Today's Tuesday Taiwan-ism is coming at you from a little different angle because I just finished something and I'm so darn excited to share it with you I just couldn't wait! As you know, I just got back from an amazing whirlwind adventure in Thailand & Cambodia. And of course, if you know me at all, I took about a gazillion and 2 pictures with my beloved Nikon D40 while I was gone and with the help of my new action camera, I got some pretty great video footage while I was traveling as well!
Well, long story short, you can have the most amazing pictures and videos in the world, but if you don't do anything with them then they are useless. So, I put on my thinking cap and went to work creating my first ever travel movie {ok let's be honest, my first movie of any kind!} and I am so stinkin' excited with how it turned out!
So without further ado, I present to you...my Thailand Travels!
Today was by far are earliest of days during vacation, but holy moly was it worth it! We found a tuk-tuk driver Monday night that agreed to pick us up at our hotel at 5:00 {yes you read that right...my 4:30am alarm was not a welcome sound!} We agreed to $7 a person for Tina and I to your us around some of the fourth out temples, off the main circuit, starting with sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We arrived to Angkor Wat a little after 5:30 in the morning and were honestly surprised at the number of other crazies that were out there with us chasing the sunrise (it may not have helped that the previous 2 mornings apparently had poopy/cloudy sunrises so some people came back in hope of a good show!) I'll be honest, there aren't really words to describe what we saw. Sunrises are always an amazing spectacle to watch, but when you have the opportunity to watch the sun rising over a 1,000+ year old structure and you begin thinking about how many sunrises this place has seen and that more than likely the men who built this temple 1,000 years ago sat in the same spot watching the same sunrise...you can't help but getting goosebumps while realizing how amazing our world truly is that we live! It reminded me so much of my time 5 years earlier watching the same sun come up behind the pyramids in Egypt...sometimes life is surreal!
After the sunrise we spent a little time exploring Angkor Wat a second time and then made stops to some further out & less touristy temples (off the main route the drivers take) including Preah Khan, Neat Pean, Prerup, and Ta Prohm. These temples, although not as well kept as the "main ones" were fascinating in their own rights and allowed us to truly explore the temple and imagine what it may have once looked like in its former glory.
We had every intention of having our driver with us until noon, but around 10am we started to feel the pull of our eye lids and we had him drop us off around 11 with just enough time to nap, pack up the rest of our belongings, and check out of our hostel.
Our afternoon was filled with lunch (umm hello spicy papaya salad where have you been my whole life?!) walking through the local markets, stocking up on last minute souvenirs (including a painting that I cannot wait to hang up!) sight seeing within the main town (including some stops at much newer and active temples) and finally grabbing a late night dinner and grabbing a tuktuk to the airport. A relaxing afternoon was well deserved!
So I could stop there, but what's the fun in leaving out a little action in our day. I said we grabbed a tuktuk to the airport, but nothing runs that smoothly when your traveling!! We got to our hostel and planned on walking our luggage down the dirt road until we ran into a tuktuk that would take us for a reasonable price. We get into eye sight of the hostel though and I see a guest leaving the hostel and loading his belongings into an already almost fill tuktuk...he had to be going to the airport, I just knew it! So of course being the shy quite person I am {hehe} hollered the guy and asked where he was going...BINGO...the airport! I asked if he cared if he had company and of course because of my charming personality {or because he thought I was crazy!} he said yes!
To say the 3 of us AND all our luggage was a tight squeeze in the tuktuk is an understatement; I'm not sure I could see poor Tina's eyes for the first 10 minutes of the drive! We were piled in though and out of town, maybe 15 or 20 minutes into our 25 minute drive, when all of a sudden we hear this horrible sound, followed by our tuktuck making a sharp turn, we feel some big bumps, and then we crash. Umm...what just happened?? Turns out we may have been a tad over capacity for the speed we were going and the poor guy we shared the ride with, his bag fell off the front of the tuktuk with no one noticing, the tuktuk then proceeded to "run over" the bag the best it could, although that just resulted in the bag getting stuck in the tuktuk's wheels. Needless to say that was enough to put our cart off balance and threw the whole thing into a nearby light post on the side of the highway....luckily we were all fine, the bag had some new wear and tear and the tuktuk a crack on the front, but we were fine! Obviously though, getting to the airport a couple minutes later was a welcome relief as we checked in and boarded our plane, headed for Bangkok!
Monday was Tina's birthday and we decided we were bound and determined that we were going to make it one to remember {as if being in Cambodia for your birthday isn't amazing enough! lol}
Sadly breakfast for her birthday wasn't really an option as we were up and out the door, waiting on our ride from Flight of the Gibbon at 7:00am. We piled into a van along with several other groggy eyed tourists and headed for...well we weren't exactly sure where yet. We arrived to "I don't know where" (ok base camp!) maybe 40 minutes later and spilled out of the van. We were quickly given wavers to sign {you know, we wouldn't sue them if we lost an arm, both eyes, and my favorite pinkie toe type of thing} harnessed up, given our hard hat helmets and sent to our first briefing...ready or not, ZIP LINING HERE WE COME! We had 10 or 15 minutes of quick directions, don't do anything stupid type of deal, loaded back in the van, and we were ready to go!!
To say that the next 2 hours hours were exhilarating would be a lie; they were beyond exhilarating! Throughout the course of the next 2 hours we zipped {not sure what verb would be appropriate here lol} over 10 separate zip lines; with the longest totaling 310 meters (340ish yards), walked across 3 suspension bridges, 21 different platforms (most way above the tree tops!) and rappelled down the last one to finally meet the ground again...talk about amazing! To make matters even better, our 2 guides were amazing, corny jokes & all! ;)
As zip lining grudgingly came to an end we were informed that our ticket for the day also included lunch at a local restaurant....umm can you say score?!?! We sat down and enjoyed lunch with our new group of Australian friends before climbing back in the car to the hotel {ok I can't lie here...we all passed out hardcore in the van, we were exhausted!}. We got back to the hotel a little after 1 and we all agreed as the birthday girl declared it nap time!!
Rebecca and Tory apparently required a little more R&R than Tina and I, so when the 2 of us were ready we snuck out to treat ourselves to some birthday mani/pedis and fruit smoothies. When the bears woke up...oh I mean Rebecca & Tory! :P...we met up in town and Tina and I had booked dinner for the 4 of us at a local restaurant serving traditional Cambodia food {delicious!} as well as offering traditional Cambodian dance performances while you ate...umm amazing! Needless to say dinner was delicious & the dances were beyond mesmerizing to watch!
After dinner we walked around the markets for a while, indulged in yet another foot massage (who can seriously say no to 30 minute foot massages on the side of the street) and slowly {but oh so happily} made our way back to our hostel.
Cambodia...you truly are amazing!
Didn't have a chance to read about our previous day in Cambodia? Check it out here!
Ahh, traveling is amazing! Learning about new cultures, meeting new people, trying new foods, and making the most amazing memories; nothing can ever top it!
Tina and I got to Cambodia late Saturday evening (January 30th) and while Tina crashed early for the night I went out and explored the large night market about half a mile from our hostel. Ok, to be honest about everything was half a mile from our hostel as we were literally on a dirt road...I loved it! Coming back late from the market, I met up with Tory and Rebecca who had arrived in Cambodia earlier that morning...the 4 of us were finally together and we were ready to party...or at this point in the night go to sleep lol. {side note: we scored with this hostel as it was for 4 "random" people and we booked all 4 beds for $4.70 a night and had the room to ourselves!}
Sunday morning was our first day together. We let ourselves sleep in a little bit, and then it was temple time!! We left our hostel in search of breakfast, and stumbled upon a place with the most amazing coconut curry, a popular Cambodian food, and a "Dr. Fish" pond. As we waited for our food to come we sat by the pond where I was able to stick my feet in the water and have the fishes nibble the dead skin off my feet...talk about ticklish!!
After breakfast we found a tuk-tuk driver willing to take us for the day and we headed out for Angkor Wat {a natural first choice!}. Angkor Wat was AMAZING!!! It reminded me so much of the feeling of seeing the pyramids in Egypt for the first time; it's so surreal you get goosebumps. If you would have told me 6 months ago I'd be with 3 people I didn't know at the time standing in Cambodia staring at Angkor Wat I would have told you that you were crazy...but there I was, and it was beyond incredible! We saw ancient temples and cities over 900 years old still standing (or restored) to much of its former glory...it was truly spectacular!
We walked around with our jaws dragging on the ground for a good 2 hours before finding our tul-tuk driver and heading to the next temple. Our driver proceeded to drive us around the "temple circuit" (a cluster of temples remotely close to each other {fun fact: there are over 300 temples in the town of Siem Reap alone!!}) for the remainder of the day stopping for us to explore Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Kdei. The last of these, Banteay Kdei, was very much unlike the first 5 we stopped at for several reasons, first, it did not appear that much, if any, money had been put into its restoration over the years, and secondly, there were hardly any tourists there. This temple in particular was amazing to explore. It had this calm sense about it and being able to walk through the old door ways and the rubble piles really let your imagination run wild as to what this place might have truly looked like almost 1,000 years ago!
Leaving the temples we were beyond exhausted and head out driver drop us off at a restaurant for dinner on the way to our hostel. After dinner we checked out the market for a bit, relaxed with some nice cheap foot massages on the side of the road and headed back to the hostel for an early{ish} night in!
