October 5th-6th
On the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, Robbie and I diagnosed his recent illness, deciding he must have been suffering from PTT: Pre- Temple Tension. It is no wonder when we knew that we had gone against all advice from guidebooks and other travellers ("don't even consider it") and budgeted only one day to see Angkor Wat: a site dating back to the 9th century which took almost four centuries to build and consists of more than 100 stone temples from which Khmer kings ruled their domain (which, by the way, reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal!). It is therefore also no coincidence that Robbie's condition improved during the bus journey but then plummeted again when we had to organise the finer details of the trip on arriving in Siem Reap. The result was that he, having decided to forego the sunrise, left for the day of temple-seeing at a reasonable hour on a tuk-tuk (a motorbike with a carriage attached) and crazy me got up at 5am and left on a push bike in darkness.
After stopping on the way to buy breakfast from a street vendor, I just about made it to the site, which lies 8km out of Siem Reap, to see the sun coming up over Angkor Wat - one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world, believed to be the world's largest religious building and the symbol of Cambodia itself (appearing on its national flag). I realised I was a little bit late for what must have been beautiful dawn colours though as I had to battle against hoards of Japanese tourists going in the opposite direction as I entered Angkor Wat. I spent a good two hours there, walking slowly around the structure, stopping now and again to read passages from my guidebook and realising I had forgotten the information within minutes as I stared at wall carvings in bewilderment. During one of my many moments of pondering, I heard a familiar voice behind me and found the two German medic students, Snoopy and Kick if you recall the story, whom we had been with on Don Det Island. It was lovely to catch up with their travels and marvel at where we were all standing together.
Having seen the main temple by 8am, I felt more relaxed as I peddled on to the next one. At the Bayon temple I got chatting to a German guy who was also on his own so we ended up going around together for the rest of the day. I don't know how many temples we actually saw in the end but my plan to just see the main 4 or 5 went out the window when my new temple buddy's tuk-tuk driver insisted I stopped paying tribute to the saying about mad dogs and Englishmen and begged me to jump on board (concern obviously derived from the chance of making a couple of extra dollars).
My favourite temple by far was Ta Prohm which was abandoned and neglected for centuries and has been left largely as it was found when the temples were rediscovered some 150 years ago. The trees at this temple are just amazing. They grow on top of, through, and around the walls, their huge roots swamping everything in their path and their tops reaching high up into the sky. In fact, the trees are so powerful that huge pieces of stone have been dislodged from their stuctures and the ground is scattered with rubble as if a Jenga block has just crashed to the ground. Other blocks still hang precariously which makes the site extremely atmospheric and somewhat dangerous from where we were standing! In short, nature dominates the scene much more than man's creation and I took a few steps back in amazement nearly every time I went around a corner. It is the perfect setting for an adventure film and it was therefore no surprise to learn that it was at this temple that part of "Tomb Raider" was filmed. What further excuse did we need for climbing over stones whilst singing adventure theme tunes and taking cheesy temple photos? (Yes, of course we are holding up that huge block of stone which is about to fall.)
We stayed at the temples until the sun went down (getting our money's worth out of the $20 entrance fee) and then I peddled back to my guesthouse dreaming of the shower that would wash away the day's dust and dirt. Believing the day hadn't quite sapped all my energy, I then cycled into the centre of Siem Reap (I didn't actually notice that our guesthouse was nowhere near the centre of town when we arrived) to get some food with my temple buddy and check out the infamous "Pub Street". It was in the bar "Angkor What?", as we were knocking back some "Tiger Beers", that we had to smile and accept that these tigers, despite our day in the thick jungle of the temples, were the only ones we were to encounter in Siem Reap. I left the crowds of English people dancing away to the Artic Monkeys at around 1am to bike home. I had been up 21 hours and felt now I had made the most out of my one day at Angkor. How great that our next destination (via a possibly long and rocky bus journey to Bangkok) is southern Thailand. It's time to give the calf muscles a rest and enjoy some of the world's best beaches. Happy days.:-)
