In honor of the King’s birthday, our contact planned a trip for my team to go to Siem Reap – Cambodia’s main destination for tourism. It is here where the temple Angkor Wat remains. I’ve never really heard of Angkor Wat before, but I overheard someone say it’s one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, or something.
Turns out it’s an eighth wonder of the world, which I didn’t even know existed, but Wikipedia told me so. And we all know Wikipedia doesn’t lie.
Yesterday Melanie, Geoff, Anna and I spent the day visiting the various ancient temple ruins – ending with the main attraction of Angkor Wat. Our clothes were saturated in sweat for most of the day. There was a time, I think it was around 2 p.m., when we were so exhausted from the heat that we could barely move. We stumbled into the only air conditioned cafe around and ordered coffee, coke, ice cream…anything to keep us alive and alert. And then we continued on with our journey.
It was worth it, though. Usually I’m someone who likes to stay in bed and soak up all that my sheets have to offer, especially when we get a day of rest on the race, but yesterday I was thirsty for an adventure. And besides, who doesn’t want to explore the supposed eighth wonder of the world?
We kicked off our shoes and climbed up and down and all around history. Sometimes I would pretend I was a princess, but then someone reminded me that we were exploring temples, not castles. Same same, right?
Oh, that’s another thing. There is an expression here that goes like this: “same same, but different.” Or, for short: “same same.” It basically means that even if something is different, it doesn’t matter. If I ask for an apple, and you only have a pineapple, that’s the same same. If I want to turn left, but you tell me to turn right, same same.
They sell t-shirts with this slogan on them, and I bought one for a buck fifty the other day. I wore it when we visited the temples, and people loved it. This surprised me, as I thought it was equivalent to wearing an “I Love New York” t-shirt in New York – super touristy, kind of embarrassing, the locals judging you – but no. Not here in Cambodia. They welcome it.
It was a great day on the race – perhaps one of my favorites. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity to see the world, and I’m glad I actually left my comfortable sheets yesterday in exchange for a lot of sweat and the chance to run around and jump on the ruins of ancient history…
