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We collected our Thai visas and had a return trip to the FCC to catch up with Erik, and ended up also seeing Paul and Kirsty again! What an excellent night out! But poor planning on our part - we weren't really capable of driving to Siem Reap after that...
Eventually we did leave Phnom Penh and after a stressful 6 hour drive arrived in Siem Reap. The road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is supposedly a highway, but as its lined with villages and heaving with traffic it was a difficult drive. Our hotel was tucked along an alleyway (recommended by Paul and Kirsty) and was lovely.
That evening we went out to an Apsara dance show. It was quite sweet, more like a school performance than a professional show, but it was fun. The show included the most hugest buffet dinner with all different foods (Korean, Chinese, Thai, Italian, salads, fruit, everything!) and was in an enormous hall. Big bus groups arrived, one group wearing green t-shirts another wearing pink... it was quite funny, but we had an early night to get up early for sunrise at Angkor the next day.
At 5:15am we left the hotel to the Angkor complex. Tickets are given with digital photos of yourself on them, and we got a 3 day pass for $40 each. It was still dark as we drove around to Angkor Wat and walked over the first bridge, Fintan didn't even realise it was a bridge at the time!
There must have been hundreds, maybe a thousand people waiting for sunrise over Angkor Wat, all lined up in front of the library on the left... so we went to the right... As the sun came up, it was beautiful, but Fintan was quickly over the scene so we started walking up and through the temple. As most people stayed watching the sunrise the halls were quiet, and it was fun just walking around taking photos. We stopped for real coffee and breakfast at the Bue Pumpkin cafe, then decided to drive the Grand Tour and make a note of the places to come back to.
The first one was Bayon - the big heads. So stunning, we loved it, but it was busy by 8:30, so we decided to come back the next morning for sunrise here...
On the loop around the complex we stopped off at several temples and had a good look around, most of them were fairly quiet, except for the hawker children. They were everywhere and always following tourists saying "Lady, postcard, lady, I don't need money, only food"... it was really sad. You don't see adults begging here, the children are deliberately being exploited by their parents to make the most money. And it really is heartwrenching and awful. We saw one guy, with his son or nephew, wearing an Angkor Wat t-shirt. He was a big target, everywhere he went he was hounded because they all saw that he buys this stuff! He must've been so annoyed!
We finished up by driving up to Banreay Srei, one of the older temples carved from a pink sandstone. The carvings are so fine, detailed and so well preserved they are said to have been done by women, because men could not have the patience to spend so long on a carving!
Back in Siem Reap we went to lunch and went looking in the shops. There is a community craft shop 'Mekong Quilts' and we got some things here... they vacuum packed our stuff, but not with any special bags. Just a plastic bag that they stick a vacuum nozzle in the opening and literally punch the remaining air out of the bag! Hilarious! They very kindly said they could vacuum pack our other things from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan! Excellent!
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