Last night in Cambodia

We have had an amazing week in Cambodia. Our time in Siem Reap has been phenomenal. Yesterday we went to see all the heavy hitters--this biggest, most fabled temples in the area. We hired a tour guide to take us around, which was a wise investment. We visited 4 different temples and learned alot--about the Khmer Empire, the history of Hinduism vs. Buddhism in the area, and about lingas. Lingas are phallic symbols that are carved in all of the temples built to Vishnu (Hindu God). Our tour guide really liked to talk about the lingas, and the topless Asparas, which are nymphs (aka "sexy ladies") carved into the temple walls. Each temple was so unique and so amazing. The structures are breathtaking, and the history is fascinating. The city of Angkor was supporting a million people in the 11th century.
This morning we watched the sun rise behind Angkor Wat (wat means temple). The entire area was misty and dark, and shrouded in mystery as the light changing behind the massive structure. It's pretty indescribable. We spent the rest of the morning exploring 3 of the big temples we had seen the day before, including Ta Phrom, which is where they filmed Tomb Raider. That was among my favorites, as the jungle has overrun the temple and the mix of the two is just amazing.
We're off to get some dinner, but I'll leave you with what I think is a fairly amusing story ( i didn't want to get too philosophical or poetic here...) I just got my hair straightened by an asian hairdresser. allow me to set the stage: this woman has a shop w/ another girl, which is right on a dirt road and completely open air, so she was wearing a face mask the whole time to guard against dust and pollution. i was walking by, and had just gotten out of the shower so my hair was still wet, and i saw her straightening somebody's hair. nobody there spoke a lick of english, so i had to pretend i was blow drying my hair and gesture w/ the straightener (which lives on the floor of the shop). pretty sure they talked about me, naturally. but they were super friendly. they were probably saying "why in the world would this white girl with the crazy hair attempt to straighten it in this humidity?" it's been about 98 degrees everyday, and it's pretty humid, so you can imagine the curly, frizzy mop of hair i've been dealing with. they did 3 asian girls' hair in the time it took to do mine. also--they had this weird plastic ear cover thing that protected my ear and made me look like an elf. $3--and the experience was even better than the straightening.