I woke up very EARLY again…story of the trip…lol. I finished packing, ate breakfast and checked my email. I wrote a few quick responses and headed to the Union. Our trip got together, and we waited for 15 mins for everyone to check-in. Then, we headed to the buses and left for the airport.
The airport wasn't too far and eventually we were standing in line for the airplane, boarding passes in hand, security check complete. We had to take a shuttle bus to the airplane, and there was no fancy gate to get on the plane. You see, our plane was TINY. It was a turboprop plane, and we used a small staircase to get on the plane. I couldn't stand upright in the plane, cuz the ceiling was too low, but I found my seat and sat down. Pretty soon, the engines were running, and we took off. We were going to CAMBODIA!!!!
I fell asleep for most of the 1 hour flight, and when I woke up, we were landing in Siem Reap. We touched down, and I got very excited. We got off the plane, and I stepped off the plane into my 9th country. It was VERY hot (probably in the low 90s F) and EXTREMELY humid (~80-90%). The airport was pretty cool, and we all filed into the room to fill out the customs form. The line was long, but eventually we all got our Cambodia visas. My passport was looking cooler and cooler every country. :) We left the airport and headed to our buses. Our tour guide was a very nice, short Cambodian dude. First, we headed to lunch. I'm not a huge fan of Cambodian food…it was pretty good but it taste a little bland, especially after spicy Vietnamese food. Next, we headed to Angkor Wat to check out the sunset.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world…and it is a Hindu temple so I was pretty excited.
We arrived at the temple, and it was HUGE and magnificent. The pictures do not do it justice. We were all in awe, but we only had 30 minutes before we had to leave for the hotel, so we ran inside quickly to take as many pictures off the temple and see as much as possible. The temple was truly amazing, and there was a long walk in the center just to get to the main complex. To the left, there was a huge reflecting pool, and the water was completely still, so there was a perfect reflection of the temple. It was beautiful. We ran around the inside of the complex, seeing as much as we could before our time ran out. Of course, we were coming back the next day, but being a photography geek, I knew I couldn't get better lighting than the sunset lighting, so I took LOTS of pictures. Eventually, we were getting late so we ran back to the bus and made it just in time. We headed to our hotel, the Borei Angkor Resort. It was, simply put, a very nice hotel. Not as nice as the Sofitel in Bangkok, but still REALLY nice. But 
the fun doesn't end here. Oh no, cuz when I went to the balcony afterwards, there was a lightning storm in the distance! OMG LIGHTNING! WHERE? WHAT?! HOW? Heheh. Soo, I kinda shot pictures of that for a little while (ok ok, it was an hour, you got me). We wandered around our room before returning to the bus to go to dinner.
The dinner was in a HUGE buffet hall, with lines and lines of tables. It was full of people, tourists, locals, guides, you name it. We went and grabbed a plate, and looked for vegetarian food. Actually, one of the stations had vegetarian spring rolls, so I grabbed about 20 of those ;) and there was a noodle station where you could make ur own noodle soup, so I made 
some vegetarian noodle soup with LOTS of spice in it…hehe. We all sat down to eat, and the show began. There was a large stage in the middle and there were several acts of traditional Cambodian dance. I took lots of pics and videos don't worry. I put some of the pics up on the site, so check them out.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Near the hotel was an internet café, so I went for a little while to read emails and chat with friends. After that, I went to the hotel room and passed out. We had to wake up VERY early the next morning, cuz there was an optional sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, and there was NO way I was missing this one, especially cuz it was the spring equinox...more on that later. I'm tired and sleeping now ;)
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