Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On to Siem ReapUp early to get our bus at 7.30am so shoveled some breakfast into us and hoped in a car to take us to the bus stop by the river. We were traveling to Siem Reap with Mekong Express, who where very organized and had a bag tagging system and escorted us to our bus. On the bus we were given a little box with bake goods in it and a bottle of water free which was nice of them. They also put on 2 films, which helped pass the time. It was a 6-hour bus journey so you would need some distractions. Although what was outside was distracting enough especially for me as I was comparing it all to Vietnam. Cambodia is like a green pancake vained with rivers and spotted with villages. Most of the houses we passed were on stilts to avoid termite infestations. We stopped off in this little village and we could walk around for 30mins. There was a central market, which was the smaller version of the Russian one in Phenom Penh. We arrived in Siem Reap 3 hours later. It was crazy, as there were throngs of men asking did we want tuk tuk. What we didn't know was that they were all with the same firm. You see in Siem Reap they have firms of tuk tuk which have the monopoly in certain places like the bus station. We had to take these tuk tuks out of the station as they had locked the gates. Anyway we arrived at our hotel and it was really posh we were glad of this as it was coming to the end of our journey. We made enquires about going to Angkor today and tomo. Since we were only spending a day and a half at the temples we got ourselves an experienced guide and tuk tuk which collectively cost $55. Kim San was our guide, and I would highly recommend him ([email protected] - www.angkor-guides.com). WE set off with our guide Kim and our really sound tuk tuk driver who I think was called Timmy cos he was a messer. Our passes to Angkor cost $40 each on top of that. We got the pass for 3 days cos it was easier. We first passed Angkor Wat which was teaming with people. As Kim knew what places would be quite in the afternoon he took us to Angkor Thom. The gates at Angkor Thom were the first of our encounters. It was amazing huge gate way with the four faces of Buda, and great demons on the right and gods on the left pulling the great Naga (seven headed snake) on either side. We were told that the snake is the male protector and the lion is the female protector. Alot of the heads were missing as they had been stolen or blown off in the war with the Khmer Rouge. The gates were built in the 12th century and fair dos to them they did a good job, as the mountain where they attained the rock is 25km away and Larry with the lorry was in existence yet ha ha!! Next stop was Bayon and deary me I was speechless. The sheer size of the place was mind blowing esp since most was smiling faces. The temple of the happy buda as these smiling faces were absolutely everywhere. The carvings on the walls were extremely detailed. An example of this in the midst of the coming war there was an angry woman pinching her husbands bum with a turtle. There was a group of Koreans in front of us and there guide was not of great use as one of the tourist themselves were stealing the show as he described all the carvings. He was using comical expressions and hand gestures we even started listening and laughing with them. Ha ha! After many pictures were taken we were taken to the elephant terrace where the king would watch elephant races and the like. After we got down from this monstrous viewing platform we went behind it to the Palace. The palace itself had rotted away as it had been made of biodegradable materials so the temple was the only thing left standing. There was a pool too, one of the queen (50mx30m) and one for the king (20mx20m). Taking into account that the king had 3,000 concubines was is madness cos he basically had a mistress for everyday of his life. Sex every night then. He had 100s of kids too. After this we walked over to the Leper king Terrace which was very very detailed with heavy deep carvings embedded into the base. It was funny to think that they had a king of lepers with his own viewing platform. It was nearing sunset so we got back in our tuk tuk and headed for Phnom Bakheng the heighest point in Angkor and its first capital built in the 9th century. We climbed the hill up to it Kim and me ahead with the crowd George way back having taken pictures with the fancy camera. We got there and the place was packed so we headed straight for the top of the Temple in order to see the view. Unfortunately we could not get the sunset as it was smother by the cloud but the view was excellent. All in all the first day rocked. I attempted to transfer some pictures onto my new usb but the second I put it in a machine I got a virus bloody hell the comps here are def not the best.
- comments