change of plans!

Well as we were told many times, plans will change.  Today we were to drive to Banteay Meanchey (I know how to spell it now!) but the roads were impassable due to the heavy rains we got last night.  So we are back in Siem Reap and will try again tomorrow am early.

This morning we went to Ankor Wat, a large site of ancient Buddhist temples from the 12th century.  I still cant put up pictures so I got one from Wikipedia to attach.  IT was amazing and actually HUGE.   I really enjoyed walking through the structures to look at the architecture, the unique carvings and the view of the jungle once we reached the top of it. (up some really really steep stairs).  It is still an active Buddhist site so you would find a active worship site here and there inside the temple with incense and the like. 

From there we went to lunch and the highlight was fried pineapple and fried bananas.  YUM!  The whole group had a great lunch except Jennifer who ordered some spring rolls that tasted..... frankly.. .nasty.  I tried one and spit it out.  I think there was fish oil all over it maybe.

Then we went to Ta Prohm, another temple site, but where the jungle had taken over.  It was where Tomb Raider was filmed.  There was man areas where huge (100 ft) banyan trees had grown out of the jungle through the temple walls and into the sky.  amazing really.  I actually thought this site to be my favorite.  I will say though that in the jungle it was SO hot.  it was about 150% humidity and hot so i was actually dripping with sweat and all my clothing was soaked through when we finished.

Lastly we stopped on the side of the road to feed wild monkeys.  They were pretty funny and clever.  of course on occasion one would steal what you had to feed them and I saw one offer to take some food from a lady so when she bent down, it psyched her out and stole the whole bag.  I was trying to feed one in a tree and another snuck up on me and jumped up grabbing my shorts then proceeded to climb me like a tree and sit on my shoulder.  So rather than risk an angry monkey on me, I gave him some corn on the cob.  He thought that was very nice and munched away happily.

Tonight we are back at smileys, Glad they had rooms for us.  We plan to eat on the street tonight and visit the street markets.  I will likely be enjoying delicacies such as fried tarantula, fried crickets, cooked water bugs (like 3 inches long) and maybe some chicken feet soup.  mmm mmmm mmmm.

Tomorrow we depart early in the am for Bonteay Meanchey and hopefully the mud has dried to make the roads passable.