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Published: March 22nd 2010
Angkor dawn
the lions standing guard in the dark.The big one, started at 4:30AM, Teow was already waiting for us, the Angkor sunrise
is very popular and it was great to be out before the sunrise, the air was very cool and on the tuk-tuk with the wind blowing it was almost chilly. On the way there we encountered a whole bunch of tuk-tuks making the same trip, Teow seemed to be doing his best to get us there before them and we overtook most of them. Still there were already quite a few people there when we got there, we got out our flashlights and started making our way to the temple, Shea enjoyed this part. Most people had gathered around the pond to catch the reflection on the surface when the sun comes up but seeing that we did have a bit of time I suggested that we have a look at the place under the cover of darkness, so we made our way to one of the entrances and into the temple. I took some pictures with a flash and am quite pleased with then. The sky was starting to get light so we decided to join the other people at the pond and waited for
Angkor sunrise
One of the early shots. the sun which finally appeared rather unspectacularly. I took a whole lot of pictures anyway and hung around until most of the people had left. It paid off as the sky started to colour a bit and the sun broke through the clouds and shot rays radiating from behind Angkor Wat, what a sight! I had lined up my shot on my tripod and was all ready when an American couple (I overheard them later on) decided to have a seat right in the middle of my shot! Idiots! I tried to move but his bum kept getting in the frame, so Shea and I nicknamed him ‘Biggus Bottomus’. Silliest thing was they were themselves turned away from the sunrise and studying their guidebook! Hello! It’s happening now! We did get some good shots and then made our way into the temple with a lots of other tourists, mostly Korean and Japanese.
Angkor is without a doubt all that it’s hyped up to be, if you have any appreciation of history and culture, this is definitely for you. We’ve spent the last 2 days looking at temple after temple and getting a little bored with the same rock
Angkor sunrise
One of the later ones. carvings, the similar structures and ruins, the monochromatic colours and hues and yet, we were immediately impressed with the fine craftsmanship, the grandeur and scale of Angkor Wat. And I speak for both my 13 year old daughter and me. We wandered around for quite a while, scaled to the highest level (now via wooden steps with handrails), marveled at the carvings and buildings and took even more pictures. As we were leaving we saw even more people arrive, the Koreans characterized by big visors and the Japanese by their high heels.
We visited a few other temples on what is known as the ‘Small tour’ including Bayon with its 216 faces of nobody knows who for sure, and it was getting very hot and they all started to look quite the same, (you see one temple you’ve seen them all!) for Shea. I was actually getting more and more fascinated with each one and regretted that I hadn’t read up enough about each one, but thank god I’m with Shea before I turn into an Angkor geek! So we decided to check out Angkor Thom, the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple that was slowly being reclaimed by the jungle until
tourists arrived. This is the one Shea has been waiting for, a program on Nat Geo that we watched a while back intrigued her enough to want to come here in the first place. Very impressive indeed unfortunately spoilt by too many people including a group of chanting Korean youngsters in their (I guess) favorite football team jerseys. We were glad to get out of there.
Having had enough for the day, we decided to take it real easy (again) napped (again) and later went for a dip in the pool (again!). We wandered into Siem Reap town, walking towards the old market, we bought out obligatory souvenir T-shirts from the obligatory visit to the night market, had a really good dinner (for once Shea was happy with her meal) and moseyed on over to ‘Pub street’ where the night life is, no girly bars, just a bunch of really nice restaurants and bars, looked great. We still had another days on our 3-day pass but we had run out of interesting temples! So I researched a bit and despite having napped in the day, we were both pretty knackered and called it an early night.
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Charlie
non-member comment
Surreal!
You certainly made a day of it--4.30AM! Sunny, I guess you may get to over heaps of interesting conversations. Some tourists may mistake you for non-English speaking Cambodians or Thais. You should of let Shea plant a foot in the BB's, BB!