Day 2 at Siem Reap began early. 5am and my tuk-tuk driver was already waiting to pick me up to go see sunrise as Angkor Wat. After a not so successful sunset at Phnom Bakheng, I did not have high hope for the sunrise at Angkor Wat. And sure it did, the sunrise was not impressive - but Angkor Wat itself was.
I spent a long time walking around and exploring this majestic temple structures, couldn't help but be awed by its size, and its carvings in every corner and every wall. Many parts of Angkor Wat was being restored now, some scaffoldings hindered the otherwise perfect temple view. But nonetheless awesome. And it was in here I came across, one of the most impressive tour guide I have been seen. This Cambodian man with a heavy heavy London accent - not at all a put-on, was leading this group of tourist. He was absolutely hilarious, loud and knowledgable. I would love to have him as our guide if we ever returned.
After feeding myself silly with the awesome views from all angles and inside out of Angkor Wat, I retired back to my tuk-tuk driver and it was time for breakfast, across Angkor Wat. He didn't join me this time, I had some soup noodle and iced lemon tea. I needed the fluid. Later I learned that the restaurant actually gave free breakfast for tuk-tuk drivers who brought tourist in for them. So, it was a win-win for all. I didn't have to treat my driver. :p
After the breakfast, Sron took me to the hot-air balloon place as he thought it was about 7 or 8 dollars. However after seeing the price tag of USD15 for tourist for a short 15 minutes and the queue, I decided to forego the opportunity to view Angkor from up high.
We went on to Angkor Thom - the biggest in terms of size and compound. The entrance gate itself was inviting and beautiful, with rows of gods and asuras lining up on the bridge. I revisted Bayon again, this time I took time to appreciate the carvings, went through many of the dark chambers. The hundreds of Buddha faces in Bayon made good pictures. My Angkor walk went on to Baphuon, Terrace of the Leper King. Two kids came up to me asking to take photos, just like Vietname, taking photos of the local came with a price tag. So you make the call.
I seemed to be able to do quite a lot as the day started early. In fact, too much of walking and climbing up and down stairs could be tiring. After a few more along the way, Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, I was ready to retire for the morning. As I found out, eating is more value for money if we were to do it at the Old Market, so I asked my tuk-tuk driver to take me back to Old Market. And we had a late lunch at Soup Dragon Restaurant at Pub Street. We had stir friend chicken with khmer spices, and hot & spicy soup with fish. Chicken was nice but the hot & spicy soup was not quite as tasty as the tom yam we had the day before.
Getting back to the guest room, I had approximately one hours to charge up the camera battery. Then off we went again for the 2nd sunset of my trip. This time, sunset at Angkor Wat. I had been wondering what and where was the best angle to view sunset at Angkor Wat. Nobody seemed to know. Anyway, I just wondered around it again until it got dark. And surprise surprise, who would have thought I would bump into Peih-Gee Law from Survivor China here just as Angkor Wat was closing at 7pm. We took a couple of photos. That was a great story. And then as the guards were chasing people away, the temple started lighting up. I managed to steal a couple of shots before we were chased out.
I knew I took a long time after sunset inside the Angkor Wat. When I came out, my tuk-tuk driver apologized to me that he could not take me around the Siem Reap city as he had promised, because he had to rush back to the pagoda where he lived for there was a meeting. Those were his words. Anyway, he drove pretty fast and dropped me back at the guest house.
Dinner at Blue Pumpkins. Nothing Cambodian but it was a nice little place where you could lie on they day bed. I saw people with laptops. Not a bad place to wind out and stretch your feed at all. After dinner, I walked to the night market nearby. "Sir, buy something ...", I quickly realised I couldn't buy anything when I was "disturbed" like that. So it wasn't a fruitful night market walk.
Back to Pubs Street in the Old Market aread. Decided to go into Linga Bar, and that was where I spent the rest of the evening. In fact, the bar was not crowded at all that Friday night. It was nice as I quickly made friend with another lone tourist, his name was Reuben, a Canadian living in Japan - who was actually touring Asia before moving back to Canada. We had a good chat until closing time.
One of the thing about staying at a guest house is that the gate closes at 11pm, at least for the one that I stayed. I had to ring the bell and wake the poor chap to open the gate for me. :p
No comments:
Post a Comment