Against all odds...

I ACTUALLY roused myself at 4:45 in the morning and was on my way by 5! Proof:

The sun slowly making its approach over Angkor Wat - the largest religious building in the world (or so I'm told). Pretty phenomenal to see something so monolithic and iconographic rise out of the darkness.

I continued on to explore inside Angkor Thom - the ancient walled capital city of the Angkor empire - until around 1 when I decided it was nap time. Considering that Angkor Wat is probably the single greatest tourist attraction in all of Cambodia, the fact that I managed to find a temple in one of the corners of Angkor Thom at which I could pull up a piece of (millennium-old) crumbled wall and take a cat-nap undisturbed is pretty remarkable. Aaaaaand then I was of course obligated to go clambering all over it.


Despite my cat-nap, by about 2:15 I was toast and made my way back to the hostel for a real nap. A big-cat-nap... a tiger-nap?

Yesterday - my third and final day of exploring the temples - was a bit mellower and slower-paced. The slower pace was kind of... forced on me, however, when coming back to my bicycle after seeing a temple I discovered that the bicycle lock would NOT un-lock. After watching me wrestle with the lock for a good ten minutes, a "You want cold drink, mister?" vendor decided to lend a hand. After watching HER wrestle with the lock for a good ten minutes, a young "You buy a postcard, mister?" vendor lent his efforts. A crowd of ten of us wound up taking turns blistering our thumbs trying to turn the damn key until finally someone made the executive decision to procure a hack-saw. Problem solved.


Today was dominated by a six-hour bus trip to Phnom Penh... nothing too thrilling. That is, until I found the hostel I'll be spending at least a couple days in. On the East shore of Boeung Kak Lake, in the middle of Phnom Penh, are a serious of structures built right on the water. I don't mean "on the water" like "just cross the road, walk down the sand and there's the lake!", I mean built on stilts in the actual lake itself. Tucked away in the corner of this row are a few hostels. Suffice to say, I watched the sun set tonight over the lake from the patio right outside my room. If I sit up in the (large) bed and look out the window, I can see clear directly across the lake. Granted the room is quite spartan (bed, window... um... fan, door), for my own (hot water-free) bathroom and a lake view, $5 ain't bad. Pictures will be forthcoming. As will tale of my explorations of this city, particularly the by all accounts dreadful Tuol Sleng Prison leftover from the Khmer Rouge.

I hope all is well in other parts of the world!

Yes, places like this really do exist.