iamtonyang.com

i was so afraid that angkor wat wouldn't live up to the hype, especially after experiencing the crush of tourists yesterday trying to grab a spot to watch the sunset over the temples. i can safely say that after having visited angkor wat and bayon today, it's everything people tell you about it and more, it's pretty awesome. at times i had a tingling sensation (it could've also been dehydration, it was 100 degrees throughout the day). angkor wat is like a cross between the chinese forbidden city in beijing with mayan chichen itza in the yucatan peninsula, with a lot of bas-relief carving like you would see in egypt, but all with a khmer flair. everything's done in rocks, and there are pyramids to climb within the structure, pyramids with steep steps (let's just say angkor wat is not wheel-chair accessible). the thing they don't tell you is that angkor wat is SEXY, as if russ meyer was sent back through time and told to design temples for the cambodian kings. what i'm driving at is the place is completely decorated in asparas, buddhist version of the angels, but every single asparas i saw had naked breasts the size of melons. it's like, a temple of big boobs, i swear. anyway, after angkor wat, i grabbed some lunch and then got a moto ride to bayon, in the heart of angkor thom, about 3km away. bayon is the temple where there are all these ginormous heads looking down on you. it's pretty creepy, i don't think you can stand anywhere in bayon without seeing one of the heads. i got a ride back to the hotel, the sky turning dark and windy like it was about to rain but it never did. dusty roads, i returned with sand in my mouth. my driver, a 20 year old boy who looks like he's still 13, told me, "i think you need massage." not a day goes by where somebody doesn't say that.