Angkor Wat

Day 79 - 12/08/2010 - 21:00 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Another day, another place ticked off on the map and one place closer to home. It's funny to think that in 28 days it will be my first full day in Bromsgrove (and the UK!) since the 25th May. Scary. Nevertheless, there is still a fair bit of time left but it's rapidly disappearing and I need to maximize every minute of this trip left. I'm starting to get sick of Oriental food now though! BUT, I'm still eating it, I really want to enjoy my first meal back in England!!

We arrived at about 14:40 yesterday into Siem Reap, it was absolutely chucking it down already. We were greeted by the hotel staff there with a car, and he took us back to the hotel. He was telling us that he was a tuk tuk driver (you can see where this is going) and offered to take us to Angkor. We told him we had already arranged with someone else via a friend in Phnom Penh. He said it was better if we went through the hotel, but gave no real reasons. We said we'd use him if our arranged driver didn't turn up. For the rest of the day, well we spent most of it at the hotel, the weather was rather bad. I managed to go to the supermarket to got to the ATM for the boat tickets to Battambang, which are now sorted. The ATM's in Cambodia are terrible - 4$ on each transaction! We went out for tea too, and both had Amok - a Khmer coconut dish mixed with something and vegetables (Laura had white fish, I had prawns) I think I prefered hers! Amok is the Siem Reap dish as far as I'm aware and CK told Laura to try it so we both did. It was nice!

So today we got up, the weather was fine. Breakfast was pretty good too, which was nice. At 10am on the dot we were downstairs and I went and looked outside. A man wearing a fake Juventus shirt came up to me and asked if I was Tom. He told me who we was, his name shortened to K.D. I went and got Laura from the lobby and we left, dropping off some laundry at some place on the way to Angkor. It cost $2, we collect it tomorrow. The hotel wanted 80 cents for a pair of boxers. Theives.

We continued to Angkor, stopping off at the ticket office to buy 2 x three day passes. They cost $40 each and have our photo on them, a serious sign that this is a proper historical tourist attraction. I thought at the time it was pretty steep, and it certainly is for Cambodia but it's a bargain really. Angkor is beautiful.

First stop: Angkor Wat, the main man. KD dropped us off right outside the moat area and we walked across and in. At first, I wasn't that impressed, especially considering the large renovation works covering the front and spoiling the photo that everyone knows of Angkor Wat - at least I can buy an identical postcard minus the covers! When we got inside though, I was blown away. The engravings in the stone is just amazing and how much of it has been preserved too. The sheer vastness as well, wow. I knew it was the largest religious building in the world, I just didn't have THIS much of an idea! We spent 90 minutes just walking around really, didn't stop anywhere and only saw the lower and upper (although only I saw the upper as Laura wasn't feelin great) perimiters of the temple. It was just sumblime. We made another stop at Chau Say Thevada which was a much smaller temple set, but still very nice. Laura got blessed by a hindu there, for a donation of course!

After visiting that, we drove through (but not stopping at Angkor Thom) which is a massive walled temple with more smaller temples inside. We'll be visiting that one tomorrow! we stopped outside Victory gate (of Angkor Thom) at Ta Keo, where Laura and KD sat in the tuk tuk and watched me climb the incredibly steep steps of it. When I got to the top, I couldn't see the bottom of the steps I was climbing, it was that steep - practically vertical. Nevertheless, the view was grand from the top and was well worth the major effort.

We stopped for lunch at some restaurant that looked like someones house and continued on our day one trip of the temples. We stopped at Ta Prohm next, the place where they filmed the Tomb Raider film. It was absolutely stunning. It was lush green, full of ruins that had been overrun with trees and their roots which have crept over the rocks. Yet it all looked so natural, and you really felt that you were deep in the jungle. The only problem I had with it was the walk to the temple. We got absolutely mobbed getting out of the tuk tuk by children trying to sell us stuff. I managed to get through unscathed but Laura sucumbbed to buying bracelets from a little girl!

Our final major stop for the day was Banteay Kdei which was a rather long, thin temple ruin. It was beautiful too, but I imagine that is fairly obvious after all the others. There were less people here too which was very nice. On the other side was a large, rectangular lake which was quite cool. Again we got mobbed by children and I was going to buy a t-shirt until she lied about the price! Nevermind!

We were then taken back to Siem Reap by KD via a few stops on the outskirts of town - including their version of Independence monument which is smaller, nicer and more traditional than the one in the capital. We gave him $16 - including 1 dollar for a water he bought us when we had no change. We're being picked up same time tomorrow! All in all a fantastic day and I'm thorughly looking forward to tomorrow (after a good nights rest!!)