Day Seven & Eight: Angkor Wat and a Quiet Day Around Town

Whew…one week sure flew by! Thankfully I think I’ve gotten over most of my jetlag…just in time to have some fun exploring Siem Riep. :-)

Saturday was spent hanging out with one of the residents, as well as Dr. C, the ICU chief attending. I got a whirlwind tour of the temples of Angkor, starting with four smaller ones in the morning and ending with a two-hour exploration of Angkor Wat. I have a lot of pictures, but I’ll start by showing a few.

We start at the ruins of Banteay Samre:



Here's a bird's eye view of Pre Rup--a temple that many believe was built for funerals:



Moving on to Ta Prohm--the temple where some of "Tomb Raider" was shot. (Sorry for all the people in the picture...it was a busy day!)



And finally, a picture of me at Angkor Wat. (Yes, I know the hat I have on is way too big...)



For lunch, we stopped at a place wayyyy out in the forest. We had traditional Khmer food, which, to me, is coming to mean having a large plate of roasted chicken placed in front of you that you then proceed to rip up barbarically with your hands. Here’s our chicken (with the head intact).



And here's a picture of the lunch crew:



One of the things I love about Cambodia is that some of the most absolutely random things can end up serving as tourist attractions. This picture, for example, is of a very tall ‘Tree in a House.” It is located quite some way off the beaten track, somewhere in the forests surrounding Angkor Wat. All I know is that riding on huge stretches of unpaved, bumpy road lined with tree branches and brambles on the back of a motorbike is a terrifying experience! In any case, here’s a pic:



Sunday turned out to be a nice day of peaceful reflection and solitude. I walked down to the Royal Gardens and took my time wandering around the various paths. After a helter-skelter week of trying to learn my way around the wards and practicing Khmer, it was nice to pull away and spend some time alone with my own thoughts.

Sometime late in the morning, I ran into E, a pharmacist from the UK who is also working at AHC. We had a pleasant brunch in town, and it was then that I learned that she was actually staying in a guesthouse with other volunteers including an Australian doctor and an English teacher. So if all goes well, it looks like I might have a regular group of friends over here besides the resident doctors who keep on inviting me out. Fingers crossed…