Cambodia - Day 2

The start of the temple-temple-temple viewing day. Amazing huge stone
hand-carried hand-crafted structures. As with all tourist attractions,
they were clustered with lotsa people, which in turn meant that your
photos would have a lot of unwanted strangers in them to spoil the
photos.

There was a huge man-made moat around the new world wonder, Angkor
Wat. The moat was something like 9km in diameter. We did not start
with it. We drove in further to this Angkor Thom Central.
Crowwwwwwded! Sighz. The driver let us alight at the entrance to the
city wall gates, and told us to walked in while he would wait for us
inside after crossing the bridge through the gate.

We really took our time to walk through and started our tons of
snapping photos. From this angle. From that angle. Portrait.
Landscape. After we were through, the driver drove us in and its quite
some distance! What are those ancient people thinking again? City
walls encompassing a jungle followed by royal palace and temples?

We spent the whole morning walking through this ancient city. Bayon.
Terrace of the Leper King. Phimeanakas. Baphuon. Prasats Suor Prat.
Imagine walking from orchard mrt to somerset and it was no straight
line. Lotsa steps to climb, with some of them that was almost
vertical! Imagine rock climbing with 1 hand holding the camera and NO
safety rope. How you got up was how you got down! A slip of footing
would sent you tumbling down, crashing your body like one saw in Mel
Gibson's Apocalypto. They had really really small stone steps. Did
those ancient people borned with size 1 feet?

Inside the place, you had child beggers asking for moolah, or tuk-tuk
driver asking if you want a ride, or children/teenagers asking you to
buy a local guide/history/photo book, or if you wanted cold drinks. We
break for a late lunch back in the city, avoiding paying tourist
priced food and to recharge batteries. My batteries were faulty and
another friend's digicam was not long lasting enough for our massive
snapping time.

By the time we got to Angkor Wat, its about 4, left with an hour and a
half to bash through Angkor Wat. After arriving there, passed through
security check only to realize I left my good charged battery in the
room. ARGH!!! Told the rest to continue while I grabbed a tuk-tuk back
to the guesthouse. Too bad I cannot find my driver and we left his
number in the room. The tuk-tuk ride was actually quite an experience
if not for the fact that I'm rushing for Angkor Wat and sunset, and
the really dusty environment.

We met the driver at the entrance to move off to the sunset view at
5.30pm. We did not complete Angkor Wat, so we were coming back again
tomorrow. We had to climb up a hill to reach the top. At the top was
an ancient structure and CLUSTERED with people. Look like back in
ancient time, they were already enjoying the view, and probably using
it to do their stargazing activities. Even the climb up the structure
was no simple task. Small steps at almost vertical inclination.

I guess this was the 1st time I'm catching the sunset. Did a bit of
shoot. When the sun was finally out of view, the guards were asking us
to descend from the place. I missed wondering around the structure to
have a good view of the surrounding. Was busy trying to find a good
spot for doing the shoot.

And our day was coming to an end with nightfall. We checked with the
driver if they had a red light district in Siem Reap. Apparently they
did, so we ask the driver to drive us there to take a look after we
went to check out our next lodging. Look ONLY. Exactly like our very
own geylang fish tank. The girls were seated inside the "fish tank''
for the patron to admire. We left after a quick look, then headed off
for dinner.

We decided to go for something more expensive. Had cambodia BBQ. Its
not buffet style, so had to order our meat for the BBQ. Snake meat was
offered as one of the dishes. The 3 of us looked at each other like
its some irony eating our own species. Snake meat taste nice except
for the fact that the meat was kind of chewy, almost impossible to
chew it through. Went for ice-cream after that, then did a little
shopping for tshirts and small souvenirs. And finally ended our night.
Had to postpone the massage session to tomorrow since its getting
late. Had to turn in early since we need to get up realllllly early
for sunrise.