A Relaxed New Beginning

Our ride out of Cambodia to Laos had some issues as expected...

But the border crossing was uneventful and we're excited to be in the land of Four Thousand Islands in the mighty Mekong River. This river is HUGE! We take a tiny local ferry to the island of Don Det and spend our days exploring by bike, taking in the waterfalls and rural life along the Mekong. 
These falls are so big, they're impossible to capture in a photo. They may not fall from the greatest height, especially when compared to the enormous width of the river, but the shear power of the water pushing through them is intense. 
Fishermen perch on the banks, holding A-frame nets into the current. 
You have to keep your roosters in good shape for their next fight!
This boy clears his rice paddies of water buffalo with a slingshot. 
Taxi!
My animal whisperer. Even when he doesn't try, animals he's allergic to jump into his lap seeking his mojo. 
We're ready to move on, get our bus tickets and hop on the ferry to the mainland. The bus finally arrives, we board and when our tickets are checked, they tell us we should be on a different bus that's coming soon. So we grab our bags and hop off and wait for our own bus which the staff assures us should be only ten minutes. Within two minutes of that bus leaving, the bus station is shut down and all staff leave... Ummm hello?? As we're pretty sure our bus doesn't really exist, I walk the street looking for help. I find people who take my ticket and make a few screaming phone calls. They finish with the screaming, look at me and say, "Tomorrow." Yup, that sounds about right for Laos. It's back on the ferry, back to Don Det for another night. It could certainly be worse. 


Temple Playground

With both of us getting sick over the past two weeks, we opt to stay at a house with a kitchen in Siem Reap and meet several couch surfers doing the same. Yes we know we need to get our tickets to see the temples, the line is really long, blah blah blah, all we can think about is: where's the market and what will we cook? Ryan makes a family meal with our host and other guests of spaghetti (we found GF pasta!) with veggie heavy sauce, garlic bread, more veggies and pork. We make peanut butter banana shakes for dessert. It's all SO GOOD, and great to know we won't be sick tonight.

Day One: We hit the ground running with sunrise at actual Angkor Wat, it's just us and all of our closest friends!
We're in a tuk tuk this morning since we focused on dinner and not getting a motorbike... Our driver balks at our idea to head east vs. north to the next biggest temple, but you saw all of our friends, they're all headed north as well. We end up by ourselves for the first few temples and this place is simply amazing. The reconstruction is done so well with such sensitivity and the whole grounds are pristine. Every temple has so much drama, even in it's ruined state, that is awe inspiring to imagine the walls sparkling with jewels and while hundreds, if not thousands, of Aspara dancers in their beautiful costumes walk around.
Ryan passes out for each and every ride between temples...
We need to talk about the powerful serpentine trees that rip through these temples. Just look at these things! Their roots are thick and muscular spreading through the stones wherever they please. 
Same tree and the roots are still going!!
Archaeologists were busy with reconstruction projects here in 1975. They were dismantling temples, cataloging the stones so that they could rebuild them with reinforcement, making them safe and sturdy for years to come. The Khmer Rouge had a mission to eradicate Western influence and return to "uncorrupted" rural life. All archaeologists were killed and the catalog system destroyed, leaving many of these temples in strewn puzzle pieces. Reconstruction efforts continue today and they do amazing work! It's good to see the hefty price of admission go to these efforts. 
Day Two, we have a motorbike and hit up the outer loop of temples. It's so peaceful. We've heard so many stories about merchants being aggressive but maybe since it's midweek we missed the big crowds. We couldn't have planned it better. 
I'm following the National Geographic Instagram story of #TheLastHoneyHunter in eastern Nepal, and it is absolutely mind blowing. I have never seen beehives formed like that but low and behold, here is a similar hive!! I'm so giddy about it! Let's all agree that bees are amazing. 
The temple on the other end of this walkway is designed as a lotus flower on a pond. Just a few years ago, this vast open area was all a lake. But now it's dried up and roamed by water buffalo. 
One of the interesting things about the whole of the temple area is that people live here. They farm, they work, they raise families, they build communities all around these ancient ruins. 
Day Three we saved for the complex of Angkor Thom. This was the walled moated royal city of the last Angkorian empire. With several temples inside of it, it's the only really walk-able area of the whole complex so we decide to have a roaming picnic. We park our bike and move our picnic setup all around the royal city to different shady spots. Let's be honest, with an architecture background, I'm much more interested in this than Ryan. He gets to relax and I get uninterrupted exploring time! Check out this entry gate to the city.
This reclining Buddha was stolen from another temple and put back together incorrectly on this temple making it extremely unstable. Don't worry, those educated archaeologists fixed it. 
The team of grounds workers hand cutting and sweeping the grass and the temples themselves. 
Another delightful detail of our time here is the butterflies. There are fields upon fields of tiny yellow butterflies all around.
We save the Bayon for last and as much as it's impressive, at the top we're surrounded a bus load of Chinese tourists and their aggressive umbrellas and selfie sticks. We are done here!

Side story to our stay in Siem Reap: Our host recently took in two struggling puppies and the female dog that adopted them. These poor things are covered in ticks and malnourished. One of the pups wanders out one day and doesn't return. After some tick treatment and good meals, the boy pup gains strength becomes a little rascal and earns the name Champ. Hopefully he and his momma are still going strong.

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