#66 Ankor Wat, Orphanage, back to the beaches, stoned dream, eating till I burst.

I'm on a role with jumping pictures huh? This will never make sense but will make more sense when you see the rest of the pictures.

It seems that so much has happened since the last blog. The rash is still there.
After going to Ankor Wat for the sunset I got back and made plans to go and see all the different temples the following day with 3 Israelis that I had met up with; a guy who I shared a room with and a deaf couple. A full day with the nicest couple in the world who happened to be deaf. 1) It is very hard to be whitty with deaf people, by the time you try to show them the joke you were making, it's not funny.
2) Besides sign language for "I love you" I can't do much more and therefor felt left out of a wordless conversation most of the time.
3) They never tell me that I sound funny or don't enunciate my words which I liked.

So back to Ankor Wat. This place is up there with the pyramids and the Taj Mahal, it really is a sight to see. We woke up at 4:30 AM to get there in time to see the sunrise, after which we spent the next 10 hours on a temple tour and as nice and amazing as they all were by the time I got out of there I didn't want to see another temple.
The highlights for me were two of the temples and of course I don't remember the names of them right now. The first one is the one of the picture that has faces carved out of the stone all over the temple; this place felt alive. So alive in fact that it inspired me to wear this ridiculous outfit that I have no idea what it is supposed to be, but I did wear it and got a few great pictures out of it.


This is the temple with the faces, I don't know if you can really see them in this picture, but like always, pictures don't do justice.
The top picture is me in the outfit that is some sort of flying dragon or something.




The other temple that I really enjoyed was one that had all of these huge trees growing out of the sides of the temples and right up in the middle of it. (I know I'm not telling you all that much or anything too exciting but there were a lot of temples and they aren't the easiest thing to describe)
My final day in Siem Reap I ate 4 pineapples (and since that day I've averaged 3 a day) and walked all around town, through the old markets, down the busy streets, along the nastiest river I've ever seen and booked my ticket for the following day. I also made it to this orphanage called the green gecko which was started by a local guy and his australian wife. They help to educate street kids who are out begging for money or selling crap as the sole money makers in their families (most of these kids being younger than 12 years old). It was interesting to see and to hear about all the different kids and their family situations. The Israeli that I was rooming with and I met up with a couple of other guys we had traveled on the bus with and went out for a couple of beers. After 3 beers and a drink this roomate of mine was hammered and so we went home and as I was drifting off to sleep I heard him tripping over my bags heading to the bathroom which is where he stayed for over 3 hours passed out on the toilet (talk about a lightweight).
The following day I headed on another full day bus trip to the south of Cambodia to the beaches.
On the bus I met Dave, a chilled out, quiet english guy who had just started his trip. He and I got along well and after chatting for some hours decided to save a few bucks and split a room when we got to the beaches. We were wiped out when we got there the first night so we just went and grabbed some fresh baracuda before getting a full nights rest to do nothing on the beach the next day.
Don't trust the sunscreen here!!!! The next day Dave and I went to the beach where we didn't move for a few hours. After feeling a little warm we decided to go under the beach umbrellas. 3 days later at this point Dave is blistering and bright red; he spent half the day covered in blended papaya because the locals said that helps sunburns; I think they just wanted to sell papayas.
During this day though while we were looking at the menus of the local restaurant we saw something funny.

The first pizza is called happy pizza and the first shake on the other page is called happy shake. We like happy.







That night I had a dream: Dave and I went out in the afternoon and got a happy shake-mixed fruit we asked for. What is the green fruit they put in this blend that doesn't tasted very fruity? We sipped them for a while just to be cautious. This is when Alberto, and Italian that was on the bus with us came and sat down along with a weird Swiss guy that we never found out his name. This is when I began to get quiet and feel a little spaced out and different. I found that as they were talking I couldn't focus on anything they were saying, I'd hear a couple of words and then be completely lost. The confusion shortly turned into laughter and the laughter continued for the duration of the night, maybe another 4-5 hours which caused my stomach and many other muscles to cramp up from laughing so hard. While Dave was getting quieter in his corner (the only words I think he said all night was when I was laughing and would make eye contact with him, he would say "what are you laughing at" and that was it) and Alberto was drinking his happy shake I tried to explain to Alberto in a couple words at a time that were interupted by mad laughter until I could catch my breath again that when I talk to him and then turn my head away and then turn back to talk to him that I had no idea of time. I don't mean that I don't know what time it was, I mean that I don't know how much time elapsed between when I spoke to him and when I was speaking to him again; it could have been a second or it could have been 10 minutes. We also made a rule that if anyone had any deep thoughts that couldn't express it in more than 3 words because nobody could continue focused on conversations longer than that. Mix the time thing up with the fact that I didn't know if I said the words outloud that I was thinking of saying or if I just thought them. Because of this latest problem I found myself repeating words or sentences and then just gut laughing again. Some girls came by at one point and told them I helped them get a cheap taxi in a different city. I didn't remember them and could barely talk and tried to explain to them that I was like the character in "Memento" which none of them had seen so it meant nothing. This is basically how the rest of the night continued until I went to bed only to wake up and barely be able to walk straight to the bathroom. The next day I could barely function and didn't leave my bed while Dave didn't leave the bed due to his horrible burns. Strange dream huh? Has anyone ever had a dream like that?

I spent the rest of my days lying on the beach getting massages on the beach chair and waiting for the procession of food vendors to come by. I would at least every hour eat a)a pineapple, b)mangos, c)fresh grilled squid, d)lobster, e)spring rolls, or f)dried up fruit before either a)going for a swim, b)reading a book, c) listening to music, d) watching Alberto pay too much for anything (when I say too much I mean like $1 for a whole cut up pineapple when the going rate is half a dollar) or e) looking over at dave, trying not to laugh at his pain while he could barely move and every ounce of his energy was to pull every inch of his body under the umbrella into the shade.

This is the first place I've stayed in to have a TV in so long, there really is crap on TV. Room with fan, TV and private bathroom $6 split between two.

I head north tomorrow to Phnom Phen to finish my Cambodia tour.
In Khmer which is the lanuage here: Solsadie is a greeting like hello and al cone is thank you.


If I had to show a picture to fit in the dream, this one would be it.







I just thought these quotes were funny.


"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
Dave Barry.

"What I like to drink most are drinks that belongs to others."
Diogenes.