"Bus, Train, or Air?"- "Train"- "Sorry. Wrong answer"

So let me begin by clearing something up. I mentioned in my last blog that we would be working on Hillary's shooting skills when we arrived Cambodia...well, even though we bypassed that experience in Cambodia, I didn't know that her "aim" would consist of "target practice" in the bathroom of a moving train in Thailand. My hat or rather, non la (vietnamese rice hat), is off to her for her many accomplished attempts for the train ride absolutely sucked.

The shiny happy people of Cambodia have done it once again and have won my heart and best of all my smile. Not sure how they do it (maybe because they're sitting on a tourist gold mine, Angkor Wat) but they are, as Hillary said, very genuine people and tons of fun to be around. Unfortunately for a select few Cambodians, they were tons of fun around the wrong American tourist who happened to have t-shirts with his face available to be given out at the hint of a smile. Should anyone happen to head to Angkor Wat and Siem Reap within the next 6 months I am sure you can get one of these lavish t-shirts from a local for about...well, I'd guess a handshake?

Upon arrival to the temples in the early morning I noticed there have been tons of restorations made in the last 4 years and many attempts at future preservation for all to enjoy. A German team has assumed the task of preserving Angkor Wat which in itself is great, for these ruins need not to be lost to erosion and atrophy. At the same time the blocked entries to several parts of the ruin(s) has taken away some of the splendor of exploring these ancient masterpieces. Which, as many of you may have guessed, didn't prevent me from having a good time! Uh oh...here it comes...

So there is a new attraction at night time in Angkor and that is the 7-9pm lighting of the ruins and Cambodian ceremonial activities on the grounds. Fully aware of becoming total hypocritical tourists and contributing to the exploitation of Angkor, we decided to give it a shot since we had met two other entertaining couples during our Cambodian cooking class earlier that day who would be attending as well. As soon as we turned the southwest corner of the exterior perimeter, David (cool aussie), and I head into the shadows and head up the stairs to explore. Not quite the same as exploring Angkor in its entirety but a cool experience nonetheless (mainly since we didn't get caught). Wish I could include the photos but still have no idea how to do that on these blogs. anyone? At any rate being in the temple at night is pretty darn cool.

And to wrap things up...Cambodians love volleyball, Belgian fries in Siem Reap are not really Belgian, banana pancakes rock, Bangkok is massive, koh sahn road has turned into a parking lot resembling Kolby's swap meet, Hillary owns me at Uno and rocks at negotiating prices, and me, i'm just growing a mustache...current brad pitt style...bad idea?