Grenade Launchers, AK-47s, and Angkor Wat

Well to start off with i think i need to finally put up some of the politically correct pics from Vang Vieng. I will leave off all of the shirtless rope swinging bucket drinking antics for the sake of making you all ask me HOW awesome Vang Vieng was. by the way that limbo was fire limbo, i wasnt just doing limbo with three dudes. OK, so we got left our brothers in buckets, David and Eero, sadly in Vientiane for the sweet green pastures of Siem Reap yesterday and basically just took care of business and rested. Henry bought a computer, i bought a memory stick because my 4gb memory card was full, we found food, napped, ate again, and went to sleep, haha. Much needed day of rest. Now for TODAY! We woke up at 10am and went to grab some breakfast after securing a personal tuk tuk driver named Red for the day. Over breakfast we revelled in the fact that we felt so recharged and rejuvenated and we had gotten over vang vieng, although we are both about a joke away from booking a ticket back. After breakfast we grabbed our tickets for Angkor Wat and the surrounding wats and headed toward no other than...THE SHOOTING RANGE! We bargained and hastled over prices after deciding on both of us shooting a grenade launcher and an AK-47. The AK-47 we would be using on helpless fluttering ducks. I have wanted to shoot these damn things ever since hearing my friends Jason and Calvin talk about guns all day every day and me being a novice. Hope this puts me on the map at least. OK, so we loaded up the grenade launcher and AK into the bosses New Lexus GX-470, which is a Landcruiser Lexus style, and I immediately questioned the means in which he paid for this vehicle. Then they spoke cambodian for a while as we trucked down the road honking at people on bikes and watching the countryside fly by. About 20 minutes into the ride i asked about how long we had left and the guy says two hours, one there and one back. I was like what the hell? are they gonna take us out in the middle of northern cambodia with guns, ducks and grenades and just shoot the living daylights out of us or throw us in a prison to torture us for being white or what? Both Henry and I were needless to say a little on edge for a while. Our tuk tuk driver sat in the far back with the ducks and guns and when we asked him where we were going he said he didnt know. hahahah, live and let whatever the hell happen right? Well, we actually arrived at the site and picked up a guy in full military fatigues with a big hat on who guided us into the property. The driver actually rolled the back windows down to show he had white men with him to one officer!
We got out of the truck and got our guns ready and walked into what definitely looked like a minefield. I went first per the video above and shot my first grenade ever! It was awesome and I definitely felt like Rambo from the newest, most badass, most perfect, Rambo movie! Exhilirating to shoot a grenade and watch it blow stuff up! so then henry went and his first grenade actually didnt blow up which meant we have a live grenade where we are about to walk... His second shot worked great though and blew tons of stuff up, check plus. the stupid video has taken an hour and a half to load so il try again tomorow, but it is well worth it Then we walked through the area people shoot grenades into everyday and looked out like crazy for anything metal so we didnt lose a leg. Then we shot AK-47s at ducks like rockstars and rambo burned the hell out of Duckhunt 2010! totally better in real life. The guys were actually really cool and just gearheads that liked to shoot guns, and Cambodian. on the way back, one guy showed me a video of a guy shooting a rocket launcher and blowing a car up and we both "OHHHHHHHed" Next we grabbed our tuk tuk driver, Red, and headed to Angkor Wat with precision timing. We got there at 5pm and toured the whole place and even payed a guy to let us go up in the highest part furthest back in the compound, which was closed off, in order to get the best pictures right at sunset as they were yelling people out. Angkor Wat at sunset was definitely one of the most breathtaking scenes of my whole life. This empire created and ruled ages ago had a ruler, Suryavarman II, who actually had the temple built. In the 12th century this King was built had an enormous temple built in his honor. It has a moat and three layers of walled defense. Inside each layer lies beautiful gardens and lakes. I cant do it justice in words so pictures will have to do. I think we got lucky about timing but after paying this security guard to go up in a condemned contructed tower we saw the most astounding views of a truly amazing feat of architecture. I was going to skip this stop originally, but now i am so glad I made it here. I will never forget the sun setting over the ancient Angkor Wat.