Luckily after arriving in Siem Reap we went straight to our hotel. The hotel was GORGEOUS and had a ginormous swimming pool which I had the time to jump into before showering and heading to dinner. The one problem was that the hotel only gave out ONE room key for each room. My roommate, Amanda (assigned alphabetically by last name) who was from Oklahoma and went to Vanderbilt, let me be in charge of the key. With the power of the key I was free to come and go as I pleased.
That night for dinner we went to a Cambodian cultural show. I have a very new and big appreciation for buffets. There was a huge buffet for dinner and having the ability to choose what you want to eat was a new privilege. The food was great, the show was eh. It was not as exciting as the two shows we saw in China though the costumes were gorgeous and the show got points in my book for letting us go on stage after and take pictures with the performers. Dad and I have a great shot, center stage, and actually tall in comparison to the two Cambodians we were posing with.
After dinner and heading back to the hotel three of us decided to go to pub street. We took Tuk Tuks there for a grand total of one dollar. A tuk tuk is basically a roofed cart on wheels that is pulled by a motorcycle. It was really fun riding in them in the open air. We were planning on going directly to the bars but something on the sidewalk grabbed our attention: FISH MASSAGE. There was a huge tank that had a sitting ledge around the exterior of the tank for people to sit on. The idea of the fish massage was to put your feet into the tank where hundreds of fish would swarm to them and starting eating away the dead skin. Four things about the fish massage. 1. It cost $3 for a total of 20 minutes. 2. The second the fish touched my feet I yelled and had to take them out. I am very ticklish and the feeling was so strange- think thousands of little things sucking at your feet. I finally got enough courage to stick them back in and man up for the remaining time. 3. My feet must have been disgusting because the second my feet went in 90% of the fish in the tank swarmed to my feet. If that’s not a sign that I need to take better care of my feet I don’t know what is. 4. This is probably the coolest thing that has happened on SAS thus far. As we were sitting along the edge of the tank there was a group of three boys sitting on the other side whose feet were submerged in the water as well. We began talking and it turned out that the boys were from the US and Canada and studying abroad in Singapore. They were in Cambodia for spring break. All of a sudden one of the boys said he went to Michigan. I met a fellow Michigan wolverine who was in my grade while getting a FISH MASSAGE IN CAMBODIA! I thought that was pretty awesome and amazing and made him take a picture with me. It’s a VERY small world. All in all the fish massage was one of the coolest things I’ve done on the voyage and was a great experience. Plus, my feet are super soft and clean now!
Pub Street consisted of many outdoor bars with tables near the street. The first bar we went to was called Angkor What? and it had a really chill setting. Everything on the wall was graffitied in a sense and visitors were allowed to sign the wall. I got a pretty sick shirt. After this bar we made it to another bar called Temple. Drinks are VERY cheap here- I got a draft beer for 75 cents. This bar had music and the inside had a small dance floor. More SASers came to join us and we ended up dancing for a couple hours before deciding to take Tuk Tuks back to the resort- after all we were waking up at 4:30 AM to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. A note about the Tuk Tuk drivers- the second you leave a bar and walk on the street you are bombarded with tuk tuk drivers asking if you need a ride. It’s almost hard to pick who you want to take you back on your dollar tuk tuk ride.
The Angkor Wat sunrise was optional. When are bus was asked the previous night to raise our hands if we planned on going to the sunrise all but two people raised their hands. If you guessed that my parents were the two people who opted not to go watch the sunrise you were right. Apparently getting up at 4:30 in the morning is something worth doing if your around the age of 21. We woke up very early and headed to the Angkor Wat park where we had to each take a picture and obtain a park entry pass that allowed us admittance for the rest of the day. It was pretty dark when we got to the sight and had to carefully climb through the ruins to the place where we would see the sunrise. We were seated on the outside of a small lily pond that was in the front of Angkor Wat. The sunrise was cool but overrated. By time the sun actually came out it was already light. I did get some good pictures though. Regardless I can now proudly say that I saw the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Sick.
We returned to the hotel for breakfast and then back to the park to explore some temples. The temple ruins were really cool and we made friends with a small Cambodian boy who my mom dubbed Mogli. The way all of the towers were constructed with blocks that formed faces was incredible. One of the security guards even took us to a place where if you stood and hit your hand against your heart the entire tower echoed. The echo was only produced if you hit your heart and couldn’t be made if you clapped your hands or yelled. After exploring these ruins we went to the actual Angkor Wat to see it in the daytime.
Outside of Angkor Wat were lots of monkeys that like the squirrels at Michigan were not afraid of people. We saw mothers with their babies attached to them and other monkeys reaching out for our water bottles or peeling apart bananas. The reason I mention the monkeys is because we were so enthralled with the monkeys we failed to initially be captivated by Angkor Wat. When we finally got over our monkey stupor we made our way to Angkor Wat and climbed it and explored it. In each of these temples or sacred sites you have the option of laying down lit incense in front of a Buddha statue. Today in class I watched a movie about child labor in India and learned that a lot of children are responsible for making incense- I unknowingly supported child labor. Great. Moving along from my innocent, naïve, or plain stupid mistake, Angkor Wat was very cool. We headed back to the hotel for a buffet lunch and to check out quickly before going to a final temple and ruin site.
The final ruin site we visited reminded me of the set of LOST with the giant four toed statue. There were colossal statues all over the temple ruin and they all had carved faces made out of stone. I took a really cool picture in which I sat on a statue that was the first of a long line of them… little did I know that this was a no no and I was soon yelled at by the security. We saw a giant Buddha, the biggest one I have seen so far on SAS and made our way to the elephant sanctuary. There were not any elephants at the elephant sanctuary but rather elephants carved in the walls. I think the elephants go to the sanctuaries around 4 PM when it gets a little cooler out. We visited a market that was around the temple and got a much needed second ice cream of the day. Then we headed to the airport to our flight back to Viet Nam.
It’s very hard for me to say which country has been my favorite so far because they have all been so different especially in terms of how I traveled them. In Japan we did it independently. In China I went on a SAS trip. In Viet Nam and Cambodia my parents were with me the whole time. Every place is so different and has been a lot of fun. One thing is for sure, I have learned a lot about myself and different people in the world.
We were told to reflect about the voyage (we are almost half way done) today in one of my classes and evaluate ourselves for change in any aspect of our lives. After visiting all these places and seeing how the people live I have realized that I need to give back in some way. Now that my eyes are open and I have seen for myself the disparity of living all over the world (I understand that I could have easily arrived at the same conclusion in the United States without ever leaving the country), I would feel guilty if I did not make my own contribution.
I have always wanted to be a lawyer and still do- the plan is to take the LSAT this fall, apply to law school, and attend law school for the Fall ’11 semester. Now however, I am contemplating taking time off before law school and doing something like Teach for America or participating in another NGO. I’m not making any bold statements about my future yet- I’m definitely still taking the LSAT and applying to law school, but I may be applying to other programs as well… I am always going to be able to apply to law school but I’m not always going to be in the position to take two years off and teach or volunteer somewhere. Time will tell and hopefully by the end of this voyage I’ll have a better understanding of myself and what I want to do after senior year. Sea Olympics are tomorrow and opening ceremonies are in 30 minutes. So far the Strait of Malacca has been calm and there aren’t any noticeable signs of pirate activity (we have watchmen with binoculars on duty 24/7). More importantly India is just around the corner!
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