Angkor Wat or Angkor What?
Both seem to blur into one as the viewing of Angkor Wat (a massive Buddhist temple in Siem Reap) was severely impacted by Angkor What? (a local drinking establishment frequented by most backpackers in the area.)
We went for sunset armed with our favourite photo taking, model posing German, and captured the moment perfectly. The black and white camera settings and poses dictated by our own director made for a wonderful photo shoot that would only continue into the coming days/weeks. Obviously, when Hannah and I find something funny, we just can't drop it and so the joke continues and escalates horribly. Somehow our running jokes have actually been going since January and we're STILL not bored of them. How I can't wait to annoy a whole new batch of people with them when I get home...
Anyway, we're not the first to notice the hilarity of watching people crack out their poses at various touristic monuments. The best and most common ones to note are the peace sign at a perfect 45 degree angle to the head, the lean against the tree and the longing gaze whilst hugging a wall. These are all catalogue poses to perfection. Obviously, we hold them in such high regard that it is 100% necessary to imitate them at every moment possible. Hannah's even managed to wack out a lying down pose outside Angkor Wat which has to be the best one that we've managed. Pictures will have to be uploaded at a later date as I'm still a bit scared to put the USB in the computers here!
But back to the point - we have some beautifully posed pictures of sunset but when you go to Siem Reap you are also meant to go for sunrise. But, there is a horrible obstacle in the way to test your temple commitment...
Both seem to blur into one as the viewing of Angkor Wat (a massive Buddhist temple in Siem Reap) was severely impacted by Angkor What? (a local drinking establishment frequented by most backpackers in the area.)
VS
We went for sunset armed with our favourite photo taking, model posing German, and captured the moment perfectly. The black and white camera settings and poses dictated by our own director made for a wonderful photo shoot that would only continue into the coming days/weeks. Obviously, when Hannah and I find something funny, we just can't drop it and so the joke continues and escalates horribly. Somehow our running jokes have actually been going since January and we're STILL not bored of them. How I can't wait to annoy a whole new batch of people with them when I get home...
Anyway, we're not the first to notice the hilarity of watching people crack out their poses at various touristic monuments. The best and most common ones to note are the peace sign at a perfect 45 degree angle to the head, the lean against the tree and the longing gaze whilst hugging a wall. These are all catalogue poses to perfection. Obviously, we hold them in such high regard that it is 100% necessary to imitate them at every moment possible. Hannah's even managed to wack out a lying down pose outside Angkor Wat which has to be the best one that we've managed. Pictures will have to be uploaded at a later date as I'm still a bit scared to put the USB in the computers here!
But back to the point - we have some beautifully posed pictures of sunset but when you go to Siem Reap you are also meant to go for sunrise. But, there is a horrible obstacle in the way to test your temple commitment...
PUB STREET
If I could put a sound track on right now there would be one... da da daaaaa.
Our commitment to the temples was already faltering some what having traipsed around more than a few during our time in Asia and even lived at one. Unfortunately, as appealing as it sounded getting up at 4:30 am to go and look at another one from a different angle we failed miserably. We had even booked the tuktuk man and everything, but our alarms failed us as Temple Bar, Angkor What? and the German took hold (this is the same German that was responsible for obscene memory loss in Nha Trang, we should learn to ditch him but he keeps following us around).
We stumbled in from our podium dancing, cocktail drinking fun (just to win a tshirt that has actually come in very handy to help us cover up in India) about an hour before sunrise. Any sensible person would just stay awake but we decided to nap. A fatal move. I'm going to blame Apple for this one... the volume of the alarm on an Ipod Touch just doesn't cut it when you need waking from such a peaceful slumber. Normally we're pretty dedicated and can get up anyway. How wrong we were this time.
I woke up at 6:30 to Hannah sat bolt up right in bed trying to 'find the exercise belt'. Having watched her empty the entire contents of her bag and pull out a leather belt I finally twigged... it was another sleep talking episode AND we had missed the sunrise AND Mr Tuk Tuk was probably waiting for us outside. Oh Dear.
Eventually we roused ourselves to head temple bound. As far as they go, Angkor Wat is very impressive. Its huge, and full of some very exciting steps that may even rival those on the Inca Trail. In Toby (the Germans) absence we resumed our catalogue posing around the other 4 or 5 temples that followed that day.
We went to the one that Tomb Raider was filmed in which was pretty cool although I was quite disappointed by Lara Crofts absence. Then off to another couple of smaller ones that Mr Tuk Tuk told us were quite boring ... he knows us so well!
So our temple work was over by lunchtime, thankfully as it gets VERY hot post 1 o'clock which is the perfect time for a quick nap in preparation for the night ahead.
And before you judge, the night ahead was not only to do with drinking. We also went and watched a cello performance. Beatocello. Can you believe it? Two classical performances in once travelling trip? Wow. I didn't think that would happen. Mr. Beatocello was very good at playing the cello, but the main reason for the performance was to raise awareness, to donate money (if you're old) and blood (if you're young) to the children's hospitals that he has set up and was running throughout Cambodia. They are 90% funded by public donation and are very impressive, check out the link below for more info.
After some cello magic it was time to return to the one and only
PUB STREET
Which once again was messy. We HAD to get hold of an Angkor What? t-shirt to match up with our Temple Bar tshirt. This meant ordering another couple of cocktails and dancing on some more podiums which clearly we had to oblige.Oh god I've done it again, it sounds like all we do is drink. There is culture involved on this trip I promise!
So, the next morning we were off to purchase our pressies for Sunrise Orphanage... I'll hit you up with another link.
Its a really nice project across Cambodia. So armed with hoola hoops, bouncy balls, skipping ropes and some other weird toy things that everyone plays with in Cambodia and I don't really know how to describe we were off to pay them a visit.
Being hollared at by Tuk Tuk men is an everyday part of walking around in any country in south-east Asia and I have to say that by Cambodia, our last country in the area we were getting a bit sick of it. Our usual tactic of dealing with them as they follow alongside you as you walk is to ask if they'll take us for free. It normally works as they laugh and drive off, but this time it worked on a whole new level. We asked to go for free, he laughed and then asked where we were going. When we replied, to the orphanage, we actually managed to get a free ride there; 'you help my country, I'll help you'. What a nice Tuk Tuk man.
Unfortunately, we turned up at the gates to find that they are actually shut on Saturdays. How orphanages can be shut I don't really understand, but we left the toys with the security man and received a lovely thank you email from the staff there a couple of days later. As much as we really wanted the chance to play with the kids, it was great to feel like we were doing something to help them.
After this the Cambodian hospitality reached new heights as Mr Tuk Tuk II took us for beers with his friends at a local hang out. Several rounds later and a lot more food eaten we were well acquainted with our little crew. We had played 'The Game' with them which basically involves going to various posh sales outlets and pretending to be interested in their handicrafts. In return for taking you there Mr Tuk Tuk II gets commission and usually some free petrol vouchers. We're pretty well practiced at pretending to be interested in such goods in order to knock down the price of a tuk tuk ride here and there, but this time we got the benefits too as Mr Tuk Tuk II shared his bevvy and meal tokens with us for a slap up portion of lok lak and some quality entertainment. How we love random outings with the locals.
We got back bevvied up just in time to hit up
PUB STREET
again!
This time we got to have a little rave with some Cambodian kiddies in the street who were mega cute and VERY happy with the lolly pops and chips that we got them. Maybe not quite as pleased as we were with our 2nd Angkor What? tshirt and 3rd Temple bar tshirt that also got given to some random kids.
More horrendousness followed including reunions with good old Russel Crowe that we met in Byron. We do love a good random reunion, and a hung over mini bus journey, and so the crew for the final leg of South East Asia in Bangkok began its formation, more deets to follow.
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