angkor WHAT?

Hello from Siem Reap, Cambodia!

I know things have been a little sparse on here in the last week, but its not for lack of things to say, just lack of time to actually say it! It has really been an amazing week, starting where I last left off in Nha Trang...

We went to meet the photographer, Long, at the Sailing Club, a beautiful restaurant and bar/nightclub on the beach. Since we were planning on going there anyways, it worked out really well, if only it wasn't raining buckets! We had a great time anyways and he treated us to drinks all night, as well as went crazy with my camera and took some great pictures.

The next morning we left to fly to Hoi An, a little further up the Vietnam coast. It is a great little town, that has been overrun lately with tailor shops literally every other store. Besides a crazy experience getting from the airport and staying in a horrible hotel our first night, we had a great time, and got some clothes made ( I had 2 dresses made and Chloe had some pants and a shirt made). The turnaround time was amazing (less than 24 hours) and the quality was pretty decent. It is a cute little town on a river and close to the beach(which we didn't go to), but the river combined with the old town charm and cracking paint on the buildings makes for some gorgeous photography which was an added bonus! They have some really delicious local dishes there- a noodle dish called Cao Lao, shrimp dumplings called White Roses, and fresh fish barbequed in a banana leaf. YUMMM.....

We stayed in Hoi An for 3 nights, and although we decided we could have left a day early, we really enjoyed it. Hanoi was next on our itinerary, and from the moment we landed we couldn't wait to leave. The city was a little more crazy because of the APEC(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) convention starting the day we arrived, but we felt like we were being taken advantage of literally at every turn- ripped off for our hotel, for bottled water, attempts to charge us double to see a show at the Hanoi Opera house, just to name a few. On top of that the people are very pushy and a bit grumpy- we just got bad vibes and couldn't wait to get out! We did manage to go to the show at the opera house, the Hanoi Symphony with a Japanese conductor and famous Japanese Soprano singing a poem. It was a really interesting experience, starting with us arriving there and asking for the "cheap tickets"which were about $4. They told us there were none left and after a few minutes of pushing and threatening to leave, we were presented with tickets- miraculous! (We had an entire row to ourselves by the way)The highlight besides the cool experience was definitely the bat that decided to wake up and circle around this beautiful opera house for about 30 minutes during the performance!

We literally booked the first flight we could get out on Sunday afternoon to Siem Reap. It took some prodding because there is a huge monopoly by Vietnam Airlines in the whole country. THe travel agents will do everything they can to book you on those flights. We knew that there was a cambodian airline that flew direct, but she kept telling us there were no seats until Tuesday. All of a sudden, as we were about to pay for our (more expensive) flights, seats magically appeared on the cheaper cambodian airline. (Once again, we had whole rows to ourselves- there was no way the plane was full when she checked). We were just so happy to get out of Hanoi, the last straw was being charged more for the airport shuttle because we were foreigners! the nerve!!!

We happily arrived in Siem Reap yesterday, found a guest house ($8 a night!!) had a delicious dinner for $5 including wine at a restaurant that Mick Jagger recently ate at. We had grand plans to wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat today, but didn't sleep to well due to noisy neighbors and decided to go around 8 instead. We hired a tuk tuk- a motorcycle with a carriage on the back that seats 2, for $10 for the day, and arranged with the driver to drive us all over to the different temples and wait for us. It was an amazing experience to not only use this mode of transportation, but to actually be at Ankor Wat and see what the hype was all about (all true!)

We took a short break in the afternoon to go meet my uncle's former coworker at his hotel, the sofitel, which is 10 stars compared to our one star accomodations! Rooms were too expensive, but he treated us to fresh juices and lunch by the pool, and invited us for dinner tonight. Which is where i'm off to now! Photos later- and Thailand tomorrow! YAY!