Slowest intenet connection in the East

I was very excited to post some pictures for you guys, but it turns out the internet in my guesthouse is dial-up's slower cousin or something. So now I will have to choose just one or two to share and trust that you'll forgive me.

Today has been a huge day, woah. I woke up earlyish and went up to the rooftop cafe/bar and had a delicious bowl of cereal with fresh mango on it and slurped down a coffee before my tuk-tuk driver (Ton?) arrived at 8 to whisk me away to the temples of Angkor.

Angkor, let me tell you, is massive, ancient, beautiful, dusty, crowded, hot and fabulous. Its also super spread out, so you have to either be a marathon runner or rent a bike or hire a tuk-tuk for the day. Yesterday's post will explain which option I went with and hey, before you look down on me too much, please recall that I'm meant to be on a vacation of sorts. Exercise is for real life. This is not that.

Ooh, wait. I already forgot an important detail. Over breakfast, I met a girl named Laura. She and I have been alone at the cafe twice now, so I took a stab and asked her if she was traveling alone. She answered, in an Australian accent (which I did not hold against her,) that she was indeed traveling alone. We struck up a lively conversation and decided to meet up again later in the afternoon, after our various sight-seeing duties were done.

Now fast-forward again to Angkor: Laura and I bumped into each other and I had a friend for the day! Actually, I present-tense have a friend, still. She and I are going to eat dinner together soon, and have also collected a few other lone travelers to make up our merry little band for the evening. Aaah, the company of strangers. What fun! '

So Laura and I reached our maximum capacity for temple viewing around 2 pm and headed back to our guesthouse, where we enjoyed the most delicious smoothies ever blended, no word of a lie. Mine was banana-coffee because I seriously needed the boost and hers was something totally healthy and sensible. Have I mentioned that Laura is in fitness as a career and also teaches yoga? So yeah, there's that.

Anyways, we came back, slurped our slushies, hosed the dust off our feet and then headed out for Massages...by blind people! Oh yes. For a mere $3 we got beautiful 30 minute massages and the money supported the vision impaired in Siem Reap, so I felt twice as good!

From there, we took a ride back down to the Tonle Sap (river and lake) and caught a boat to see the floating villages, market and other things that also floated. Like plastic bags, bottles and a boy in a metal wash tub.

The person driving our boat was 17, but I'm telling you, he was 17 like I'm 35. And the person assisting him was 13. This could've been true. So here we were, Laura and Sarah, afloat with our teenage captain and his skipper on the largest body of fresh water in all of southeast asia. And it was great. The captain spoke beautiful english and was very proud to show us the lake that he lives on with his family and friends. He took us to a floating school for lake orphans and to a restaurant where he draped a boa constrictor around my neck. Whee! He told us he lives in the boat we were riding in and that he wants to go to University to study engineering. I hope he puts our collective $5 tip toward tuition, because he was clearly very smart and personable and I'd like to see him succeed.

So now, after a breezy tuk tuk ride through the rice fields and past stilted villages, I'm here, writing to you. And after this I will run to my room, hose off my feet again, try to tame my wild hair and meet my new friends upstairs for dinner and other merriment.