siem reap, day 2

we began the day with another tasty breakfast at hanuman alaya. we started our adventures at a nearby pagoda, wat themi. it's an active buddhist monastery. they also have a memorial to the victims of the khmer rouge (a stupa filled with bones found in a nearby well as well as on a nearby field). it's very hard to describe being there. on the one hand, it was very peaceful with the monks around. you could feel some sort of calm and tranquility. on the other hand, the memorial was somewhat overwhelming, especially since i don't know a lot about the khmer rouge and cambodia's history. the lonely planet can only go into so much detail. we had a nice conversation with several of the monks. they too were excited about obama's victory.

from the pagoda, we went into town to catch the first day's events of the water festival. we grabbed some noodles from a cart and made ourselves comfortable on the river bank. we attracted a lot of stares and even some nice conversation. an elderly man started speaking to us in french, so i got a chance to bust out my rusty high school french. cambodia had been a french protectorate for about 90 years (until 1953), so a lot of the older generation can speak fluent french. i wish my french had been better, as he seemed to have a lot of great stories that he wanted to share. joe got his chance for a language lesson from another elderly gentleman who tried to teach him khmer (the local language). he even got his grandson in on the lesson. it was highly entertaining to all and we learned a bit at the same time!

the afternoon was the first day of the boat races. it took a few hours for things to get going, but once they did, the crowd was excited. each boat had at least 20 people in it - long wooden boats, each person holding a single oar (not like rowing, more like dragon boat racing if anyone has seen that). most of the boats were men, but there were a handful of women racers as well. it was fun to watch them race down the river, boats almost becoming completely submerged due to the force.

after a few hours by the river, we were ready to move on. we headed into town and got massages - traditional khmer massages. for $6! it was awesome. the massage style had a lot in common with thai massage. it was a little rough and pinch-y at times, but the end result was wonderful relaxation and total airheadness. it was great!

we had tasty amok (local special sauce with cocount) dinner at the soup dragon and were treated to fireworks peeking above the buildings. it was fun and festive! we walked back to our hotel, which was on the other side of town. it was a nice walk!