Day 3 - Sunrise at Angkor Wat, Temples Galore, Pub Street and the Night Markets of Siem Reap

Day 3 - I got up at 5am and headed down to the lobby to leave for Angkor Wat. We got to Angkor Wat and there were tons of tourists there and it reminded me of the time I went up to Diamond Head for sunrise. We waited around for sunrise and 6:15 came and went. The tour guide said it would come up at 6:15, but it was too hazy to see the sun and the sky was getting bright. At 6:30 as we were walking back to the bus because we had to leave, the sun peaked up over Angkor Wat and it was beautiful and I wish we could've waited to see it, but we had to head back to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we left at 8am and hit A LOT of temples. We went to Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Prohm Temple, and Banteay Srei. Before Banteay Srei we went to eat at Shadow of Angkor restaurant. We had a fixed meal with curry with coconut milk, mixed veggies, and a ground beef with eggplant. After lunch we had some time to shop around at a market down the street. We headed down there and there was a lot of cool stuff but we only had half an hour so I felt too rushed to buy anything. We got back on the busy and went to Banteay Srei which is a temple that was built completely by women. The Landmine museum was the next stop and that was the most interesting stop of the day. A Cambodia man named Akira, used to be a soldier and used to lay landmines as a soldier. Today, he helps clear them. He started an organization that helps clear them and he has estimated to clear at least 500,000. Many communities are badly affected by these mines as people often come across landmines and lose limbs or are killed. The museum also runs an orphanage who houses children who have been affected by the civil war and these landmines. They also send them to school. The museum had the stories of each child that was there and their stories. It was crazy to read it and how they often worked as a child to help support their families because their parent or parents died because of the civil war.

We left the landmine museum and headed back to Siem Reap. There was about 2 hours in which we had free so some of us headed back to the market we went to earlier that day and shopped around. We went to dinner at Viroth's restaurant where we had the same exact thing we had for lunch >_< Afterwards, Patrick, Anna, Matt, and I went to the night markets and pub street. The atmosphere of all of it was awesome and there was such a night life and a lot of people were out and about. Pub street is a street where a lot of restaurants and bars line it and everybody goes there to hang out. There were a lot of the same things around the markets and I didn't end up getting anything. We headed back to the hotel because we were tired from a long day.

Miho =]

PS. Didn't have time for pics! Sorry! I'll post some later with this post!