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Published: November 19th 2005
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Angkor Wat
The world's largest religious building Lindsay - We got in to Siam Reap at about four in the afternoon, and after some debate with Visa got him to take us to the "Shadow of Angkor" guesthouse. As recommended in Lonely Planet (as we hadn't got the courage at that point to stray from the guidebook), and as he was waving a sign (with half the other drivers at the station) to take us to! Despite his complaining about how expensive it was and how it didn't have windows, we found the place to be very pleasant and got an air-conditioned room with a nice balcony overlooking the river from where we watched some fireworks as it got dark. We hid and slept for the rest of the afternoon and didn't venture out until the evening for something to eat. The river in Siam Reap was lit up with fairy lights with longboats travelling up and down, and the place had a party atmosphere with lots of music. We found a quiet restaurant away from the river and had a quiet night.
We woke up rather late on Monday morning, had our breakfast in our room (Dairylea on bread rolls...mmm) and made it downstairs for about
Angkor Wat 2
Us two at Angkor Wat 11.30am. As we suspected Visa was still there waiting for us, so for an easy life Russell negotiated with him and we set off for the temples of Angkor.
I think Russ was a bit surprised at the condition of the temples - he seemed to think they had been carefully preserved as a treasure, whereas they seem to have been abandoned to the jungle and reclaimed only in the past century by French and German historians. First to see was also the biggest - Angkor Wat. The largest religious building in the world. It was certainly very impressive as we went in over the moat. The architecture is extremely detailed, and also I would say extremely creepy. It is not a place I would associate with happy, friendly ceremonies - more human sacrifice and gothic demons. But then that's just me and my creepy imagination!!! We climbed to the tallest part in the centre, up a set of steps that were almost vertical - like climbing a sheer mountain, with hand and footholds! But the view of the building was amazing. Getting down again was also fun. We also got Visa to drive us around to see Ankor
Bayon Russ
He's behind you!! Thom, the ancient city and the Bayon, the Bauphon (described as the biggest jigsaw puzzle in the world. The French took it apart at the beginning of the 20th century and catalogued each piece in detail so they could rebuild it. Unfortunately all the records were then destroyed in the civil war. We alse saw the Terrace of Elephants (my favourite), and several other smaller wats (including the one where Tomb Raider was filmer - ever searching for cultural experiences).
Visa kept trying to get us to stop at various places for lunch, but the Dairylea had stuck to our insides sufficiently so we didn't really want to stop, although we did get a pineapple on a stick from a passing lady. Strangely we didn't have enough money in small currency, so we had to bargain for the first time out of neccesity - there has been no stopping us since.
We did come across a stall selling flutes, in woven bamboo cases, but we started to panic with the multiple conversions, so missed out on a bargain for Playtime Music (visit www.playtimemusic.co.uk for all your musical instrument needs...) so I have some lost ground to make up
Bayon Russ 2
Russell "Indiana Jones" Williams in Thailand.
For the final visit of the day we climbed the hill tower (or mountain as Visa described it) at Phnom Bakheng - which embarrassingly was quite difficult to do, so we could watch the sunset against the spectacular backdrop of the Cambodian landscape. We did consider taking the elephant ride up, but we felt a bit sorry for the poor elephant having to carry us two, so after debating the relative merits of the short but vertical route and the long meandering route, we hauled ourselved up the long road to the top.
The tower at the top had another case of extremely steep stairs, but the view at the top was well worth it, Angkor Wat visibly rising above the jungle. There were quite a few people already up there, although the sun was still very high. And more came. And more. And more. And the sun was still very high up. Eventually Russ and I looked at each other and decided we weren't that bothered, so we took our photos and decided to head down. The front steps were flowing with people, so we decended the tower at the back - getting a good
Bayon Lins
Lindsay "Lara Croft" Clarke view of the east side, which is starting to crumble and is propped up quite seriously. We made for the steep decent - which was flooded with tourists making their way to the top for the sunset.
It was very fun making the way down - but I am glad I didn't stay for sunset as I would probably have been pushed off by the sheer weight of people taking photos. Visa was glad to go home early anyway. We set off, but as soon as we got in the tuk-tuk it gave a great lurch. As all the other tuk-tuk drivers burst into laughter, we realised that the front tire had burst (surely not by our weight??). Visa seemed quite keen to get off, so we drove off anyway (with the tuk-tuk drivers giving us a comedy bump-off). After a few hundred yards it had become obvious even to Visa that the tuk-tuk wouldn't make it. We stopped at a repair stall and got out while the tire inner had to be repaired. Some stools were hastily produced for us - but we decided to go have a stroll along the river. All the Cambodian families had come
Elephant
Do you think he could have carried us? down to the river for picnics, it was quite lovely so we took a few photos.
Finally the tuk-tuk was ready - Visa not getting away early after all. We made it into town again, with Visa trying to suggest all manner of places where we could go dancing the night away, while we protested we were very quiet boring people, who preferred to go home. We persuaded him to take us back to the hotel, paid him and insisted we would sort ourselves out in the morning. Then ran away with his arguments echoing behind us about the many many temples still to see.
Actually, although the temples were extremely interesting, and although the Lonely Planet says only spending one day seeing them is a criminal offence, actually (confidentially you understand) we agreed that we had really seen just about enough temples in one day. And so we decided to head to Bangkok early. Not that we're not cultured or anything. Sorted - so buy a bus ticket to Bangkok, yes?
No. There are two buses to Bangkok. They take 18 people, and they were both full. We could get a taxi as far as the border for $40 and then hope we could get a connection, or wait another night. Hopefully. Or fly which seemed like the preferred choice to the travel agents - they did not seem very enthusiastic about taking the road for some reason. And the duration of the journey varied from 10 hours to 20 hours depending on whom you asked. We decided to spend another day in Siam Reap and chill, taking the air conditioned bus they day after.
That evening we had a long walk by the river (party atmosphere still in evidence) and we finally found the lively part of Siam Reap, on the obviously named "Pub Street" (or "Bar Street" depending on which map you look at. It's not like any of the streets have real names). We had a good evening trailing from bar to bar, Russell sampling more beers. He really is going to have to do that review soon.
In the morning we saw Visa again at our hotel. He complained to me about losing his job as a driver. Yes - I know, that's the job we gave you, and it was only for 1 day. We spent the day chilling out, with more bar jumping in the evening. And afternoon. We did also try to exchange some money to fund our alcohol habit, but every bank we tried (all three of them) was closed. The cause for all the partying and fireworks was the three day Water Festival. And public holiday. So we had a good time anyway but worryingly we headed out of town for the unknown length bus journey to Bangkok with only 4 US dollars on us, and a packed lunch of Dairylea sandwiches...
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Gayle
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Hello
Hello! Still not managed to catch up with Saturday's blogs (that's saturday our time - no idea which day you are and how many hours/days behind/infront you are. Hope you're both having a great time anyway... Catch up once I've caught up. xx