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Published: December 4th 2009
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Angkor Thom and one of its many smiling faces... Day 5 - Angkor Wat
Was nicely surprised today with the breakfast we get here at the hotel, a big baguette, scrambled or fried egg, jam and butter, very filling and would keep you going for a good few hours..
Our guide turned up on time, in fact he was early, today we organised to be taken around in a tuk tuk with him, his name is Darith Touch and I will say now, he was great, very obliging with our needs, stopped if you saw something you wanted to take a photo of and had a very good sense of humour, his english was also of a very good standard, you will find him on www.smiles-of-angkor.com . We would say that if you are coming to this area then its worth having a guide, be it joining a group or booking your own, we are really glad we organised our own, they or he was inexpensive, you can set your own programme and there is no waiting around for the rest of the group.
First of all we set off to get our Temple Passes, we were under the impression that a 3 days pass was $20 each,
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our tuk tuk for the day... but when we got there the price was $40 each, we were surprised at this as before we came here we had read that it was $20 on many sites, but hey, gotta be paid...
We set off and our first stop is Angkor Thom this is where the Bayon temple is, it has lots of faces on its buildings, we can see straight away that these temples are going to be something else, this is the largest of all the temples and quite amazing, you just can't stop taking photos, Darith gives us lots of information about the stories of the temple and the tales that go along with them. After spending some time here we then head for Ta Prohm temple, this is where a lot of the film Tomb Raider was filmed with Angelina Jolie, for hundreds of years this temple was hidden by the jungle and because of this the trees have grown inside and into most of the temples causing some amazing sights, this is one of those places that you see a lot of pictures of and always wonder will I ever go there and I did have one of the moments when
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say cheese, yeah and you behind.... I saw the sight of the tree growing out of the temple, with its roots swollowing up the building it was like, God am I really standing here looking at this sight with my own eyes... we spent a lot of time here, just wandering around and again taking loads of photos....
Our next stop was to be the famous Angkor Wat, but before setting off for there we had a lunch stop, Darith took us to one of the many restaurants around the Wats, it was very nice we ordered fried broccoli and some other dish that I can't tell what it was called, but thought ah well, just order something you don't know, and once they said it was spicy that made my mind up. When the food came it was no disappointment, it was tasty and good portions, it cost $10 for the two of us, which is a lot compared to street food, but it was nice so you don't mind.
Spent about 45 mins here then head off for our final stop of the day at Angkor Wat, the entrance of this temple is a sight that takes your breath away, its so big,
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the sight I never thought I would see with my own eyes... amazing... the only problem is, by the time we arrive here, its mid afternoon and very hot and humid, we walked around and once again Darith told us the stories of this buiding. We spend a good 2 hours here, taking photos and just admiring the buildings, but if I am truthful I did prefer the architecture of the other two Wat's we had gone to previously, but Angkor still has its charm. We are going back here tomorrow to see the sunrise, so that going to be an early start, 5am....ouch, gonna be an early night...
Got back to our hotel, very dusty and sticky and in desperate need of a shower, because we had drunk so much water today we decided to have a beer on our return to hotel before having that shower. I came back to the room before Stan to have a shower, he checked some e.mail, while in the shower had just washed my hair, when I heard Stan return to the room, the next thing, blackout, Im standing in the shower in the dark, thinking Stan had pulled the electric key out I shout to him but he hasn't, yep our electric has
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the hidden face, well nearly... blown in the room, the rest of hotel is ok, just our room and the one next door, had to give the owner a shout to sort it out, he couldn't so had to call in an electrician, all the while this is going on im wrapped in a towel with conditioner on my hair, eventually had to use another room to finish my shower while they fixed the electric, this done just after I had got dried and dressed, ah well, it happens to us all at some time.....Went out for our usual fix of street food, had noodles tonight, looks like we are going to try a few of these stalls here, they are all owned by different people and lots of competition between them to get the people in, fun to watch...
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