a last coupla things from Siem Reap

Before I forget:

• Cambodia and Thailand have been engaged in battles for a long, long, long time. One great benefit of France's involvement in Cambodia was that it retook land that had been taken by Thailand. Siem Reap means "Siam is defeated" which totally, totally cracks me up. It's like naming a town in the far northern US "Suck it Canada" or something. It makes me laugh every single time I say Siem Reap. (Which, FYI, is pronounced SEE-em re-EP.)

• The beds in Cambodia have -- without exception -- been hard as the floor. There's usually a lot of variability in hotels, but not here. Here, every single bed is as hard as the floor. They are actually beds, actual mattresses, but just really really hard. And the pillows are very thick and overstuffed, leading to crazy stiff necks in the mornings. I have a hard enough time staying asleep, but these rock-hard beds and high hard pillows keep me waking up all night long in a lot of physical pain. I'll be sad when our vacation is over, but I'll be thrilled to be back in my own cozy bed with my own soft pillows.

Since the beginning of our vacation plans, I've been most looking forward to seeing Luang Prabang, in Laos - and now it's time! Before I shut down, I'll show you a couple of photos of Ta Prohm, which is one of the temples in the larger Angkor Thom complex. I haven't begun to work on my Angkor Wat photos, but I do want to get something up here.

OK, this one is obviously Angkor Wat. The sun was nearly up.

Ta Prohm is all overgrown; it's a constant battle to keep the jungle from taking it back.

It had such a different feeling from Angkor Wat - a bit eerie but wonderful.

This spot is iconic - you always see photos of it. The time we were there, it was in such shadow but nearby was so light, I couldn't adjust the image very well. Anyway, it was flooded with a big tour of Chinese tourists who didn't seem eager to let anyone else near the spot any time soon so I finally gave up.

there are these Khmer faces on all four sides of this tower, and similar towers on all four corners of the temple. i can imagine they looked kind of fierce if you saw them for the first time.

OK! Time to close up shop for the morning, to pack and prepare to leave Cambodia. I'm glad we'll be back for a couple more nights in Phnom Penh, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing Laos.