Tuesday morning the four of us (David and Bex, a couple out of Vancouver, Canada & Joanie, a lone traveler also from Canada) got a tuktuk driver for the day and set off to tour the temples. (There are clickable links in the text to my pictures, or you can see some of my pictures from Cambodia here)
We agreed a price of $18 for the four of us in the one tuktuk with our driver, a young guy called Toua. I don't know how it is spelled, but it is pronounced two-a. All of the drivers for hire will be much the same price I'm sure, and some did not want to take four in one tuktuk anyway. But this guy spoke good English and had a sense of humour too, which was nice.
We got a three day pass, which was the same price as the two day. I was doubting that I'd do the third day, but there was no point not taking it for that price. It was $40 for a ticket, which isn't too bad as the whole area is huge and the ticket covers almost every temple, including the best ones.
I hadn't done any research at all on the temples, but Joanie knew a bit about the layout and as she is near the end of her trip she picked up a guide book to the area to read from. She does tour guide work at home in Canada so was superb at retaining the info and sharing the stories on the places we saw... :)
I won't go into the stories behind the area, you can view more detail about the whole temple area from the wikitravel site if you want to know more...
During the two days we visited the Bayon temple which has the huge faces on all corners of the stone towers... very impressive! We also went to the Baphuon, which is huge and to Ta Prohm where the jungle trees have grown trough the temple, destroying parts of the building over time. It is a really cool site.
During day one we went to a place to eat next to the lake, which was packed and we waited about an hour and a half for food! Not good... needless to say they did not get tipped! (Although I later learnt that in Cambodia, tipping is not generally the norm anyway)
We didn't get to Angkor Wat itself until late in the afternoon, but still managed to have a look around. It is huge and very impressive as you approach it. Unfortunately we could not go up the inner tower as it was all roped off. All of the walls are carved over every inch throughout the building, with some parts remaining in great detail.
On the first evening we got dropped into town straight from the temples to go to a restuarant that was recommended to Joanie, called the Khmer Kitchen. I tried the Amok, which is really nice and the fresh spring rolls are delicious with their spicy dip! Everyone perked up a bit here with excitment for the food and service after a long day and an early start. We sat and chilled here for a bit and then went into the bar area and had a cocktail and a chat with an English guy there who halfway through traveling all around South East Asia himself. We went back to othe hotel about 11pm as we were getting up about 5am for the sunrise at Angkor Wat! (Yes, we are mad)
The second day we got down to Angkor Wat about 6am ready for sunrise. It was packed with people and the sunrise was a bit of a flop really. It was quite nice though, and at least we had started the day early and could fit everything in. Bex was a little ill unfortunately, after taking an anti-malaria tablet on an empty stomach. Happily she perked up later... :)
We took a bit more time after sunrise to see Ankgor Wat (special mention here for the Mangy dog we saw) and then went out further afield to see the pink temple, which had some very ornate carvings and to go to the Akira land mine museum, where David knew one of the guys who helped set it up and secure funding for the project, from back home in Canada. Richard was an extremely nice guy and we were lucky enough to have a tour with him of the parts of the facilty that the general public do not see. The work they are doing there is fantastic and it was so nice to meet someone with such drive and passion for this mammoth task in hand. Richard has done a huge amount to get this place up and running and it makes a massive difference in the fight to get this country back on its feet. We all left a donation for them, the least we could do to help!
Seeing this place and chatting to the others made up my mind for me about going on to Phnom Penh to see the killing fields and the war museums there. The history of this country is so sad and so recent! I will take a lot away from here and admire the people for their courage and attitude despite their suffering...
We had lunch in a smaller road side place the second day, which was quicker and nicer than the restuarant the day before! From here we visited two more temples, but only briefly as time was running out to get to the peak for the sunset.
There were hundreds (maybe thousands!) of people there for this, the path up the hill to the temple on top was like a sea of people. There were elephant rides available to carry people up too.
We made the ascent on foot and squeezed past the hoards of slow Japanese tour parties. The temple was covered with people and the view of Angkor Wat was nice, but hard to get at due to the volume of people. We sat on the front side of the temple, a level down from the top to view the sunset over the flat fields dotted with trees. It was nice to rest here and we all played with setting on our cameras to get the best pictures.
The sunset wasn't great really, and shortly afterwards we climbed back down, found our tuktuk and drove back to the hotel for a quick wash and change before meeting Richard in town for a meal.
The meal was great and we shared lots of different dishes between us and picked Richards brains about the country and also his past work as a film maker/journalist in the middle east. We left here to get a cocktail in a quiet bar nearby and continued to chat for a while, before heading off to our hotels for some much needed sleep.
It was nice to have a lie-in today, although I still woke up around 8am anyway! I decided to get up and go for a walk to see the town in daylight and find an internet cafe to update here and catch up with emails. This cafe is really big and has aircon, which the last 5 I looked at did not. Glad I kept walking!
Later I will meet up with the guys to organise us all traveling on tomorrow to Phnom Penh by boat. It makes sense to move on together as we're all going to the same place, and we've all been getting along well...
All in all the last few days have been exhausting but a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed the company of my Canadian friends and it will be a little sad to say goodbye once we're been in Phnom Penh for a day or two... hopefully we'll keep in touch, it would be cool to see how the rest of their trip goes and nice to hear that they have arrived home safely.
That's all for now... I'm sure to have forgotten something, but those reading are probably glad... I am a serial waffler!!
I'll update from Phnom Penh, or maybe later than that from where ever I go. I think I will fly back to Bangkok from there after a few days and prepare to go west to Kanchanburi.
Ciao for now!
Sloggs :)
P.S. I got a reply from the Grand Prix circuit, and I just need to clarify some details, but it looks like I can collect tickets there on the friday, so should be making a purchase in the next few days and will then arrange to extend my Asia stay to fit it in... coooooooooool!!! ;)
