Cambodia to Chiang Mai

Our side trip into Cambodia was great. The people there seemed very
friendly and welcoming.
Our second day trip took in the city of Angkor Thom below Angkor wat.
We lucked out and had most of the temples to ourselves. In the morning
we also saw the temple Tombraider was filmed in. They have left it
mostly as it was found with trees growing through the temples.
On the third day we saw Angkor wat once the rain subsided. That's
where the picture is from. It was huge. The bas reliefs carved in
plaster on the outer walls told fantastic stories of battles and myths
in the Hindu faith. Erik took his tripod so we actually have some
pictures of us together!
Saturday was spent in transit. We booked a bus through the guest home
back to Bangkok. We had also booked a 9:00pm flight to Chiang Mai from
Bangkok, thinking we were giving ourselves lots of time. We met a nice
couple from the states who were spending a semester in Bangkok. We
exchanged our stories and shared a new one of the crazy long bus
turned van drive back to Bangkok. We made it to the airport very
hungry and stressed for time but we learned how unimportant schedules
are here.
We stayed the night at an interesting theme hotel (our room was
Aladdin themed) then took a side-route running tuk tuk to our
guesthome on the riverside of the ping river in Chiamg Mai.
We have already booked a one day cooking class at an organic family
farm one hour outside of Chiang Mai for tomorrow!!! This afternoon we
went for a spicy lunch, spent some time by the pool, then walked
through the Sunday market. The town is gearing up for the Thai new
year (songkran festival). We still need to buy our super soakers!
There seem to be a lot of tourists around. So far Chiang Mai seems
like a great city; it's walkable with lots of great restaurants and
not full of touts.
We are thinking about everyone at home so send us an email if you have
a chance! embenner@gmail.com