Today is my birthday. I am 24 years old. I finally get to wear the watch that Rachelle bought me in Hoi An. It's a Breitling. Not a real one, but I've always wanted a Breitling and this is the closest I will get to having one for a while. We are awake at 4:30AM, getting ready for our trip around the Angkor sites. The Tuk-Tuk driver meets us outside at 5AM and it's dark.
On the way to Angkor Wat we buy our day tickets at $20 each. It's all very official and they put a photo of you on the ticket. We arrive at Angkor Wat, which is the 8th Wonder of the World, the largest religious structure in the world, the Cambodian's national symbol. It's still dark, but not pitch black. We walk along the bridge over the moat and up towards the main structure to watch the sunrise slowly light it up. Lots of people are up early and doing the same thing. Angkor Wat is a pretty sight; one central tower surrounded by four others, all shaped like closed lotus flowers. Once the sun is up we walk around Angkor Wat, which is now used by Buddhists (Angkorians are extinct). It has been vastly reconstructed; the 12th Century building would be largely worn away by the elements, and the damage can be seen in some areas. I think I preferred the eroded bits; it seemed more real than looking at parts I knew were reconstructed.
We spent three and a half hours at Angkor Wat, including breakfast and buying Rachelle a couple of dresses from the markets. Then, it was back to the Tuk-Tuk and on to the next stop. Angkor Thom is the old Angkorian city. It has five gates decorated in typical Angkorian style. They also have four big faces of Avalokiteshvara. They are really awesome gates. In front of the gates, as you walk up, there is a row of God statues to the left and demon statues to the right. I liked the gates a lot.
There are many things to see in the Angkor Thom city walls. Firstly, we see the Bayon. It's a labyrinth of twists and turns. I hid from Rachelle quite a few times, leaving her to try and find me tucked away in a corner, or behind a pillar. Good fun, at least for me it was. On the top level of the Bayon are lots of towers, all with the faces of Avalokiteshvara, like the gates. The faces are everywhere; over two hundred of them apparently (we overheard from a tour guide).
After the Bayon we saw some things, but weren't sure what they were - a tour guide would have been useful. We walked around the outside of a big structure you couldn't enter and up an alter type thing. We later saw a sign that said 'Royal Palace' and 'Phimeanakas' Temple'; I'm guessing they were those.
It was getting to be very hot as the sun rose higher and higher. Walking around Angkor Thom (which is quite large) and up all the steps on the old ruins was becoming quite a challenge. One good thing was that we weren't mentally tired from the early start, which gives me confidence for the early mornings I will face when I start work.
After what I think was the palace and temple, we went to the Terrace of the Elephants. It was a long terrace, which, unsurprisingly, had decoration in the form of elephants. Then we went to the Terrace of the Leper King, which had walls coated in carvings. It really was time for a quick refreshment before heading to our Tuk-Tuk again, so we sat down for a cola. Then it was time to drive to Ta Prohm. I had been looking forward to Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm is a temple that hasn't been as renovated as other Angkorian sites. It still has huge trees that have grown out of the rocks. The trees sit on the temple walls, or burst out of the floor. It's had some work done to it so that the site is safe, and so that it doesn't all fall to pieces, but it's easy to imagine being one of the first explorers to find the ruin. I love the intertwined rocks and trees: Nature mixed with ancient human construction.
We quickly visited one more temple before heading back. It was getting on in the day and the Tuk-Tuk driver had been working for us for over 9 hours. It was good timing too, because just as we set off the heavens opened and poured another monsoon of rain. After a little while, the Tuk-Tuk pulled over to one side and just waited. Then we saw a convoy of police four by fours, an important looking car and more police cars. They whizzed past us. I thought it must be someone important, and it was the most important person in Cambodia; the King.
Once back in Siem Reap, it was still raining heavily. We ran to a Mexican restaurant for nachos and sandwiches with chips. With the rain so heavy, there was little motivation to go anywhere else and we had a couple of drinks. Once the rain finally shrinked to a drizzle, we walked around a market before heading back to the hotel. We chilled out there for a bit; watched television, had showers and got ourselves ready for a night out. It was about 9PM when we left the hotel room and decided to grab some food before drinking was to begin. We haven't been too adventurous with out food choices this holiday, and by this I mean no chicken feet or barbecued frogs. Here in Siem Reap there are lots of restaurants that do do-it-yourself barbecues. We went to one and had a mixed meat meal; chicken, beef, squid, crocodile and snake. Chicken is chicken, beef is beef, crocodile tastes like weird chicken, snake is a bit tasteless. I didn't eat the squid.
After dinner we went for drinks at a bar cleverly called 'Angkor What?'. It was more of a club with fluorescent wall paint, a dance floor and Westerners dancing everywhere. Not very Cambodian, but three buckets and one free T-shirt later, we were dancing on a table. Rachelle fell off the table when getting down. She was okay. Then we decided to try to make the short walk home.
We got lost. Not very lost; we simply went the wrong way down the street, but then Rachelle needed the toilet and so we went into the nearest place. It was another club, but noone was inside. I had to buy a drink as Rachelle was using the facilities and they were all expensive. I got a beer as it was cheapest. It's not like we needed another drink and we wanted to go home, so after a couple of sips, we left. We took a Tuk-Tuk to the guesthouse and Rachelle was sick as soon as we got in. It's the first time she has ever been sick from alcohol. It was a good birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment