Sunrise to me is not just a sunrise.
That same sun that rises every single day means something to me after I watched a ‘fail’ sunrise with someone special.
Waking up at 4am in the morning was how we started our third day at Siem Reap.
Reason being we planned to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat and at the same time to avoid big crowd.
The period we went to Siem Reap was low season because rain pours in almost every single day but the crowd at Angkor Wat were nothing near to the word ‘small’.
We hired a tour guide who is a friend of our tuk tuk driver and he speaks good English.
I have to repeat this again. THEY ARE SUCH NICE PEOPLE!!
Visiting Angkor Wat was not free, we need to purchase a pass.
One day pass costs $20, three days pass cost $40, while one week pass cost $60 and we bought ourselves a one day pass.
Hiring a tour guide for a day at Angkor Wat is $25 and to us, it is a must. No point visiting such spectacular places without a person explaining what actually happened.
Tuk tuk for the day was about $30+ which is supposed to be $15 but we went to a place much further and also we went back to our hotel halfway. So all in all, it is worth the money.
And here is what you have to bring to Angkor Wat :
1. A big bottle of water. Dehydration to the maximum level, I sweat so much I swear my shorts keep getting looser and looser towards the end of the day.
2. A fan.
3. Small towel.
4. Sunglasses to block the sun and the sand.
5. Face mist if you have one. Best way to freshen up.
6. Flip flop or a good pair of shoes. I personally prefer flip flop, the weather is too hot to keep my feet wrap up.
Beautiful even before the sun rises.
Angkor Wat’s silhouette on the right.
What a way to start our morning, looking at impressive ruins.
And look at the crowd behind!
We did not walked into Angkor Wat after watching the sunrise. Maybe nothing is as important as having a nice breakfast for someone like me.
Kehpohchi refused to buy a sunglass, he prefers stealing mine.
Bought a fake Rayban which by far look the best on me. I look like a retarded toad whenever I tried shades on and I kind of gave up on trying. But I have to buy one here in Siem Reap to protect my eyes, sands just kept getting into my eyes. It hurts.
Real good noodle soup, with kahfir lime and kampot black pepper to taste.
It was time to explore Angkor Wat after our hearty breakfast, something that I’ve been looking forward to.
I looked at the statue and thought to myself people from a thousand years ago prayed to this statue, to this God.
And by looking at the face itself calmed me down.
Corridor.
Details.
Energetic still.
Still smiling until I found out that I have to…
…climb up those steep stairs.
My legs were shaking while I climb up the stairs and I told myself to not fucking look down or I’ll die.
Forget about climbing down, I thought I was dead.
But at least it was worth the climb. Our tour guide did not bother climbing up the stairs, he wanted to gave us some alone time. I know, he was just lazy haha.
Angkor Wat is in effect a three tiered pyramid, with each level bounded by galleries incorporating four gopuras and corner towers – the upper terrace is square, forming a quincunx of towers, and the lower two, though concentric on three of their sides, have become rectangular by their elongation towards the west.
There was no problem in wearing tank tops and short shorts while I visited Angkor Wat but there was a problem when I’m about to go to third/upper tier of Angkor Wat.
There’s a dress code. Cover up your arms and your thighs.
So here I am wearing like a retard. Thank God I brought an extra tee and also thank God fatty has got an extra shorts for me.
The view from where we stood.
After visiting the infamous Angkor Wat, we headed over to Bayon Temple which is about as famous as Angkor Wat.
I personally like Bayon Temple more.
Some of the heads you see in this picture are new heads to replace the old heads that were destroyed.
One of the many faces of Bayon Temple.
Fatty managed to climb this very-steep-stairs while I watch from below. I haven’t quite recover from the mini heart attack given by the stairs at Angkor Wat.
Local children. I see the word freedom.
Impressive is not even the right word to describe what I saw. I wish I will have the chance to visit Bayon Temple again, to see such beautiful faces again even if it means literally melting under the hot sun.
Admiring the ruins.
I took an instax of fatty’s upper body and later on combined the instax picture with his lower body and captured it. There were too many people around so this is quite a fail attempt, especially when the camera did not focus on the instax. Must try again! (:
With one stick in his hand, our tour guide drew on the wet sand and explained to us how did Cambodia’s war happened, as well as Cambodia’s relationship with Vietnam and Thailand.
From there, we took a break and made a request to go back to our hotel.
Phone’s battery was dying and so was our’s. So we made a decision to charge our phone and to recharge ourselves.
I decided to go to this place called Kbal Spean after looking at it’s pictures online.
It was far away from Angkor Wat, almost 45 minutes drive away.
The site consists of a series of stone carvings in sandstone formations carved in the river bed and banks. It is commonly known as the “Valley of a 1000 Lingas” or “The River of a Thousand Lingas”.
Carvings in the river, that was what attracted me to this place despite having to climb uphill to the waterfall.
Jungle trekking is not in my dictionary but I did it, 1.5km uphill and 1.5km downhill.
I am so proud of myself because I hate jungle trekking a lot but I climbed and walked non-stop and Fatty said I’ve got potential due to my steadiness.
But then again, screw the potential I’m not doing it here in Malaysia. Haha.
Half dead!
A huge rock, out of nowhere.
Carvings and water flowing.
This little darling followed us all the way up, our companion throughout the journey. How cute!
The water flowing was so cold and for a moment I wished that I could stand there forever. That refreshing feeling is to die for after sweating so much from climbing uphill.
After the hectic climbing, we went to Banteay Srei, a temple dedicated to Hindu God, Shiva.
Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstone, a medium that lends itself to the elaborate decorative wall carvings which are still observable today. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. These factors have made the temple extremely popular with tourists, and have led to its being widely praised as a “precious gem”, or the “jewel of Khmer art.”[2]
Beautiful red standstone.
Looked dead tired after all the climbing.
The carvings at Banteay Srei are exceptionally more detail than the other temples.
After Banteay Srei, we headed to our last destination called Ta Phrom.
Ta Phrom was where Tomb Raider was filmed and we were excited to see architecture and nature merged together.
Beautiful even before entering.
And then you see a view like such right in front of you. Tree roots looking like fingers almost ready to uplift the entire building.
How is this not spectacular? I asked our tour guide, how did this happened?
Birds, fruits, and seeds. And that’s where the tree came from.
Been there, done that.
Such an amazing tree.
While we were leaving, we saw kids walking without adults by their side.
Maybe these kids are happy with their life but in a way I do feel sad for them, most of the time they look dirty.
Sometimes naked, sometimes barefoot. I just hope they can grow up healthily seeing that Siem Reap is a sandy place with floods. Sorry, I don’t know how to describe what I saw.
Went back to our hotel, feeling as tired as a slave.
I cant feel my legs and my brain wasn’t even functioning at that moment.
I just sat on the floor and stone, too worn out.
Even typing all these out sounds tiring to me.
I will have to stop here or else this post is gonna be too draggy, not that it isn’t already.
I cant linger on my blog for too long, I’ve got too much to do.
So, till then.
