Well, since the visitor pass had expired, we could not visit any temple. That was a good news, at least for me. We don't have to wake up at 5 a.m. to see the sunrise and being letdown. We woke up around 8.30 a.m, and we went to the counter to rent bicycles. It cost only US$2.
We cycled to the central town and stopped at a traditional market.
Very similar to the "pasar" in Malaysia.
We walked around the market, looking for foods. There were around 10 food stalls and we had chosen a noodles stall. The stall keeper was an auntie, about 40 years old, and she can't speak English. Whenever we asked her, she just smiled or talked to her friend sitting beside us. The noodles was ordinary, but she added some unknown sauces that make the noodles yummy. The noodles cost 4000 Cambodian riel, about US$90 cents but we paid her US$1 dollar each.
Then, we were completely lost. We had no idea where should we go to. There were not more attractions, if there was, we had to pay. We looked at the map over and over again, still we couldn't decide. We cycled along the road without a distinct direction. Finally, Mr. Jay pissed off. However, we reached an understanding and we'd going to Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in the world.
We asked people along the road, we were on the correct path, and they told us to go straight along the road. A teenager said to us that it only took 5-10 minutes to reach the lake. We doubted his words. Here, the story of "The Hectic Journey to Tonle Sap" began. We cycled for 30 minutes or so but we couldn't see the lake yet. So, we kept asking the people along the road and the people kept telling us to go straight. This process repeated for the next 2 hours under the big sun. Eventually, we arrived at a fishing village. The villagers didn't know anything about the lake. We had no choice but to return to the guesthouse because it was pointless to keep cycling, we didn't know where the lake was. It wasn't a happy experience, but remarkable in my mind.
Our skin was burned severely. Mr. Jay did apply sunblock on his hands but still he suffered worse sunburn than me who didn't apply anything. Hehe.
At night, we went out to food-hunting fiesta. Firstly, we had first dinner at a traditional food stall(so called "dai pai dong" in Cantonese) which set up along the road.
Noodles.
Dragon fruits.
Fried rice.
Mix fruits.
Next, our hunting continued to Red Piano, a high class bar. We ordered two dished and we couldn't finish them.
Ginger & chicken.
Amok fish.
Finally, day 5 had come. We had to leave the lovely Cambodia. If I have the chance, I will come back for sure, with a luxurious trip.
There are 2 bridges that connect two sides of the town. Everyday, we must cross this bridge to go to the temples and central town.
The third day, 11th June, we began our exploration by re-visiting Angkor Wat. Yesterday, we didn’t see the sunrise, so we hoped to see it today. Yesterday evening, after we go back to the guesthouse, we had discussed with Mr. Baron about the plan for today. Since the visitor pass will expire today, we wished to visit as many temples as possible.
Around 5.15 a.m. we headed to our first stop. As same as yesterday, there were many visitors heading to the same destination as us, bringing the hope to see the sunrise. I believed that some of them were re-visiting the temple. We waited patiently, but there were many clouds in the sky, just as yesterday. Haiz, seemed like our hope to see the sunrise didn’t touch the heart of the God. But wait, I saw the sun, finally! However, the sun appeared on the left of the temple and it was not gorgeous. What a disappointed morning!? Never mind, I witnessed the sunrise, at least.
I had forgotten the name of the next temple that we visited. It was a small and not well-known temple, made up of bricks. It was quite new compared to other temples.
The next temple was……Banteay Kdei.
In fact, I had forgotten 50 percent of the name of the temples we had visited and I must revise from the websites before wrote those entries. Haha. Banteay Kdei is located opposite to Srah Srang. The entrance has a four-faced carving, similar to the Bayon temple. This temple was very old, huge trees grown around the temple, and seemed like the restoration work had ceased. Only two foreign visitors and a local woman with her little daughter were there. The golden era of this temple had long vanished into the thin air.
After that, we walked across the road to Srah Srang.
Mr.Baron was on the tuk-tuk tickling with his cell phone. To be noticed, his cell phone is more expensive than the cell phone of us. Fuyoo! Srah Srang is a platform, facing a beautiful and calm lake. When we were walking across the road, we can see a few girls walking toward us. Oh no, not again! Every day, we will be interrupted by local salesmen and saleswomen. Now, local salesgirls. And, they were ten time smarter and wicked than those local salesmen and saleswomen. These girls gave us a wooden bangle and asked us to take it and came back later to buy water or coconuts from them. We insisted that we don’t want the bangle, but the “little witch”, haha, put the bangle into the pocket on my pants without notice but then told me what she did. OMG, I never met a girl as wicked as her before. Okay, I didn’t want to bother her anymore and walked away to the platform. She still yelled aloud behind me, remind me to buy from her. After we had taken some snapshots, I told my friend I wanna give some Chipsmore biscuits to the girls to comfort them, because we were not going to buy from them. I was so clumsy, dropped a few pieces of Chipsmore on the ground. But still I kindly gave them two biscuits. Guess what, they rejected to accept the biscuits! Oh God, I was so kind-hearted but you……!!! Okay, fine, I gave the bangle back to her so she can give it to other visitors, and she rejected again!!!!!!!! Finally, I couldn’t bear her anymore and sent a punch to her face. Just kidding. (^<^) Never mind, I can keep the bangle for my “daughter”.
Next, we went to Ta Prom.
According to Mr. Baron, Ta Prom is his favorite temple. It’s one of my favorites too. The once sexiest woman of the world—Angelina Jolie was filming the movie Tomb Raider in year 2001/2 here. Hohooo! The main attraction of this temple is his huge tree roots. If you think huge tree roots at Preah Khan made you astounded, the beauty of the roots here would make you gobsmacked too. Let’s enjoy the photos, they can tell you more than I could.
The next temple was Ta Keo. Nothing special about this temple.
Posing at East Mebon.
Neak Pean is the name of this place.
It was unique. During the raining season or when heavy rain falls, rain water fill up the lower ground and becomes a pool. There was a small stone temple in the middle of the pool, and a stone horse carving beside the temple. There was another pool with a small stone tower.
Then, we visited two more small temples and a big temple which I had forgotten their names. Phew, lazy to describe the details. See photos.
By the way, I discovered a cute boy during the visit to one of the small temples. He’s cute, right? Hehe…
Phnom Bakheng, this was the last temple we visited and it let us down.
We managed to get to the temple around 5 p.m. to see the sunset. This temple was built on the top of a hill, so we had to climb up the hill. There were so many people, especially Taiwanese and Chinese climbed with us. When we reached the temple, we couldn’t see the sunset. Jungle around the temple blocked our sight.
And what was worse, the sunset wasn’t fascinating as we thought. What a disappointed sunset?! However, I think we had made full use of the visitor pass. Three days of temple-visit was exciting, and yet painful, only for my friend because he sprained his leg.
On the second day, June 10th, 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 3rd 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?
Very similar to the "pasar" in Malaysia.
Noodles.
Dragon fruits.
Fried rice.
Mix fruits.
Ginger & chicken.
Amok fish.
There are 2 bridges that connect two sides of the town. Everyday, we must cross this bridge to go to the temples and central town.
Finally, Mr. Baron shows up!
