The pillow at this hotel was as high as Mount Kilimanjaro, so I spent half the night sleeping half-sitting up and the other half without a pillow, with my head almost upside down. In the morning, I asked for a new pillow at the reception, thank you! They promised to look for one, thank you!
In the evening, we had arranged with a tuk-tuk driver to take us to see the temples of Angkor Wat today. Scott initially thought maybe one of them could drop us off and someone else would pick us up later, but when he found out it's like 5-10km from one temple to another, he abandoned that plan.
Sokthea was already waiting in front of the hotel half an hour before the agreed time, with a cooler full of cold water ready. Very smart of him, because otherwise we would probably have gotten heatstroke in this 38-degree weather.
We started with the most famous temple, Angkor itself. It's the largest, best-preserved, and also the most boring. Then we went to Bayon, known for its large carved faces in stone, which I thought was pretty cool. In the same city, there's also the Elephant Terrace (though the elephants were mostly worn down by time, and there wasn't much left except a couple of trunks) and the leper temple (more like a leper labyrinth, with hundreds of figures on the walls).
Since our temple visits took about an hour each, Sokthea set up a hammock under the roof of his tuk-tuk and slept peacefully in between.
After Bayon, we took a lunch break. As soon as we got out of the tuk-tuk, some local lady grabbed us and dragged us into her bistro. Since I don't like that approach, and besides, a plate of fries there cost 7 euros, I stood up and marched away. Luckily, Scott came along. In the next eatery, there was a very charming girl who announced that everything on the menu was 4 dollars, so we got a big portion of chicken fried rice, a huge plate of fruit, and a big plate of fries for 12 dollars. There was still some left because our stomachs were full long before the plates were empty.
Last but not least, we visited Ta Prohm, which was made famous by Angelina Jolie in her Tomb Raider movie. Those ruins and the trees growing on, above, and below them are just super cool.
And the monkeys are still around, raising their young and hoping to get bananas from tourists.
After lunch, we were back at the hotel. I asked about my baby pillow at the reception, thank you! And I got the answer that they're still looking for a suitable pillow, a colleague just ran to the next hotel, where hopefully there's a suitable pillow for a tourist, thank you! We breathed in some nice air-conditioned air for a moment and then walked to Dairy Queen, where blizzards are my absolute favorites. Dairy Queen is a chain of ice cream stands in the USA where you can get soft ice creams with various toppings and in various shapes. Some are served on cones, some joints have grills and hot dogs, and in our favorite blizzards, they mix ice cream with lots of chocolate pieces, fruits, cookie dough, brownies, caramel, pecans, etc. Really good :) Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Dairy Queen is a US chain, and during my first longer trip to the US, I was totally convinced that I would never stoop so low as to buy ice cream from a chain. I mean, I have a developed palate that favors Italian gelato and other artisanal ice creams. But then I gave the Dairy Queen a chance and it turned out there was no turning back. Their blizzards are addictive.
It was all the more joy to discover that there's a Dairy Queen in Siem Reap (there's not even a McDonald's here!). We had ice cream, went to the craft market, and walked to the night market to have dinner. Scott still planned to take pictures of grilled scorpions. And then suddenly the daytime heat hit me, and I felt like no more pleasant strolling and snacking from different stalls, a cool hotel room and bed were waiting for me. So we bought a pizza to take away, which was made right there opposite yesterday's fried Taiwanese chicken and was also topped with those same fried chicken pieces.
When we got back to the hotel, the reception guy was already waiting and presented me with a suitable pillow they had obtained from the other hotel in the meantime, thank you!
Kommentaare ei ole:
Postita kommentaar