We left our pool paradise at 5am to get to the airport. We flew Bagkok Airlines to Siem Reap in Cambodia on a 35 minute flight. The flight was so short that air hostess did a sprint run of delivering our refreshments and then collecting the empty boxes and glasses. They had no sooner put our snack boxes down, when they were encouraging us to "eat up" and return the boxes.
We landed in Siem Reap and a flood of nostalgia engulfed us, we walked to the terminal (like back in good ole East London!). The airport resembles a thatched resort from the outside, but once inside we were quickly approached by a Cambodian lady that demanded our passports visas and "twenty five dollar", the money disappeared so quickly I was unsure whether I had in fact given her the money.
No worries, 15 minutes later we were walking outside and straight into the blinding sun and heat. Forget travelling to the centre of the earth, Siem Reap is hotter! The sweat just pours off you constantly. Our driver arrived and we had a pleasurable air conditioned drive to the Angkor Voyage Villa.
We arrived at 10am so I room was not ready so we headed off into the "city". We walked around and through the market in the ecntre of the city. Constantly we were asked to buy postcards and books on Angkor Wat, "pleeeese madam, only 1 dollaaaar". The market was quite an event. Julie almost heaved as we walked through the meat section first (not on purpose). Pigs heads, ducks, etc. were all in amongst the chopped meat lying open on tiled counters. The Cambodians were crouching on their haunches in amongst the meat, with meat cleavers in their hands, raedy to chop you a piece of meat. The flies and smell were unbeat able and we managed to move along into the clothes market before Julie had an accident. The rest of the market was much better with Jules displaying her batering skills to purchase some dessert spoons, a vest, a sun hat etc. I was facinated by the fish section and investigated the "fish" more closely. There were live crabs, live eels, some klind of river snake or very thin eel etc. The bigger fish were all giving a flap of a fin every now and again ............. not very Nemo like!
After experiencing the market we managed to find our hostel and have a shower before heading off at 4:30pm to have an elephant ride. Our tuk tuk drove us to the angkor wat temple site,we purchased our $20 tickets and we were whisked off to bakheng. On thr way we drove past the magnificent, wonder of the world, angkor wat. We stopped to take a twilight pic of the temple.
We drove through to the foot of the bajheng temple and went to hire our elaphant but were told that there were none left! So we made a dejected pair as we hiked up to the temple to see the sunset.
At the temple we wondered around and explored the temple. Jules decided that she would get us an elaphant! She must have asked about 20 times before the guy eventually said yes. So we paid $20 a climbed on board for an incredible ride. The elaphant went down the steep twisty slope. The seat we were sitting on kept leaning to either side and it felt like we would fall off. Anyway lots of fun as well.
Then it was back home and out for cambodian fried noodles with pork. We were in bed fairly early a we were leaving at 4:15am for the angkor wat sunrise.
SUNRISE OVER ANGKOR WAT
We awoke at 4am excited, hope ul and still asleep for our sunrise expierence. We were soon awake as the tuk tuk headed for the temples and hit some serious size potholes (Transkei size).
We reached the temple site in darkness and moved along the bridge gingerly, until we came to the entrance. Here it was so dark we could not see our hand in front of our face, so I switched on the camera and we used the viewfinder's light as a torch, "a boer make a plan ne?"
We wondered along the entire inner courtyard and started to go through the second gate structure when we nearly shat ourselves as we heard "sorry no open, come 6 a cluck" from within the depths of the darkness. The owner of the "scary" voice was a meesley tiny cambodian and had a good laugh as we headed back down the inner courtyard to the enance. There were people starting to gather now, so we looked for a good spot. Not knowing what a good spot was, we guessed and waited.
As it got lighter, the hordes began arriving (in truth about 400 people). And then we witnessed a fantastic anti climax as the sky got lighter but the sun was nowhere to be seen. Yet, despite the sun's no show, by 6am we were sweating prefously, which was to be the pattern of the day.
The sun did eventually show it's sorry face, but by this time it was fairly high in the sky, so no help with the photographs. We explored the massive mighty angkor wat, climbed some very steep very high stairs and got very nervous coming down - well truth be told I was scared trying to come down and my fear of heights was not helping. But you have to suck it up and go for it, so I did. The photos from up near the heavens (well that's how high it felt) were amazing.
We made our way back to the tuk tuk at 9am and then we followed angelina's footsteps and found ourselves at ta phrom, which was the temple used in tomb raider 1.
This was our favourite temple as it has not been restored yet and trees have grown in amongst the walls. The site of tree's roots intertwined with temple walls was fascinating to say the least.
We stopped at a few more temples on our way out of the site.
We had a good nap and headed off to the khmer resturant to sample some traditional cambodian feet - really good again. The rain came down in buckets for about 2 hours. Luckiky we were in the internet caf¨¦ for most of the time, but did get a bit wet getting home (i suppose to be more correct I should say jules was completely dry using my rain coat, while I got fairly soaked).
Well, I write this now on my pda while I wait for jules to finish her full body massage.
Yes ........... Julie has enjoyed herself, a big smile on her face. She was jumped on, kneed, elbowed etc. and loved it! Me, no thanks£¡
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