Bye Bye Pnom Penh. Sniff Sniff...
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2006
1
70
102
Trip End
Ongoing
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Saturday, June 2, 2007
I made it out of Pnom Penh, begrudgingly, and all the way up to Siem Reap. Didn't know what to do with myself when I got here. So I went for a wander and food. Then went home. Massive night man! I was in bed by 9pm. Whoo!
So you'd think that after such a huge night I'd be wide awake the next morning to go see some temple ruins. Nah. Think I'll stay in bed til 1pm. Though I did a lot of reading so it wasn't a real waste. And I was reading East of Eden, so it was really not a waste. To anyone who hasn't read any John Steinbeck, read some. Awesome. Mrs Pender; tell them.
And then I decided to get my arse out of bed and go for a wander
Angkor Thom Southern Gateway
. I walked all the way to the Royal Garden, Lotus Garden and Indepence Garden. Which turned out to be about 10 minute walk. Looked further on the map. I though I could kill the whole dayby going there. Turned out I could kill, maybe, an hour. If I really stretched it out. Cue home made Laughing Cow sandwiches.And then I was back in my room. So I went to bed.
And then I got up and went out for food, ran into a guy I met on the bus, and had a few cheeky pints. Not too many, I'm gonna go see some temples tomorrow.
The Temples of Angkor. Wow.
For anyone who doesn't know, which is probably most, certainly I knew bugger all about them before travelling, these are ruins of these huge old temples around the Siem Reap area, which were built in the Angkor ruled period. That was a long time ago, and that's as precise as I'll be. Actually I think most was around 10th - 12th Century.
Let me just say that these..
Angkor Wat
. are... amazing.Loads of people buy 3 day passes and can spend this whole time (and more) just wandering round the innumerate temples that were here. There's into the hundreds of them. I went to 9. Most of the ruins are in really good condition, and many are being restored to how they were found, and some are just ruins. Unfortunatley a lot of the stuff from inside got looted by various groups - the Khmers, the French, other groups, the French, did I mention the French? - but many of the things you can see in the National Museum in Pnom Penh. A lot of huge Buddha heads were recovered from Sotheby's in London and New York after being sold for shitloads.
There's not too much I can say about the temples except the architecture is amazing, some of them are quite eerie, I got lost loads of times in the one where they filmed Tomb Raider (yup, Angelina has been here before me), and I took almost 500 photos. This is in 1 day. I couldn't face another day there quite yet but would love to go back there one day. Look at the photos, but don't expect them to do the place justice.
There are millions and millions of carvings into the stone all over
Angkor Wat 10
. Most walls are covered with them; there's hardly a brick left in the whole area left uncarved. And not like your headstone carving, these are amazing works of art and muct have taken years and years. I can't stop going on about them.And so... I got home after my day of walking bloody miles and went to bed! ButI did make the effort to go out and get drunk on whisky so you can't berate me too much.
And that's where I leave you I think. Was supposed to leave Siem Reap yesterday but was hungover. Then was supposed to leave today but anticipated a hangover so didn't book a ticket. Now I'm booked to leave tomorrow. But I anticipate a hangover...
