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Day 4 started with a bang... err.. maybe not so. It was actually very quiet, hardly even the sound of crickets could be heard. We woke up at at 4am to wash up so that we could set off by 5 from the villa to Angkor Wat. All that for the high compliments of the Angkor Wat Sunrise, which was said to be best viewed from 5.30am onwards. Was it worth it? Not at the point of waking up, rushing down the twirly stairs of Alliance Villa just to see a sleeping Kim on the sofa still (actually my dear saw it, since I was still preparing our "ration" for another day of Siem Reap's temple conquest), gritting my teeth as the chilly morning wind beat against me on our Tuk Tuk ride over.
I wasn't too pleased with how we couldn't have breakfast since it was too early (the villa saved a 2 pax breakfast that morning because of its itinerary) and though an unreasonable displeasure, I sure as hell felt like I was ripped off of my breakfast. The weather was so hot the past few days that I thought enduring the 10 min ride over to Angkor Wat would be a breeze. It sure was. Just because I didn't want to carry a jacket with me through the day, I had to endure a grueling what-felt-like-30-minutes-of winter over in Cambodia. My advice is, when you hear sunrise, be sure to bring along a windbreaker/jacket/sweater/jumpsuit/double-layer clothings.
When we reached the entrance of Angkor Wat (by entrance I mean the bridge which was over the moat since there was already a line of ticket checkers forming a barricade that early in the morning), the place was already pretty packed. Didn't see that many tourists on our way there but if you're paranoid about safety that early in the morning, rest assured that there shouldn't be any issues since there's just too many targets around (you won't be that suay). We walked the 300m long uneven paved bridge, past a stone outer entrance, walked yet another 200m of uneven paved road, before we decided to settle down to watch the sunset on the left side.
Where in the world would one be standing to get the best view of Angkor Wat? Well, if you're facing Angkor Wat, the place would be on your left. Not directly in front of Angkor Wat because there's only a dirt road in front of it. Diagonally left and right of Angkor Wat were little ponds, with Lilies growing around. And it's these little ponds which make Angkor Wat sunrise picturesque. However, to the right side of it, you'll be blocked by some construction and the waters over there just didn't seem as glittery as the one on the left.
The directions of the left and right are sure to confuse you, based on my blog, so to really determine where the spot is, you actually don't need much thinking. Just follow the crowd. If you find yourself squeezing through a crowd, not being able to see a clear open view of Angkor Wat, are standing on pretty muddy land, then you're at the right spot.
So, if you've still wondering whether it was all worth it? 100% worth it. There was something more than Angkor Wat itself. It wasn't just the silhouette view of Angkor Wat, it wasn't just the changing colors of the sunrise (which can be observed if you keep snapping shots of it on your digi/film cam), it wasn't the buzz and hype with all the people standing around on muddy land and snapping shots of Angkor Wat as tomorrow would never come, it wasn't about the serenity of the place even though there was a huge crowd over there yet it was pretty quiet, it wasn't just about waking up at 4am in a foreign place (one of my records, running in 2nd from Scotland where my friend and I had to once wake up at 3am to catch the first train) and gritting my teeth just to get to witness Angkor Wat in a different light, and it wasn't because my dear was there right beside me to view the magnificent sunrise of Angkor Wat. It was everything, the whole experience, the whole shebang. Ironically, at that point of time, it actually crossed my mind that we should have woken up earlier since by the time we got there, I believe it was already in the twilight stage (about 10-25% light).
We spent a good 20-30 minutes just standing there, snapping shots of Angkor Wat till the skies became too bright to take nice shots of it. Which was when we headed over to the nearby foodstalls along the side road (another landmark for the area to view the sunrise). We bought a history of the Angkor temples book from a local boy over there, who hounded us while we were ordering our breakfast and whose persevering efforts paid off. Think we bought the book for about USD$6. One could get books over there for $5 and below, but it's also dependent on the kinds of books. My dear wanted such a book, thought it was a good deal, the boy seized the opportunity, and before we knew it, we were comparing the price of the book we bought with other sellers (turned out we had a pretty good deal because we were convinced we could have slashed the price down to $5.)
There was a lot of competing foodstalls along the roadside, and many sent out their recce team all the way even to the spot which the crowd was watching the sunrise (about 300 metres away). It was interesting that the stalls were named after famous Hollywood stars. Think there was Elton John and Lady Gaga over there. If I'm not mistaken, we ate at "Lady Gaga's" stall.
Ordered baguette and banana pancake (think they gave misleading names to them) which weren't fantastic. In fact, they didn't even taste good. Actually, the fluffy banana pancake was decent.
Didn't spend too much time on our breakfast and we proceeded into Angkor Watt temple. It felt different from the first day we went there, apart from the obvious, one's in the evening, the other in the morning, because of the warmth and the mood over there. Of course, the number of tourists also made a difference to the feel of the place.
Personally, and speaking on behalf of my dear as well, we preferred it in the morning. Felt safer, we were on a more relaxed pace and we were able to notice the intricacies of the wall carvings and different colors of the interior walls which we missed the first time round. We checked out the water catchment area again, because it was simply too gorgeous (with the openness, depth, and uniqueness of it), walked around the side walkways (four long straight indoor paths surrounding the temple) which were where detailed wall carvings of its people and soldiers, bicycle spokes, elephants, other animals, "tree of life" could be seen. Accordingly to my dear, there's even fishes there (based on what she read from the book we bought - post trip though). So if you're there, be sure to examine the carvings in greater detail. We thought we did, because the walls looked the same from far, but apparently we could have missed a side.
We went further inside where we chilled out, sitting on a stone ledge. The stone ledge was quite wide, so even though they were quite high, as long as one's careful, I doubt you'll fall. I find it pretty difficult to describe what's inside the temple and its surrounding structures even though it's quite a simple design. I'll attempt to do so either way. You can skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're not interested since it's based on my own memory and interpretation.
Ankgor Wat's a squarish temple. And as mentioned before, it consist of 5 cone like structures (will call them as such for the sake of simplicity and I have no idea what the exact term is). At least that's what we see it as. We only get to see 3 of these structures from the front. With the middle being higher the the other two. The four cone structures are of the same height and surrounds the central cone. You'll be able to climb to the top of the cones, not exactly the top top, but there's a place where people can stand (like a walkway/holding area similar to any of the towers in the world, like Eiffel Tower and Taipei 101. Of course, it's more "budget" at each cones. However, access to them is restricted, but from my first post, you can still climb it if you "bribe" the "guards" over there when it's about to close at 6pm.
I thought that was all to it. But it's not. Imagine the cones being on the top level (lvl 4,5), with the level below it, the water catchment, bath-like spaces (lvl 3). And surrounding these spaces, are stairs leading to another level below it (lvl 2), open grass patches with 4 individual structures at the 4 points of the square. The 4 individual structures are quite tall and steep. However, it gives a good view at the top and an even better view when you're near the edge of it. There was even a couple doing yoga on top of the structure while facing the direction of the sun.
Beyond these 4 structures (same level), is an enclosed walkway, and this is the 4 sided walkway with the intricate details of the wall carvings. Beyond these 4 walkways, actually they're connected, is another layer (lvl 1). This is the layer where the spot for sunrise viewing is (the front) and where the lilies, roads and stalls are. This level, also has a huge grass patch surrounding the entire area, and we tried to explore the "back" of Angkor Wat.
View wasn't that good compared to the front because the middle cone was slightly blocked by one of it's structures and there were what looked like temples, and a cemetery at the back. With no intention of mischief, we tried to walk nearer to the cemetery, which was interesting because unlike Singapore with the tombstones (which we rarely see nowadays) there were like little temples on each burial. However, a dog by the name of "Grumpy Black" (ok, I just made that up) came springing out from nowhere and started glaring at us. It began got bark and as we backed away, it pretended to chase us. Well, we didn't want to test our luck so we backed off, back into the temple. We didn't even check out the other temples around that region. Only thing that flashed through my mind back then, no place is worth getting rabies over.
There were a lot of "wows", "we didn't see that the first time we came", "look at the glow of colors" before we finally left the temple en route to our next destination. But before I proceed, I have to include the part where we chilled out for a good 30mins-1hour just sitting around the stone ledges of level 2. We witnessed monkeys climbing on top of the enclosed walkways, even saw a brutal fight which ended with the disappearance of 2 male monkeys sliding down on the other side of the walkway and heard the beating of palm trees, as if they were making music in the wind. It was one of the most relaxing moments of our Cambodian trip, and because we wanted to let Kim rest a little more since he was almost dozing off on our ride over to Angkor Wat that morning.
That reminded me, it was so dangerous that morning I was super paranoid. Kim actually dropped his slippers while riding and had to stop his Tuk Tuk (while we were still on it), and walk back to get it. The ride was shaky and apart from having to endure the piercing winds, I was on super high alert even though I was in a daze myself. Phew~ thankfully everything went well. Kim told us that he went for his friend's birthday party at the local nightclub the night before and was probably suffering from a hangover. I was so tempted to say "Don't make your problem my problem" but then again, Kim's pretty nice so I held it back (like real, but I did think that for a split second, thoughts which I entertain myself with every now and then).
The next 3 temples we hit were further away, on the other side of Siem Reap town but were all close to one another. They were, in order of visit, Bakong, Preah Ko and Lolei. These temples as from the guide book, belongs to The Roluos Group (13km east of Seim Reap Town). These weren't part of our itinerary but was suggested by Kim so we went along with it. Our initial plan was to either hit Koh Ker or Beng Melea, both very far from the main temple region and were remote jungle-bound-type temples.
Kim would charge us an additional $30 for going to Beng Melea, which didn't make sense to me since we already paid him $20 for that day (total of $50 to get to Beng Melea? Ha, he must be JOKING). And we later also found out that Kim had never rode his Tuk Tuk over there before. Well, I'm not sure how worth it it would be to ride all the way to Beng Melea, but one thing's for sure, there was nothing fantastic about the 3 temples mentioned above. You can give them a miss with nothing without any regrets.
Bakong is a huge square compound with a huge temple at the entrance of it as well. The usual stuff can be found there, lion statues along the stairs leading to the top of the place, elephants at the 4 corners, orangey bush-head stone structures, and a central cone structure. More interesting stuff to see around there include, larger frame-stone structures, grass infested stone hideouts and what seemed like a sibling of stonehenge (pillar-like stones piled on one another). Bakong is a more open temple compared to the other temples in that you can see the "main attraction", the central cone-like structure and it's surrounding multi layers at one glance right from the entrance.
Our next stop Preah Ko, was slightly smaller in area size compared to Bakong and had 6 bush-like orangey cone towers all situated on a raised platform. That's the only place to see that many of such structures all gathered at one spot. Near to the entrance of the place, there's a mini version of Angkor Wat and perhaps more interesting was that we finally managed to take photos of this 2 Holland guys whom we saw literally every temple we hit that day. It was like they were on the same "tour" as us. Spoke to them, and answered one of the most pressing question on my mind that day, that they weren't gay, both had a girlfriend back in Holland, just 2 close pals chilling out at Cambodia.
It was also the place where there's a huge tree at the back of it, where lots of tourists would be gathering around to take photos. Initially, I thought the Korean tourists we saw snapping photos we just chilling out under the shady tree. But decided to check it out myself since it didn't quite make sense to me that not 1, not 5 but the entire group of tourists were taking photos there. When I stood there, I could understand why. Because it's only from that view, is one able to see all 6 towers in a single frame. So if you're a photo fanatic, that tree gives you the best shot. If the tree is cut down (touch wood) when you're there, don't fret, it's just diagonal across to the back of the raised platform.
Lolei was the most "chui" temple that we went. Situated on top of a hill, it's in the middle of what seemed like an orphanage on one side (cause there were a couple of kids asking us to buy stuff, with a sign that said something like to help the orphanage out or something) and a huge temple on the other. "Chui" because all the orangey cone-like structures were given additional support. Some had sticks, some had wires and some had both. It felt so crumbly over there and the temples felt "weak". It was there that we encountered another group of kids asking for "tang guos". We decided to give some candies/sweets to them because we realised we had "spare" Mentos. Finally, we remembered to ask the kids to pose for a photo (wanted to do that for all the kids we bought souvenirs from), and of course for me to remember those buggers.
We also checked out the temple at the side and it was quite an eye opener. On the walls of the temple were vivid paintings of Buddha in different settings. It was like a mini Buddha art gallery. Not sure where the story started, but I'm sure if you were to patiently spend some time over there, you'll be able to follow Buddha through the stages of his life. And that, concluded our last temple stop in Siem Reap. Started with a bang, ended with somewhat like an anti-climax... "not the fault of the temples but the more time you spent checking the temples out, the more repetitive it became."
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i thought you liked the fluffy pancake at angkor wat!
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