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1st January 2011
Woke at sensible hour after the late night! and felt surprisingly fine, others not so much so I headed off to explore the wonders of the town by day.
I unsurprisingly hit the shops and Market! Managing to pick up some bargains one a fabulous painting! After a few hours I treated myself in the best cake shop I had seen in some time, a huge 3 layer chocolate moose on Xmas special 70p!! Be rude not to I thought!!
2nd January
Temples - Prasat Kravan, Banteay Keda, Pre Rup, Eastern Mebon, Preshrunk Neak Poan & Ta Prohm
We decided to explore the above temples by bike, so we headed off to get a pass for 3 days not being overly impressed with the pics they took for them at all!! We wanted to avoid the big temples so would not spoil on our main trip there later. It was a long ride to the first temple, which to be honest we were all very disappointed in thankfully what was to follow was much grander! All had something very different about them, there were ones with moats, some on hills or so many steps to get to the top! And seriously they must of had tiny feet back then the steps were tiny! After 6-7 hours biking and looking at temples we had enough and headed back before it got dark, not the roads for riding without lights!!
3rd January
Up at 4.15 oh yes!! Ladies had made our brekky and we had a quick cuppa then jumped in the tuk leaving at 5.30, is was pretty chilly at that time but still no jumper required just cotton long sleeves were fine. We were dropped at the entrance for Angkor Wat, it was odd trying to navigate our way to a good sunrise position not having been there before but we took on board some guidance and as the sun came up were pleased, the throngs of people headed off at sunlight missing the spectacular sun rising and reflecting into the water! But gave me a great picture spot! We headed in and ate our breakfast,met the monkeys and explored the place by 9 am. We set off for temple location 2 of the day, Angkor Thom, the site was huge various temples within the city walls, everyone seemed to have headed hear after sunrise tuk tuk's were everywhere, so much that our driver took us to his parking spot as he was worried we may not find him again! He also thought we were mad when we explained we were going to get away from the masses we set off on a 13 km walk along the top of part of the perimeter walls, it turned out to be further than that but a nice walk, we did not see another person for some time, returning to the main areas there were less people which made it more pleasant. My favourite area was the terrace of elephants, some amazing carvings in the stones throughout but this was great! We had one last temple to head to Preah Khan, I saw part but the early start took it's toll on me, I headed back out and sat on the grass chatting to one of the book sellers, he offered me a hammock to rest in decided I would not wake if I did that! Early night was called for!
4th January
Reasonable start after 10 off to Banteay Srei, this was the first temple to be restored and in recent years a visitor centre set up. This provides you with information about the discoveries/restoration and layout, which made it much better, the temple itself was not very big but after so many temples I was seriously templed out!! Thankfully our next location was the land mine museum, it was set up by a guy that was originally a Khmer Rouge child soldier, trained in planting land mines, he defected to Vietnamese army later, then with obvious guilt he now disposes of land mines along with the authorities. They estimate there to be about 6 million unfound in Cambodia! The man Aka who doesn't know his actual age or original name now devotes his life to an orphanage for children mine victims as so many are affected and there families cannot cope. These mines are everywhere, we are told to stick to paths due to them but did not realise how many are out there and can remain live for 75 years. Alot of stories were told by the victims many survive as they are built to maim, therefore soldiers require assistance from there unit, using resources making them venerable to attack. So many are injured in there own farm land, many children who find devices and think they are toys, many die as they have to be carried for up to 2 hours to hospitals, places are so remote, Cambodia remains a very poor country.
We headed onto Phnom Bakheng our sunset location set at the top of a steep hill, the first of the temple mountains built in Angkor. The climb up the temple itself was Tretcherous!! Tiny feet strike again! It was lovely to watch the sun setting but we set off before light was too low so we could get down in one piece! Heading down the hill itself with forest cover made it pretty dark and torches were required! Then to find our tuk tuk! Along with hundreds of others, luckily it wasn't too difficult.
We spent our last night with dinner in town and hunting round the night Market! Lots of things to buy but a back pack can't hold it!! Ah well.
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