a veg life

(posted by Emily) 27 December 2014 Siem Reap, Cambodia  Step Count: Rick's phone has decided to stop turning on, so no more step counts this trip :-/ Saturday morning came particularly early for us. Seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat is one of the "must-do" activities when visiting Siem Reap, so we were up at 4:30, ready to meet our driver, Mr. Kim, at 5am. He was ready and waiting for us, with a cooler of water (standard procedure for a day tuk tuk hire) and we were off to Angkor.  I was very grateful we had bought our passes early--the ticket gates open at 5am, but the park doesn't officially open until 5:30. The queue was already very deep when we were arriving, but we got to drive right past by showing our tickets.  It was fascinating to see the crowds going in to the main temple area. Most groups had flashlights, and there were so many stars in the sky. The standard spot to watch the sun rise is off to the left of the temple, where the refle...

(posted by Emily) 23 December 2014 Ayutthaya and Bangkok  Step Count: 18,263 according to Pacer (was probably higher, knowing how much we walked on Tuesday) There are lots of day trips travelers can take from Bangkok and we decided to spend Tuesday at the ancient city of Ayutthaya . The city was the ancient capital of Thailand, and is about and hour  and a half outside the city by minibus. We picked up a quick breakfast (coconut, pomegranate juice, and pineapple with chili) and head to Victory Memorial where we could catch the buses, which only cost $2 per person.  Stray animals everywhere--this pup was just chillin in the street, not bothered by anything We got on the bus, and settled in for the ride. The vans hold 16 people, including the driver.  Rick, as always, had done a fair amount of research about the day trip and learned it is very common for these buses to drop tourists off on a remote location, in order to co...