New Year's in Cambodia

On January 1, we rang in the New Year a little bit differently than times past. Dick Clark was no where to be seen, there weren't any disco apples descending on a throng of revelers kept warm by high spirits (emotional or otherwise), and our prospects of finding good cold champagne kept us from even trying.

We left Hanoi on New Year's Eve and landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia with enough time to get checked into our hotel and find some dinner. We knew there was no way we would last until midnight to officially witness the beginning of 2009, plus we were getting an early start to see the temples. Of course, we should have known that our slumber would be disturbed by all the other revelers without such an ambitious itinerary. As it turns out, we heard lots of loud bangs but couldn't see the source of them, thanks to our ineptitude in figuring out the exterior shutters.

Traveler's fatigue allowed us to quickly get back to sleep, which was needed for our 7:00 appointment with our tuk-tuk driver and a full day of temple site seeing.

In addition to the photos below, you can see a few dozen more here.

As mentioned the day started early with our tuk-tuk driver.


Our first temple was Banteay Srei, which is known for its intricate carvings in pink sandstone.


Bayon was another impressive temple with huge faces cut into many towers.


We saw a lot of interesting things on the road between temples, like these piglets on their way to market.


And a woman selling fried grasshoppers, of which our tuk-tuk driver gladly partook.


Of course, Angkor Wat is the most well known temple, and it's no wonder with its sheer size and amazing carvings.


Here's the whole crew at Angkor Wat.


There are more than 2,000 Apsara's carved at Angkor Wat.


We also came across a family of monkeys who were very active. In fact, five or six were playing on top of a parked car.


It took about two hours via tuk-tuk to visit Bang Malea, which has been left in its ruined state. We felt like we are on an Indiana Jones movie set.


We climbed over a lot of fallen stones at Bang Malea, although apparently these were more treacherous than others.


Megan graces the entrance to the main drag in downtown in Siem Reap.