Riding though the Victory Gate of Angkor Thom

Well, I’m back in Siem Reap. This time around has been a bit slower than usual as both Miriam and I have been trading off being sick in one way or another. I’ve finally leveled out, but she’s caught the cold that I had. It is ‘cold season’ here (noting both the slight drop in temperature and the fact that everyone has a cold).

An aspara in Preah Khan temple

After much prodding, we finally spent three days exploring the temples. After years of visiting Angkor, the immensity, diversity, and sheer number of temples never cease to amaze me. Along with ones I’ve seen loads of times, we went to a few I’d never been to. Our first two days were reserved for the main large temples, with a miscalculation that had us at the farthest temple 10 minutes after they closed, and a very uncooperative security guard that wasn’t interested in being bribed into showing us around. The following day, Miriam, insisting that we see ‘more than 2 or 3 temples’ got a taste of temple overload as we proceeded to stop at every temple.

Other than temple tours and showing Miriam around town (including copious amounts of food), I’ve been working on a number of small AsiaLife articles with Jed. Mostly restaurant reviews, which I don’t mind as it gives us a good excuse to try new places and revisit old favorites, we did get a chance to go out and spend time with our friend Gavin and the working elephants he watches over at the temples.

An elephant at the temples

I’ve never been so close to so many gigantic animals, all with eyes following you around. More than any other animal, you can tell there’s something going on inside that enormous head of theirs. They followed the mahout’s orders with only a gentle touch or a verbal instruction.Ummm….yeah, this is mostly for Lars. Not sure what kind, but it’s body was over an inch long.

In a few days we’ll be heading out of Siem Reap and on the places near and far within Cambodia. First stop is Battambang, a place I haven’t been since 2003 when it was a nearly pure Khmer city (although being the 2nd largest city in Cambodia). From what I’ve heard, it hasn’t changed much, and I’m excited to show Miriam a place without so many tourists. Then it’s on to Phnom Penh for a few days and down to the coast for a few more. We should be back here for a BBQ’d turkey at a close friend’s guesthouse. I’ve never had BBQ’d turkey, but it sounds pretty good, and can’t be worse than last year’s disaster a well known uber-posh restaurant (that I’ll refrain from mentioning).

Costumed girls waiting for tourist to pay to have photos taken with them, Angkor Wat.

Dr. Fish…sorry, what? Yes, Dr. Fish. Would you like to stick your feet in a large tub with thousands of hungry little fish? I didn’t. However this I couldn’t pass up. A new addition to the Night Market here in Siem Reap, I, along with Jed and Mike (the girls both passed) ‘jumped’ in. 30 minutes of sometimes hysterical laughing later, I felt like I was wearing slippers (the feeling lasted about a week). Dead skin gone, and feeling a little strange for the whole experience, I’m looking forward to my next visit. Miriam has promised to try this time. Everyone keeps saying these little Turkish imports are huge business in all the chic spas in NYC. However chic, I’m definitely not ready to for the whole body nibble.