Cambodia Adventure Day 2

On the second day, June 10^th, I woke up around 2.30 a.m. That’s because I was fatigue and I slept early last night. My friend was still sleeping like a pig and I switched on the TV, and then started to prepare for the needs of the day. We departed from the guesthouse around 5.10 a.m. and the first station was Angkor Wat to see sunrise! Before I did the research for this trip, I always thought that Angkor Wat was the only temple in Cambodia since everyone is talking about this temple; the existence of other temples is being ignored.

Early in the morning.

Crowds gathered at Angkor Wat waiting for sunrise.

Beatiful scene with a cute guy. Haha

Walls tell the story.

I bought this T-shirt at Banteay Srei with Angkor Wat image printed on the back.

So, we arrived at the temple around 5.30 am and staffs already standing there waiting for the visitors. We were not the earliest, many visitors had been there. The staffs were very friendly; welcome us by putting their hands together and great us by short and heart-warming welcoming words. Waste no time, we started posing and taking photograph. Clouds could be seen in the sky, the sky was dark, and we rest at the long path and patiently waiting for the sunrise. Digital camera was ready, the sun still hadn’t wake up. For nearly 40 minutes, we waited with hopes but still sunrise didn’t appear. Not only both of us, all of the visitors were disappointed and woke up from their seats and left. We were not leaving, we began the exploration of Angkor Wat—the largest temple of all. This temple was still in restorations; hopefully the temple will stand for another centuries.

It's easy to differentiate between these two carvings. Though they are same, left one is original and the right one is new.

The Sea of Milk in restorations.

Too tired. Take a nap.

Oh ya, this is my friend--Mr. Jay Lee. Since he never show his face on his blog, so I chose this photo. (> <)

Next, we headed to the Bayon Temple—the most unique temple. It’s very unique because the temple was made up of four-faced carvings. Every four-faced carving is unique on its own; each of them was made of up of carved stone and re-combined to create one unique face. What techniques and tools they used, where they found the stones, and how they built the whole temples are questions left to visitors to play with their imaginations.

Bayon, the most unique temple.

Baphuon.

The 3^rd temple we went was Baphuon. It was huge but smaller then Angkor Wat, of course. Unfortunately, it was in restorations and visitors were not allowed to visit the temple. According to the info board, the temple will be re-opening only 25 years later! OMG, I will be 45 year old when I re-visit this temple. Hopefully I would have the stamina to climb the temple at that time. (> 0 <)

After that, we went to next station—Terrace of The Elephants and Leper King.

As reflected by his name, you can see a lot of elephant artifacts here. He was another unique one because he was the only temple with elephant carvings. Also, there were some hawk-head-human-body and unknown-head-human-body carvings. The next temple was Phimenakas.

Here, I got cheated again! Actually, it was not really a hoax. I climbed up the temple. A dark skinned young man with white shirt and cap and brown trouser approached me and guided me around the temple. Something was wrong, and I couldn’t see my friend. The young man explained to me the meaning of the temple, its structures and buildings around the temple. While he guided me, I lost my patient and told him I want to look for my friend. He told me that my friend had gone. Immediately, I want to leave but he kept annoyed me. After we walked the temple one whole round, finally he showed his “fox’s tail”. He asked me to give him some money. Well, I understood his conditions and took 1 dollar from my wallet. His friend was behind me and seemed as if he knew what do I had in my wallet and told something to him that I don’t understand. He complained to me that he has brothers and sisters and they need go to school. I gave him another 500 Cambodian riel note and said to him that I don’t have small change. I lied. He looked disappointed but thanked me and said “Good luck”. After that, I left the temple and looked for my friend. He was down there. I was the unlucky one.

Prasat Suor Prat.

There were 12 sandstone towers called Prasat Suor Prat stand opposite and parallel to the Terrace of the Elephants but I was too tired. So my friend left me under a tree and he went to explore some of the towers. After a moment, Mr. Baron appeared before me and my friend was already on the tuk-tuk. We decided to go back to the guesthouse before our next destinations. If I am not mistaken, I had ordered vegetarian fried rice during the rest but I couldn’t find the snapshot I had taken. Weird.

Around 3 or 4 pm, we departed from the guesthouse. This time, the temple was Preah Khan. It was raining when we reach there. Mr. Baron kindly offered his umbrellas to us. There were some men playing traditional music beside the path. I just ignored them. Unlike other temples, this temple was hidden in the jungle and its condition was bad. Half of the structures were ruined. Huge roots of hundred-year-aged trees grasped the buildings, created perfect attractions of this temple.

When sunset almost appeared, we rushed to Bakheng hills, hoping to see the sunset. But it was too late, visiting time had passed. Therefore, we changed our plan and rushed to Angkor Wat. Thank God, it was still opened. We took out our cameras and you know what’s next. The sunset here was beautiful. Around 6.30 p.m., we were driven out of the temple by the staffs. Issshhhh....!

Sunset at Angkor Wat.

My friend and I.

We wandered around the central town at night, again. We were looking for foods. We came to a KFC restaurant and settled our dinner.

The curry powder they used for the spicy fried chickens was different from Malaysia. The curry powder was pale yellow while red curry powder was used in Malaysia restaurant. Nevertheless, the chicken was yummy! My friend said that the bun was fried, believe it or not?