Kate & Duncan's Adventures in Asia: Siem Reap & Angkor Wat

Your memory of a place is how you experienced them rather than how they are described in guidebooks and travel blogs. Although Siem Reap is known as the gateway to Angkor Wat and other ancient temples, my biggest memories of this place are my worry over Duncan being really sick with dengue fever, running all over this hot city looking for gatorade, crackers, medicine, and medical advice for my sick travel companion, and movie channels.

We did manage to do a day of temple touring because despite being ridiculously sick (including body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, exhaustion, fever, a rash), Duncan did not want to miss the thing to see in SE Asia. But more on that later. However, with my travel partner literally down for the count, all the trip planning and endless amount of decisions that need to be made while traveling fell on me. I had to do everything - and alone, all while worrying (and researching) what illness Duncan had and whether he was going to be alright aka. not die during our trip. No wonder at the end of the day (and all day in Duncan's case), I took comfort in watching several American movies of a wide variety of quality, such as a made for TV movie about the Natalie Hollaway disappearance. (It's amazing how your TV standards drop while abroad)

On the afternoon of our second day in Siem Reap, we hired a tuk tuk (who was somehow related to the bus driver's assistant whose guesthouse we stayed at on our first night in Siem Reap, which I made the executive decision to leave the next day in order to stay at a hotel with AC and movie channels...for $13 per night) to drive us to Angkor Wat for sunset. Despite being somewhat under construction, the temple was still quite amazing and breathtaking. We also had the rare experience of being in the temple with hardly any other people. It was actually pretty eery being there alone and as night was setting in.

Duncan being a trooper and walking ridiculously slow while touring the temple:

A little scared while exploring the temples alone and at night:

Gratuitous self portraits:

The next day we hired an air conditioned car to transport us from temple to temple for the day, which gave Duncan some precious time to nap in between touring. Our day started with a 5am pick-up so that we could be at a temple..err man-made lake (which was one of the king's swimming pools) for sunrise. Despite having to get up ridiculously early and Duncan being sick, it was worth it. Aside from kids begging us to buy things (yes, at 5am!), it was such a peaceful way to start our day. As the sun rose up over the lake, we heard monks chanting as these temples are still used for religious purposes.

Sra Strang for sunrise:

Duncan talking his way out of a sale with a young boy:

After sunrise, we successfully beat the crowds of European and Japanese tourists to Banteay Srey temple, which was a little outside the area with most of the temples:

Then we traveled a little further (after a bit of heckling with our driver) to Kbal Spean, which is the site of numerous carvings in the riverbed and surrounding areas. We had to hike about 1.5 miles into the Cambodian rain forest to see it. I told you Duncan was a trooper.

Our luck re: avoiding/ beating tourists crowds ran out at Ta Prohm temple, but it was okay because this temple was AWESOME. Here, the jungle was literally taking over the temple with trees growing out of the buildings. This is also where Duncan's energy really started to fade so we started a system where he would sit down somewhere, I would scope out the things to see, and bring him back to them to avoid unnecessary walking on his part. Another side note about this temple - this was where Tomb Raider was filmed, which eventually led Angelina Jolie to adopt her first child from Cambodia.