27 Sep
I woke at the unearthly hour of 415am, picked Amanda up from her guesthouse which was really close to mine, and we tuk tuk-ed our way to Angkor Wat.
It was still pitch black when we arrived. The wait was worth it as the sunrise was spectacular! The best spot to view the sunrise is at the pond in front of Angkor Wat, so that when the sun rises from behind, you get a really nice reflection of the temple in the water. We then headed back for breakfast and rented bicycles! We braved the crazy traffic and cycled 7-8km to Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat was constructed during the apex of the Khmer empire in the early 12th century. It's about 1km square and the walls depict scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabhrata. Without a guide you can feel quite lost. Luckily for us we 'bumped into' 2 local students who were training to be guides and they offered to help us make sense of it all. To thank them we treated them to lunch which turned out to be bloody expensive (US$20 each) and we both didn't even eat as nothing from the menu suited our budget. The terrible thing was they barely touched their food. I think they probably felt bad and thus offered to show us around the temples of Angkor Thom. Thinking back, I've a very strong feeling that they were just waiting for tourists like us to earn some tips. But considering they were quite helpful in explaining to us about the history and details of the temples, I feel slightly better.
There're a few temple ruins within Angkor Thom but the one most worth mentioning is Bayon. There are 37 standing towers, most bearing 4 carved faces oriented towards North, South, East and West. This temple was really quite unique and different from the rest. We then continued to the other temple ruins within Angkor Thom and by mid-afternoon the heat started getting to us. We then bid our guides farewell and headed back to freshen up.
Dinner was had at the popular Pub Street, somewhat similar to our Boat Quay (sans river) and Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong. Bars and restaurants serving a variety of international cuisine line this road and we looked for Temple Club as I'd read that they had Apsara performance every night. The menu was surprisingly affordable (mains go for less than S$10) and they even had 1-for-1 drinks! So we were very happy girls, tucking into our meals and watching the free Apsara dances. It was also this time that I think I developed a strong liking for this sleepy little town.
