More Dreams

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Today we rose earlier than any other day this trip and it had nothing to do with the roosters outside our room! At 5am we wandered downstairs to the very quiet lobby. A few of the staff were asleep on sofas or the floor. We wanted our tuk tuk driver to wake up, but we had no idea where he was. So we tried to make a little noise, like feet shuffling, to wake someone up who could then find him and we could be on our way. We managed--after a few attempts--to wake up the desk clerk, and he found our driver snuggled under some blankets on the floor. We'd walked right past him and not even noticed. He tried to wake him, "It's time to wake up!" "No," he said and rolled over. Then the desk clerk said something in Khmer that we didn't understand but took to mean, "the beautiful women are here and they are waiting for you to wake up, so get up!" Our driver immediately sat up, apologized, and ran upstairs with his bedding. In two minutes we were on our way.

We drove in the chilly, misty dark toward Angkor Wat. At times it seemed the tuk-tuks were racing, all vying to get their charges there the fastest so we would have the best viewing. Or so they could drop us off and perhaps eat or go back to sleep. Who knew?

We stumbled our way in the dark having not brought a flashlight... like everyone else. They had them for sale, but most of use just used cell phones to light the way and see the uneven rocks.

We all wandered in, unsure how far to go, where the best light would be, where the best shots could be taken. After nearly settling on different spots, I noticed that a group was gathering by the lake on the northwestern side. Apparently this is where people gather every morning because vendors were out and the Wat was supplying red plastic lawn chairs. It was fairly quiet, all of us not quite awake, some murmuring going on, one whiny Chinese boy not understanding why he had to stay near his parents, others ordering coffee and bread.

After watching the sun rise--slowly at first, and then quickly--we left Angkor Wat and leaving it to the masses. At first we couldn't find our driver. All of the drivers were sleeping. Some had strung up hammocks in the backs of the tuk-tuks, others had curled up on the seats. One guy had his helmet on and was resting his head on the arm rest. There had to be 100 tuk-tuks parked in disarray. We finally found him, curled up, earphones in, sound asleep. We gently woke him and climbed in. Then we set off for more temples than we anticipated.

We saw 6 temples after the sunrise:
Pre Rup
Banteay Srey
Phnom Kulen/Kbal Spean
East Mebon
Ta Som
Neak Poan


First we stopped at Pre Rup, which we had passed yesterday but not stopped at since I was in desperate need of a toilet. At the early hour it was quiet and impressive, the stillness almost eerie with no one else there. The view from the top was amazing since the sun was still rising and casting glows on everything.


We ate our breakfast while we drove 37km outside the city to Banteay Srey. The building is mostly gone but what remains is in near perfect condition. The carvings have barely weathered and still look almost new. Julie thought the monkeys looked like they'd been put in yesterday. While slowing wandering aimlessly through, I overheard someone else's guide tell them how a particular carving was in such good condition you could see its, "eyebrows, mustache, and nipples." Of course, I went over to have a look and take a photo.

Next we drove a bit further down the road to Phnom Kulean/Kbal Spean, 50km outside of Siem Reap. We got out and read the sign pointing us down the road and started walking. Most sites aren't right next to the parking areas. A bit of the way in, a sign read, "1500m." What?! Oh, boy. It's already hot. Why can't they just be honest and admit that it's one and a half kilometers instead of trying to make it sound shorter by measuring the distance in meters? We had to climb over a few rocks. Okay. Then it was flat with exposed tree roots. Alright. Then up more rocks. Then flat. Then up over a rock pile the size of a house. Flat. Then up what seemed like a mountain for all its height. We climbed gingerly, putting our feet in places that looked safe and pulling ourselves up with our hands.

1500 meters later--after a 100m by 100m countdown, courtesy of Julie--we finished climbing up the borderline, death defying, and just plain ridiculous hill. We made it. And Julie managed to do all of it in her beloved flip-flops.

I looked around, expecting an amazing view from the top and looking for the waterfall we'd been promised. I could see no majestic waterfall and there was certainly no wide, sweeping view. Just lots of trees. And a small river. While I'm willing to concede that I may have misread LP a bit, I'm not willing to concede that I missed all of the information that would have been useful.

The river, it turns out, had a short waterfall. It was maybe waist high. Under the waterfall were the carvings. We wandered down the path a bit and found a rock. We plopped down, exhausted. We joked about telling people climbing up, "It's not worth it!" and wondering what would happen. We finally left when we heard the tour groups starting to arrive.

Climbing down was much easier than we anticipated. We saw cute Japanese tour groups, a Chinese group, a group of French senior citizens who seemed to be having no trouble--at least not on the flat surfaces. We didn't stick around to see how they fared on the rocks that seem like they're going to move at any minute and the next one could be yours. We stumbled back to the tuk-tuk, glad to be done.

We drove back toward the city, enjoying the countryside and the school children who frequently would wave and yell hello to us. It was cute to watch them jump up and down and get excited when we would pass by. I felt like a celebrity.


We stopped for lunch, feeling famished since our bread and jam breakfast had worn off. Our driver then drove us to see some smaller temples in the north.

The first one had elephants. Lots of elephants. I can't say much about the last two since we were so hot and so tired we weren't really paying attention. The last one had a moat around a center area that look inaccessible. It was pretty, and there was very good shade, but we were too hot to care.


We made it back to our hostel finally and we reserved our ride for tomorrow, our last day at the temples. We took cold showers, relieved and happy to cool off, and then took long naps in our air conditioned room before setting out for dinner.

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Photos

Sunrise at Angkor Wat
The tuk-tuk drivers sleep. I like the guy on the right.

Pre Rup
We had it all to ourselves. Eerie and cool at the same time.

Banteay Srey
Cow crossing

Comments

[Elyse]

Kbal Spean
There was a huge waterfall at Kbal Spean when we were there in November and most of the carvings were covered in a stream, it must be the difference in Wet and Dry season. The huge waterfall was a little bit of a walk away from most of the carvings though through some rocks.