Siem Reap - Then headed to the islands!

Siem Reap to Thailand......
Once we got to Bangkok (via another long and sketchy bus ride from Siem Reap) we checked out a little bit of the town (Ko San Road and the backpacker area) before finding our place for the next couple of nights.  I like Bangkok, I think I had an image in my head that this place was going to be really sketchy and super crazy, but I didn't find this to be true (although we were only there for a couple of days).  It's a great place to get things taken care of, such as puchasing tickets to where ever one wants to go next; for us it was Ko Tao, a little island directly south of Bangkok.

We booked a bus/boat combo that would take us from Bangkok to the town of Chumpron, then a 2.5 hour catamaran ride over to Ko Tao; another long travel day was ahead of us.  We had a few beers before departing, ok, I had a few beers before departing, Cathy only had one, so my sleep was better, but her morning was nicer then mine.  The catamaran ride was fine and we reached Ko Tao mid-morning.  Before we left on our trip, our great friends (Mike and Kate) gave us some recommendations on where to stay on the island, as they were there a couple of years ago; we were fired up!

We hired a taxi (a four wheel drive truck with a bench in the back) to take us to 'New Heaven', ahh, New Heaven!!  As it turned out, New Heaven was out of our budget so we had to look elsewhere, the place down the road had rooms for rent, and although on the water, they were pretty nasty, so we continued our search...for the next 3.5 hours!!!  We were walking all over the streets, through the 'jungle', sweating our arses off and finding nothing. 

Even though we are in Thailand where prices are, for the most part reasonable, we thought it was a little expensive (like happy hour prices in the USA). 

Being on a budget and traveling for as long as we are we needed to find cheaper accomodations.  We ended up back where we were dropped off and found a place just off the main street above a massage studio.  We were happy with our location.

Our plans were to get our diving certification, as this is one of the most popular (and cheapest) places in the world to get it, but the weather did not cooperate.  It rained a lot and the water was unclear and choppy, so we decided to not get certified (yet).  If you are not diving and the weather is crappy, then there is really not much to do on Ko Tao.....see ya, we're headed to Ko Phangan!

Ko Phangan, Thailand
We took a one hour ferry over to Ko Phangan and immediately loved our new destination.  Upon our arrival we were bombarded by people trying to sell us their resort.  We settled on Haad Yao Bay View Resort, and it is awesome!  We are on the Northwest part of the island where it is quiet and peaceful, and exactly what we wanted.

Ko Phangan is known for their 'Full Moon Party' each month, it's said to be one of the top 3 places in the world to see the full moon.  Along with this comes a raging party where 8,000-30,000 people gather to get crazy!  We will check it out on October, 23, but are glad to be staying on the opposite part of the island so we can get away when we want.

We have been spending our time relaxing on the beach, renting mopeds to explore the island, and eating seafood.  It's been 4 days now and we will be here another week before we continue our journey to other islands.  It is nice staying in one place, something we realized is that it takes a little while to decompress and relax.  We often find ourselves restless and feeling like we should be doing something, but the great thing about being here is that that feeling is slowly disipating, which is a good thing.

Hmm, seabass or red snapper for dinner?

 Siem Reap - Temples of Angkor

Siem Reap is a small town outside of the infamous temples of Angkor, the eighth wonder of the world.  Adam and I stayed there for a few nights and enjoyed the charming town, as well as visiting the Temples of Angkor located 5-10 minutes outside of town.

The temples of Angkor were built as a source of creative ambition and spiritual devotion by the Khmer empire to their god-king.  The most famous of the temples are both Angkor Wat (the largest religious structure in the world) and Ta Prohm, well-known for being in the movie Tomb Raider.

We (Adam, myself and our non-english speaking tuk tuk driver) spent over 5-hours touring the unique monument built in the 1100's.  It was fascinating trying to understand how they were built, all with a unique design and decoration.  Some include unique carvings while others are covered in centuries-old trees, green moss, creeping plants and delicately carved rocks.  One of the unfortunate curses of past wars in Cambodia is the risk of landmines around the temples.  As you tour the monument, you are reminded to stay on the trails and paved roads so as to avoid the risk of stumbling upon one. Yikes!