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Published: February 4th 2008
Siem Reap International Airport
Can't believe we're here! *wheeeee* :DAfter 4 dreadful months, the long anticipated day finally arrived! After a night of fitful sleep (if any) we boarded Air Asia Flight AK 846 at 07:00 for Siem Reap. We arrived 2 hours later, to find that it was 08:00 local time *moment of jakun-ness* Jayne excitedly adjusts her watch, as it was her first time outside the +8GMT time zone :D
After checking in and having breakfast, we headed for the temples of Angkor. And so it begins...
Heroic Feat #1 - Walking to Angkor Wat. (And I mean walking...)
It all started with the adamant determination not to be ripped off by those vicious bloodsucking tuktuks. So we decided to walk from our guesthouse in town off Sivatha Road, towards Angkor Wat hoping to find a reasonable deal. So we walked, and we walked summore. Finally (after about 3 kilometres) we gave in to a moto, not realising that the entrance/ticket counter was less than 1 minute ride away. Wheee~
We arrived Angkor Wat at about 11:00, and the mid-day sun was already scorching. None too good for photography and exploring (After the 3 km walk, hellooo???!!?) But Angkor Wat was uninterestingly huge, with deja
Not so green
Our room at Green Garden Home. Disappointing. vu occuring at the many corridors. We spent almost 2 hours walking and clambering around. In my opinion, Angkor Wat only looks nice from the outside. Must be the moat effect. Not much of a temple to explore.
And then we proceeded to Angkor Thom and started with what we later decided to be our favourite temple, the Bayon (which by the way, did not look that great from afar) I did not count, but apparently there are 216 mysterious stone carved faced. You just have to see it and marvel in its wonders 😊
After lunch, we continued exploring the rest of Angkor Thom; the Terrace of the Elephants, Phimeanakas, the Terrace of the Leper King and walked past the majorly under restoration works Baphuon.
After which, we decided to catch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng (Which is at the entrance of Angkor Thom) which brings us to ....
Heroic Feat #2 - Walking from Angkor Thom to Phnom Bakheng
Looking at the map on the lonely planet guide, hey it doesn't look that far, it's only at the entrance. We don't need a moto, or a tuktuk. We can do it by foot! 2
kilometres, a giant pig and a few families of monkeys later, we arrived at the foot of Phnom Bakheng... We were told that it would only be a 65metres climb (Which I think we misheard because it seemed more than 650metres by the time we reached. I guess I was too tired to enjoy the sunset we nearly missed. Which was unspectacular anyway. But hey, we made it to Phnom Bakheng :D
In order not to wear ourselves out so early during the trip, we rented a bicycle to get around the next day (yes, A bicycle, cos Jayne doesn't know how to ride one...) It's illegal to rent motorbikes in Siem Reap. So yah.
Stay tuned for more heroic adventures of Jayne & Eugene on Day 2 :D
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Yan
non-member comment
Am totally amused
Hi there Jayne, Seriously, the pictures are awesome. Faster upload more! :)