Even though I have a 6 month visa for Thailand, I am still required to leave every 2 months, at least briefly. My friend Peter said he'd always wanted to go to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument/series of monuments and temples in the world. We made arrangements and I decided to fly and not wait for him.
He couldn't leave until Friday and I wanted to come earlier so I took the 1 hour flight and arrived this afternoon. We decided to stay somewhere kind of cushy so there was a driver at the airport waiting for me which, frankly, is a real luxury for me and totally worth it.
The drive was only 20 minutes and that was partially because people drive quite slowly here.. The first thing I felt when I got here was calm. It feels like a generally calm, mellow place unlike Bangkok which is all very Big-City-Rush-Rush-Traffic-Congestion-Crowded and not mellow at all.
I got to my hotel, totally starving, and ordered room service which normally I never do but we had gotten a good deal on the room price and I didn't want to deal with trying to interact with people while I was experiencing low blood sugar hostility issues. I tend to get pretty snarly when I haven't eaten in too long so... room service it was. The satay and fried rice were excellent and after wandering out into the "real world" long enough to find ibuprofen for my crazy headache, I passed out. And slept. And slept.. and sadly slept some more waking up around 9:30pm disoriented but appreciative of the absolute best sleep I've had in at least 4 months.
Of course, this messed with my schedule as I had planned to go out to dinner or to a bar or something but I realized I didn't want to eat right away and by the time I was hungry it would be late and I'd have search so I decided to walk to find a grocery store. The streets were mostly devoid of pedestrians, though there were tons of tuk-tuks and motos, so it felt a little weird being a woman walking alone at night. I reminded myself that I used to walk with no fear pretty much everywhere, making sure to carry nothing of value and never looking like I had anything to take anyway (because I didn't) and I relaxed.
I did find a store called "Welcome to Asia" open all night and filled with food and alcohol and everything I could possibly want including these.
Hmmmmm
He couldn't leave until Friday and I wanted to come earlier so I took the 1 hour flight and arrived this afternoon. We decided to stay somewhere kind of cushy so there was a driver at the airport waiting for me which, frankly, is a real luxury for me and totally worth it.
The drive was only 20 minutes and that was partially because people drive quite slowly here.. The first thing I felt when I got here was calm. It feels like a generally calm, mellow place unlike Bangkok which is all very Big-City-Rush-Rush-Traffic-Congestion-Crowded and not mellow at all.
I got to my hotel, totally starving, and ordered room service which normally I never do but we had gotten a good deal on the room price and I didn't want to deal with trying to interact with people while I was experiencing low blood sugar hostility issues. I tend to get pretty snarly when I haven't eaten in too long so... room service it was. The satay and fried rice were excellent and after wandering out into the "real world" long enough to find ibuprofen for my crazy headache, I passed out. And slept. And slept.. and sadly slept some more waking up around 9:30pm disoriented but appreciative of the absolute best sleep I've had in at least 4 months.
Of course, this messed with my schedule as I had planned to go out to dinner or to a bar or something but I realized I didn't want to eat right away and by the time I was hungry it would be late and I'd have search so I decided to walk to find a grocery store. The streets were mostly devoid of pedestrians, though there were tons of tuk-tuks and motos, so it felt a little weird being a woman walking alone at night. I reminded myself that I used to walk with no fear pretty much everywhere, making sure to carry nothing of value and never looking like I had anything to take anyway (because I didn't) and I relaxed.
I did find a store called "Welcome to Asia" open all night and filled with food and alcohol and everything I could possibly want including these.
Hmmmmm
Walked by the Children's hospital where I saw these
I'm not sure if they're paper or fabric or both but they were pretty cool and part of a fundraising campaign for the hospital. The guard looked at me funny when I went to take the pictures. Once he realized I was just a mad-picture-snapping tourist, he smiled.
The walk back to the hotel was nice and I'm now sitting on my balcony drinking wine that didn't cost a fortune (Thai liquor prices are crazy) and eating some really good soy yogurt. Who knew?
Life is good.
The walk back to the hotel was nice and I'm now sitting on my balcony drinking wine that didn't cost a fortune (Thai liquor prices are crazy) and eating some really good soy yogurt. Who knew?
Life is good.