Angkor What?!

Our first weekend in Cambodia was spent in Siem Reap with all of Language Corps! Everyone was slightly nervous for the eight hour bus ride, because if you couldn't tell, Cambodian food doesn't exactly agree with the stomach any of the time some of the time. If you have to get up to leave class 10 times in an hour, nobody questions you, we just nod our head and wish you luck, while praying that when it inevitably hits you, you are in close proximity to the restroom.

Overall the bus ride went surprisingly well, except for the constant fear I faced of the overhead compartment crashing down on my head. By the end of the bus ride I had pieces of plaster all over me. At least no one pulled a Bridesmaids. 

Halfway through our bus ride we stopped at a place called Spider Village. When I heard "Spider Village" I had images of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter running away from Aragog in the Chamber of Secrets.

Here's a visual for all you muggles out there.

Thankfully all of the spiders were cooked. Mmmm lunch! We tried a tarantula...tasted like chicken. 

Surprisingly not bad, but feeling the little hairy legs in my mouth was slightly off putting, as you can tell by my face.

Emily was not impressed.

We don't think we'll be going back for seconds anytime soon.

We also bought the littlest bananas I have ever seen. I don't know why I find this so funny.

________________________________________________________________________________

The first day in Siem Reap we had the option to wake up at 4 a.m. to see the sunrise. Apparently it was going to be very rare, because the sun was going to be directly behind the center of Angkor Wat. How could I miss an opportunity like that?!?!

4 a.m. comes rolling around, and there we are stumbling to the bus to see this immaculate sunrise. We are posted outside of Angkor Wat for a good two hours, just waiting patiently for this sensational sunrise that is going to be life changing.

It went from dark:

To mildly dark:

To a light grey:

To the slightest of pinks:

And there it was.

  The sun did peek out of the clouds for about six seconds, and when it did, people went NUTS. I mean all of the selfie sticks in the world went up when this little speck of light appeared (including mine...). 

  

And that was the end of the spectacular sunrise. So much disappointment, so little sleep. Let's just pretend it looked like this:

^so disappointed that I didn't even realize I had a wedgie

Once we got back to the hotel, bragging to everyone who opted to sleep in how *~amazing and surreal and life changing~* the sunrise was, we began our tour of Angkor Wat (post 10 cups of coffee later, and two minutes of sleep for Chels).

^"I hate being a tourist. I just want to sleep"

Bayon temple was first! This place was incredible and by far my favorite.

ELLIEEEEE!!! Cropped out the people who were sitting on the ellie's back, that is MEAN AND HURTFUL.

^bald and sweaty

Buddhafly kissies

^I aslso had a wedgie 90% of the time 

After sweating through my Under Armour pants that are in fact not quick drying (Kevin Plank, the real test is whether or not Under Armour works in Southeast Asia...it doesn't) we headed to the next temple which was Baphuon (?)

^so presh

This was the point of the trip where Chelsea and I got lost wandering through the temples. We aren't very good at directions, especially together. 

"Which way do we go?"

*walks in circles*

After having someone in our group sent out in search to bring us back (sorry Jarrod...), we were off to the next temple. And guess who was there?!?!

She actually asked me to take this photo for her. You're welcome Michelle.

Since Michelle (we are on a first name basis now...I allow her to call me Laura) is sort of famous or something, we had to skip going through one of the coolest temples, Ta Prohm (where they filmed Tomb Raider) because I guess she couldn't be near us peasants. 

Thanks Obama.

To end the day we finally explored inside Angkor Wat! We were only allowed in certain areas because we were stalking Michelle Obama Michelle was like following us or something. I know she wants to be my friend because I am like really cool and everything but a girl needs her personal space.

After walking, sweating, and seeing more temples than I could ever care about (jkjk they were really cool) we rewarded ourselves with a quick swim and a night out on Pub Street where we drank very responsibly and had a glass of water in between ever beer, just like my wise dad says!

the street of a thousand dreams

 The next morning feeling like 100 bucks, we hit up one more temple (I never want to hear the word temple again) 

Thankfully Michelle didn't follow me to this temple, so we were free to explore. So nice of her. Then we had our eight our bus ride to look forward to! YAY FORREST IS SO EXCITED!!!