Things not carved in stone

I figure we've been posting lots and lots about the temples themselves, but that gives a bit of a false impression of what our time here in Siem Reap has really been like. Not that Angkor wasn't the reason we came here, of course, but there are lots of other strange things to happen over the past few days. Here are the headlines.

Monkey attacks Taylor:

That's a bit of an embellishment, but close enough. Angkor Wat is a jungle gym for small, furry mammals like this particularily evil one, and for the most part they're pretty cool until they show you their teeth. One of them had decided that he was going to camp out in a stone doorway. This happened to be a stone doorway that I wanted to get through, so I figured it would be a great opportunity to get close to a monkey. Anyways he asked me the usual questions, about my name, my quest, favourite colour, but when I couldn't answer that one he got pissed. He lunged at me, opened his mouth to reveal some hideous dentistry and hissed. I decided to back off at this point, good thing to or I'd probably be in Bangkok getting rabies jabs.

Dustin mounts tuk tuk:

I wish I had a picture of this one. It's our unspoken mission to do as many things as possible that are illegal in Canada, but okay here (I'm still recovering from my opium and coke bender last night), so in the spirit of things, Dustin decided to stand on the rear fender of our tuk tuk and ride that way, looking over the roof. Both of us have been talking for a long time about driving one, too, but when we brought that up our driver said no. And that was even AFTER the beer we bought him.

Woman throws stick at cow:

About as interesting as it sounds. But it cracked us up so hard we almost fell out of the tuk tuk.

Conversations with monks:

During our final day at the temples, we stumbled upon a group of monks smoking cigarettes and chatting on their cell phones. No alcohol, but tobacco's okay I guess. Everyone needs their vices! They were pretty keen to practice some English and spread the faith, so asked us to come sit with them, which we did for about an hour. Anywho, they'v got lots to say, which we thought was great considering the number of foreigners that must pass by every day and try to talk to them to make their experience 'more authentic'. They encouraged us to ask questions about Buddhism, they took pictures of us with their phones, and one of them bashed the monkey who was sleeping in the middle of the circle with an empty waterbottle. Here he is wearing my sunglasses.


Enough crocodiles to scare Steve Irwin:

Vita, the girl who works at our guesthouse revealed to us that for four nights we'd been sleeping within about 25'of over 150 full grown crocodiles, held in a secure pen of corrugated iron and chewing gum. They farm them, eat them, and sell shoes to tourists for outrageous prices, even though you'd never get across the border with them. Their eyes make for one crazy picture at night...I'd upload it but don't have another half hour. BAH!

Anyways, our time in Cambodia is at an end, and it's starting to feel like our trip is too, since we're heading back to Bangkok tomorrow morning, braving the dirt road from Siem Reap to Poipet. Wish us luck. God I miss street food.