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Published: December 12th 2008
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28.11.08
Km travelled 19497
Cambodia has its own timing as well. The bus that was supposed to pick us up at 8.00 arrives at 8.45. The bus is a bit crappy but I like the driver and the roads in Cambodia are not very busy. With all the stops, the journey to Siem Reap takes six hours. I'm quite glad we got some food at the supermarket, because the place where we stop for lunch doesn't exactly look inviting. The road is pretty empty, apart from some fully packed vans decorated with people on top, and school kids on bicycles around the villages.
Wherever we stop there are, instead, always a number of beggars and mutilated people hanging around the bus. As promised a guy from the Prince Mekong Villa is waiting for us at the bus station and takes us with his tuk tuk to the hotel. This place has been recommended to us by Michael, a Paul McCartney look alike British guy we met briefly in Sai Gon. We really have to thank him, because this place is amazing. Erich, the German owner, and the Cambodian staff, are exceptionally helpful and friendly. Breakfast and laundry are included,
together with two bicycles! But the most precious thing here, seems to be Erich's advice. As we'll find out. Our room is wide and clean, and the place is really quiet.
We settle, sort everything out, spend some time on the internet, particularly to check the situation in Bangkok, even thou here there's people coming and going every day to Bangkok and everything is fine.
We go out for dinner at a restaurant nearby and come back early, because tomorrow will be a long day.
29.11.08
The alarm ringing at 4.00am is not a pleasant thing for anyone, but when it's for a good purpose we make an effort. At 4.30 we go down for breakfast, and slowly the place fills up with other guests. We're all following Erich's advice. At 5.00 we all take our bikes and get on the way to the Angkor archaeological park. At Angkor timing is everything, for a few reasons, the size of the place, the heat, and most of all, the other tourists.
If Siem Reap is an island of beauty and comfort in the sea of rubbish spread around Cambodia, it's because Angkor is indisputably one of the most archaeological
sites around the world, and therefore destination of countless number of tourists.
So the main purpose of getting there so early is to avoid the crowd. Even thou we must admit it is becoming quite popular choice to watch the sunrise in Angkor. But fortunately almost all the tourists that do so, stop to wait for the sun to emerge behind the Angkor Wat.
We listen to Erich and rush towards Phnom Bakheng, that as the name says, is a temple on top of the hill. We must have been no more than ten people there, all from the hotel. We all waited in silence, and the sun came out. The view was of stunning beauty and the atmosphere amazing. We met a couple of Canadians that just spent ten months in India and two in Nepal, and will go as us to Thailand in a few days.
We spend some time here. A man with an elephant appears and disappears. No one is interested in spending $15 to get down the hill on the elephant.
We walk down to pick up our bicycles and ride to the South Gate of Angkor Thom. Here we take the bicycles to the
top of the boundary wall, and continue our way for 5km to the West Gate. The view from here is lovely, everything is starting to take colour, and apart from us there are only a few monkeys.
The biggest and probably most magnificent temple, Bayon, lays on the exact centre of Angkor Thom. Around it, a number of other buildings are spread within the walls. A few hours are gone there, wandering among stone buildings covered in moss. Despite the hordes of Japanese and Korean tourists (which we learned are the loudest and rudest) it is incredibly beautiful and fascinating.
We take the bikes, pass along the Elephants Terrace, and head towards the North Gate to exit Angkor Thom and visit Preah Khan. By 2.00pm we visited another four temples, climbed all their steep stairs to reach the top, and been amazed by all the enormous trees growing on the ruins. Not to mention how tired we felt. It's time to take the long way back to the hotel. Actually a very long one. As soon we get back to the main road that leads to Siem Reap, we have to stop for a while to wait for some “important”
person to pass with a line of cops. We decide to go first down to the Old Market area in the centre of town, to get something to eat. The same guy that told us about the hotel, also recommended a bakery called Blue Pumpkin. We stop there and get some sandwiches to take away. We can finally take a rest, there's no internet connection so we can't even try to sort out our time in Thailand. This is a bit annoying but we'll try again tomorrow. We can only go out for a quick dinner and come back. At 9.00pm I'm struggling to write something but I can't keep my eyes open. I'm too tired.
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