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Published: December 7th 2009
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Banteay Srei temple Day 6 - 7 Dec 5/6 2009
Sorry, once again its been a few days since I managed to catch up
on our blog, not had a good internet connection here, anyway, when I left you
last we were going to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat the next day..
It was a very early day, 5am infact, we left the hotel exactly on time, our
guide was there nice and early, very reliable guy. Today we have a car to
take us around as we are going further outside the city and a tuk tuk
would take too long. Arrive well before sunrise at the temple and head
for the lake on the inner grounds of the temple, as we arrive lots of the
stall holders are there and they are offering you a "free" chair, once you
accept they then tell you that you have to pay for the coffee that comes
with the chair and it costs $1, very good sales pitch on their behalf.
Saying that most people haven't had a coffee as have left hotel very early
us being one of them, and yes I had a coffee and have to say it
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i've been framed was one of
the nicest coffee's I have every tasted, a mix of coffee and chocolate,
I was told later that it is Vietnamese coffee and highly recommended..
So, what did we think of the sunrise, mmm OK, but not all sunrise's are
the same, just like sunset, so maybe we were just unlucky, it was nice and
we got some good pics, but just didn't have the colour that day. Our
guide then advised that we leave before everyone else as it was good to
be at the entrance of the Wat as the sun came up over the top, and he was
right, it was very beautiful.
So, we then set off and headed about 30km outside of Siem Reap for a Temple
called Banteay Srei, once again our guide got us there before the mass
tourists, this temple had a different look about it than the others as
its made from pink stone, and very beautiful and I think that time of the
morning is the best time to get there. Had a good look around here and must
of spent more than 1.5 hours here.
On the way to this temple, we noticed some workers
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the rice pickers in the field, so one the way
back I asked if we could stop and take some pics, turned out they were harvesting
rice, when we stopped the car they called us over to have a closer look, they were all
laughing, chatting, smiling, so friendly and happy in their work. Anyway, we went closer and Darith asked
would we like a go, so of course I said yes, so I climbed into the very wet field, got given
the guys scythe, well the curved knife thing. It was very sharp and I was told to be very careful
I then had to hold the bunch of stems and cut them, all the time being told to be careful of my
fingers, it was fun, the others in the field thought it was so funny and I really enjoyed the experience.
Also just where this was going on there was a guy doing micro light flights over the temple., I tried to
talk Stan into having a go as he said he's always wanted to go up in one, and they were charging only
$20 but he decided not to have a go.
We next went for breakfast in
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me having a go as rice harvesting one of the villages, seeing as we hadn't had breakfast our guide suggested
a Cambodian style which is a noodle soup. As soon as we stopped the car we had the village children around us
trying to sell their trinkets, this goes on a lot in this area, we bought some little things and settled down to our
soup, it was very tasty, our guide then suggested we add some herbs, so he handed me some lilly flowers to put in it
and it was even tastier and just for a $1, bargain.
Next we went to see another temple but can't remember the name just now, our guide let us go and explore this one
on our own, and once inside I quickly realised why, it had very steep steps to climb, and when I say steep I mean steep.
Managed to get up the first flight, but the second ones where just to steep for me and I thought, Ok, I can get
up them but not down later, Stan went on up without me and took the camera and I explored the lower level, very nice, but if
your afraid of heights then this is
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Sunrise at Angkor Wat not the place for you. Now after this temple we did start suffering from NABTS,
Not Another Bloody Temple Syndrome, and needed a break from them, so Darith suggested going to a carving place where they teach
local children the art of silk painting and carving stone and wood. It was all very interesting but turned out to be just by our
hotel, and by this time it was nearly 1pm and we had been out since 5am, so after this we decided to cut our day short and go back
to catch up on our sleep, we had seen what we came to see. Said our goodbyes to Darith, and went back to bed for a few hours.
The rest of the day was spent having a wander around the local market and then went out for our usual fix of street food, that night.
We did have a drink in bar street though as there was a really good band playing so thought it was worth sitting and listening to it.
Going to do 2 days in one on this blog..
The following day was spent going back to the two temples that we enjoyed most
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thai breakfast with lilly flowers which was Bayon and Phra Thom Temple, we just wanted
to have a good wander around by ourselves and so pleased that we did as got some extra good photos, we had the tuk tuk from our hotel
and he was really good, taking us where we wanted to go and even stopped in a few extra places, well worth it. $ 12 well spent.
All in all we really enjoyed our time here, but for anyone coming to here in the future, be ready for the begging children and adults
at every temple you will have children running up to you to sell you books, trinkets, post cards etc, God knows what im going to do
with my trinkets. Have a lot of $1 bills as that is what they always ask for, so if you can't say no to these things, then be ready.
Also at Siem Reap definatly try the street food, you will really enjoy it, why pay at the expensive restaurants that are here, you
will be missing the real life here plus you are putting money into the real locals pockets.
Well, thats it on our time in Siem Reap, well worth
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us and our guide Darith the visit, words can't explain it all......
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Alvin
non-member comment
Greetings from Kuala Lumpur
Hello there, nice to read about your adventure in SR and the temples. I just came back from SR and i was on the microlight flight last Saturday. Not sure if that's me when you saw it, but if you are still in SR...go try out the flight! It's awesome and it worth the USD25 you spend on it. ;) Happy travelling.