh Penh and visit the Killing Fields and S21, both related to the Cambodian genocide; visit the coastal islands and relax; and travel around by tuk-tuk again with a breeze on my face. These will have to wait until next time, but I will return, Cambodia.