Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

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Feeling much better now, we decided that we could manage a very early start to experience sunrise at Angkor Wat. This meant that we had to set the alarm for 4.30am!!!! We had a quick shower to wake ourselves up a bit and met Vi downstairs just after 5.00am. It was so early that the night guard had to open the front gates to let us and another couple out to meet our tuk tuk drivers.

There were HEAPS of other tourists all making their way out to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. It made us feel slightly less crazy for being up at 4.30am knowing that we were not the only ones?! Even though Vi dropped us at Angkor Wat by about 5.30am we were far from the first ones there. Although well prepared with our head torches, it was at this point that we thought that it would have been a really good idea to have popped into the site as we drove back and forth in the last two days to reconnoitre a bit in the daylight for where we would want to take our photos from?!

Anyway, after a bit of a false turn, just inside the outer wall, we eventually found our way to the left reflection pool which was where Nathan had told us we needed to be for the best photos. At this point the hawkers descended on us to sell us coffee. So we bought two coffees (US$2.00) because with your coffee you get a free chair - which makes the wait for sunrise much more comfortable!! Yet another great tip from Nathan!

Could not believe the number of tourists asking questions like: ‘Do you have tea?’, ‘What sort of tea do you have?’ and ‘Can you make my coffee really weak?’. Anyone would have thought we were in a trendy cafe in some cosmopolitan city somewhere rather than at a UNESCO World Heritage site where ‘it’ was the main event - not the damn coffee!!!!

Anyway, with our coffees (that we had no intention of drinking because I didn’t even think of asking if they had decaf and Bernie NEVER drinks the stuff anyway) and our chairs Bernie set up the tripod and we settled in for the wait. Bernie just kept on taking photos in the hope that a few will be a little bit special. The light changes so rapidly that you just never really know when ‘the’ moment is for the best photo.

After the sky lightened to a delicate pink an unbelievable number of tourists started heading off into the temple. If they had been a bit more patient they would have actually seen the sun appear from behind one of the lotus bud towers. A truly exciting and impressive moment which elicited much oohing and ahhing from the crowd that remained!!

At this point the hawkers were back offering breakfast. Nathan had recommended having some breakfast to let the first wave of tourists clear the temple so that we could venture in to do our sightseeing (and photographing) between those tourists and the second wave arriving after eating their breakfast at their hotel. We decided we weren’t game to eat breakfast, but we did wait a while until we could see that there were a lot of tourists starting to leave.

The lotus bud towers give Angkor Wat its distinctive silhouette. Inside its well-preserved and incredibly intricate bas-reliefs define it. It is, without a doubt, a truly stupendous structure and it simply defies the imagination that they managed to construct it with stone quarried 50km away without trucks to deliver the stone and without cranes to lift it into place!!! As with the pyramids, I guess Kings can demand incredible feats from their adoring (?) subjects.

At about 10.00am we met Vi in the tuk tuk park across the road and asked him to bring us back to the hotel for a few hours so that we could avoid the hottest part of the day. Feeling rather hungry - for the first time in days - we had omelettes for brunch before a bit more rest and relaxation!!

We arranged for Vi to collect us again at 3.00pm to take us out to Angkor Thom where we explored the wonders of Bayon - yet another remarkable ruin!! We were not able to explore Baphuon, which is part of the Angkor Thom complex, as it is undergoing extensive restorations at the moment. We finished the afternoon on the Terrace of the Elephants overlooking the towers of the Prasat Suor Prat which looked amazing the late afternoon sunlight.

When we met Vi he told us that there are 12 towers making up the Prasat Suor Prat - one that corresponds with each of the years in the Cambodian 12 year cycle (like the Chinese years). One theory suggests that criminals were detained in the tower corresponding with their birth year for three days. If they were healthy when they were released they were deemed innocent. If they were sick - well, that was divine judgement! Another theory is that ropes were strung between the towers on which acrobats performed for the King who watched from his pavilion set up on the Terrace of the Elephants.

Back at the hotel we freshened up a bit and headed into town again for dinner. The hotel runs a mini bus into town so it is very easy to get there. With Bernie’s walking buddy, Paul, in mind we ate at ‘Le Tigre Papier’. And we both ate Cambodian food tonight!! Bernie had some chicken amok and I had a beef and noodle stir-fry that tasted remarkably like chicken noodle soup?!

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Comments

[Janet]

keep blogging
Hi, glad to hear you are both feeling much better. Are you templed out yet? Your photos on the blog are excellent! I love the sunrise photos, not sure that I could motivate myself to get up that early. Maybe a postcard would do me! But the one with the sun peeking through the towers was really fantastic. Keep up the story telling, it is worth the visit to hear about your experiences love Janet xx

[Sandra]

fab photos - wow are you ever fitting it all in