angkor wat, day 1

I majored in art and political science in college, and I have a lot of random memories from my classes in both majors. I remember very little from this art history class, but I remember learning about the Hagia Sophia, Easter Island, Machu Picchu, and Angkor Wat. I don't remember what I learned, but the slides must have really resonated with me because when Drew asked me where we should go, I knew I wanted to go to Angkor Wat. 

It was the most economical to fly to Phnom Penh and take a bus to Siem Reap, so that's what we did. Unless you have a strong constitution, I'm not sure I would recommend doing it that way and you might want to just fly into Siem Reap instead. The bus ride was long (7 hours), and the first half wasn't so bad. The scenery was nice (everyone had houses on stilts! I saw cows!), but we were on a bumpy two lane road. They say you learn stuff about yourself when you travel, and so I learned the hard way that I get motion sickness. 

We arrived at about 7 pm, and a tuk tuk driver took us straight to the hotel. We hired that same driver to take us around Angkor Wat the next day. That's really the best say to see Ankgor Wat. The place is huge, and you're not just going to walk around. Some people ride bikes, and others hire cars or go in a tour group, but it seems that most people hire a tuk tuk to drive you from temple to temple.  

I can't remember the names of all the sites, so hopefully that's not important to you. We started off here, at this location that I probably never knew the name of.   

I think Drew would want me to post the picture of him below. I tend to take pictures without either of us in them, but he prefers people pictures. I guess he wants us to have some sort of proof that we were actually at Angkor Wat. 

We strayed off the beaten path and explored these temples. We had them almost entirely to ourselves.

This is another temple, and judging by the size and number of people there, I think it was pretty major one. I think maybe it was called Angkor Thom but I forget.

The temples are really impressive in and of themselves, but what is especially impressive is the level of detail. There are carvings everywhere. 

Another temple we explored: 

Angkor Wat is more than temples. It's a park and you can hike around, so we did. It was nice getting away from the crowds. 

 Another temple. Here I am, pretending to the be the other lion:

This tree is awesome:

 Check out the massive roots:

Our first day at Angkor Wat was a really long one, but it was a lot of fun and we saw tons of stuff. It was a good thing we did, because I got food poisoning on our first night and was out of commission for much of the rest of our trip.