Tuesday
We had a later wake up of about 8.30 today because we were just going to walk round the city and see what we found really. We're both so itchy, we've been bitten too many times since arriving here. Not that we've not been getting bitten anywhere else but they've near tripled in number for some reason, perhaps it's the heat.
We walked about 45 minutes taking in the sights towards the old market. It's a lot busier here and quite touristy in some areas. It even has a street called " pub street", prize to the one who guessed why. We saw loads of places who did the fish foot spa for anywhere between $1-$3 dollars per half hour including a beer or a coke for free whist you sit. I've already had it done a lot of times so I wasn't bothered and I didn't want to lose what little tan I have on my feet from the fish nibbling it off! Liam didn't have a go either for some reason.
We spent a long time in the markets mostly asking prices from various vendors for a while to get a general idea of prices and how low they will barter down to. We initially went with a view to finding something for our secret santas but there just wasn't anything that shouted out for either of them. We ended up buying ourselves our Cambodia keepsakes, me a new pair of trousers due to the others falling apart now, Liam a tshirt and the girls from home something ( despite swearing I'm not buying any gifts for ANYBODY, these things were just perfect and personal to the group and couldn't be missed).
In between this we stopped at a bar and had a rum and coke and gin and tonic, then afterwards we saw a place to eat with a big sign saying " we sell Branston pickle here, only place in siem reap" which we whole heatedly believed even if a few people do sell it because we've not seen it anywhere since leaving the uk. We both love it so in we went and had a sandwich with ACTUAL cheese and ACTUAL Branston with ACTUAL hp brown sauce for the picking too. Little piece of English heaven.
We attempted to find a photo exhibition that was on of angkor wat pictures on the way home but failed, and even though I had been really looking forward to it we were so hot, sticky and tired by that time that I think we both just gave up and couldn't be bothered. After showers, naps and watching a couple of episodes of the Big Bang theory on the iPad we settled down to upload some photos and eat tea. We had a slightly earlier night but not early enough by far, because we were getting up at 4 am for the sunrise temple visit tomorrow.
Wednesday
So we set off on the tuk tuk at 4.45 this morning after meeting our guide for the day. It was dark still but on the road to the temples there were quite a lot of tuk tuks with tourists in them. We arrived at angkor wat about 25 minutes later and made our way down the very long path to the entrance in the dark with little torches. The place looked so magical in the dark, it felt like we were back in the times it was made somehow because you couldn't fully see the stone to see it was in ruins.
I had been really looking forward this, a lot more so than Liam. So I have to say I was slightly disillusioned by the experience. Not because of the view, the view was absolutely spectacular and well worth the early morning and the standing around waiting for the sun. It was the sheer amount of people doing exactly the same thing! Luckily we got there wary enough to be at the "front" which was right by a small lake in front of the temple. There were probably around 300-400 people all milling around in the same space trying to get pictures and god forbid you move an inch or they will eat you alive to take your spot. For me it took the magic away which I found disappointing. Liam enjoyed messing with the camera and getting lots of nice shots. We were stood there from 5.15am through to 7am, most people broke away by 6.30 but we wanted to wait for the sun to come over it a bit better as did maybe 50 or so others.
After an expensive breakfast of our beloved kuy teau we went to be guided around. We were there for 2 hours, mostly being told about the stories behind all of the carvings along the walls. It is a temple built for the god Vishnu so therefore is a Hindu building telling lots of stories. It didn't disappoint and I would highly recommend visiting to anybody.
We saw 2 other temples that day, which again is difficult to describe but the pictures would say a lot more than me. Some of the temples were religious, some were state so built specifically for the king at the time and show a lot of carvings depicting every day life of the people, and others were ancestor temples. This means they were built in the honour of a deceased love one, which is still a very important element of society in Asia today. The majority still practice ancestor worship and spend a lot of time and energy keeping their dead loved ones happy on the other side. I wish I could say more but it's so hard to explain and no description I could give would give them justice. However 2 days was enough, we were considering 3 at first but didnt need it...unless you're REALLY interested in temples they do start looking very samey. People have even said to me why have you out up photos of the same place as the other day which kind of proves that point.
We got back to the hotel around 1pm which seems early but we had been out for a long time! After lunch we lounged around really, watching a film and generally being very sleepy and lazy as well as packing for our departure tomorrow.
