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Last night we organised to have a day tour with the tuk tuk driver for the Angkor Wat temples for today at 9am, so we got up and had breakfast downstairs and went out front; another man asked if were Scott and Beth from UK, he was the man's friend from last night out drivers bike had broken down so he was going to take us around. Fair enough, seems okay. He quoted the same price for us which by the bible book was a good amount for us to pay.
It didn't seem that far away, we were at the main ticket booth to get our passes, because we are lucky like this we chose the line with the Chinese group in it so they took forever to have their photos taken and sort out how much they owe! When we eventually got our tickets we got back in the tuk tuk and showed our tickets for a stamp, 'day 1'.
It was a bit like a forest with a main road going through it, we arrived at Angkor Wat, this place was incredible! Our driver told us not to get a tour guide get a book if you want because they don't tell you how much they want from you until afterwards and they out the price up which can be expensive and of course the police won't really do that much to help you out.
So we bought a book for $5 and it's really descriptive. This temple was massive with a most around the outside, the detail on all of the buildings were incredible, and these temples were built nearly 2000 years ago! How did they manage to get all of this concrete up and the carvings must have taken donkey's years! Well the book told us that the buildings were made out of limestones and soft bricks which made it easier to carve on them. The main area had steps everywhere and tunnels of Buddha statues which all had they faces knocked off, we thought was from the Khmer Rouge of poi pot but it was just from rebels that done it and sold them on to Thailand and Vietnam. The steps around the place were so steep and they were really narrow to walk on which didn't help at all. We couldn't believe how beautiful the carvings were still considering how old they all were. After getting plenty of photos of the famous three pagoda peaks we headed for the next temple, the famous Bayon, the one with all the Buddha faces on huge statues looking down on you as peasants. The gates to Bayon were cool, there were warriors and Buddhas either side made to look like they were tugging on a dragon. Most of their heads were chiselled off aswell.
On the way to the Bayon temple there were those horrible monkeys that can't be stopped from taking anything from you or out of your hands. Our tuk tuk driver stopped because Scott seemed enthusiastic, I of course want because I really don't like them. People were hiding coconuts and sticks out the monkeys were climbing all over them. Uhuh, not happening with me! I got out he tuk tuk had the two cameras in my hands and the bag, accidentally left our big bottle of water in the carriage, the monkey climbed in and unscrewed the bottle to get water out, he knocked it over and they all sat underneath trying to drink it. Bloody monkeys!! Once they got out we made a quick move for it. That could only happen to us of course!
The Bayon temple was really nice, the detail again was incredible, all of these temples took hundreds of years to make - no wonder!!
There were around 54 big massive Buddha heads on the towers and then thousands of others all around the place.
Our driver wanted to stop for lunch but we done one more temple and then had lunch, the price was a little high so we walked out and they came running after us to negotiate a price, felt scabby but it was $6 dollars for morning glory! (Fresh runner beans in garlic oyster sauce-delicious!)
They aren't as hard to bargain with as thai people, Cambodians are a lot nicer about it all.
After some grub we walked over to the tomb raider temple, where Lara Croft was filmed. All of the temples have been taken over by trees and they massive roots. This temple again is impressive, more so because of the trees growing all over the temples. We looked like little ants climbing around everywhere compared to the size of these trees!
After all the sight seeing we were tired and absolutely boiling. Sweaty sticky boiling.
So we got back to the hotel around 4pm, had a chill by the pool, we wanted to get in but it was freezing and didn't have any sun on it so we have it a miss and just washed our feet in there haha!
The pub street for some grub tonight, it was full of hustle and bustle. The night market afterwards and Scott couldn't resist a $3 oil massage, so I had a $3 pedicure with vanish. My toes are looking a little grubby and mannish!
He disappeared upstairs...! I stayed downstairs, I had a man doing mine, his feminine hands worked a treat on my grubby feet!
Half an hour passed Scott came down giggling, oh god what's gone on!
The woman with a straight face asked him to take everything off and he said no just my top, so he went to his boxers and put a towel around him! Haha!! He said the man next to him had the curtains closed and was giggling the whole time Scott was in there. Haha! Oh deary me.
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