3 Jan 2011

.Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Day 1.

I moved to my own guesthouse and was pleasantly surprised by it all: no awful sellers, not too many offers from tuk-tuks to give me a ride or beggars. People actually were very nice and smiling. My guesthouse was also a surprise. Even though I took a dorm room – it is almost perfect. Six beds, one more occupied, own bathroom and everything looks nice, tidy and clean. The place is called Bun Kao Guest House and so far – highly recommended by me. I also ordered a tour, two days of tour actually for the Angkor Wat [it’s this `must see` thing in Siem Reap and Cambodia]. Well, maybe it was a little stupid but I booked the first day to start at 5 a.m. What can I say, I just wanted to see the sunrise. For some – you see I find it nice not only when something is falling from the sky, but climbing on to it, also.

And I also took a Cambodian Lok Lak kind of meal with a beer for only 0.5$ [beer price, not the whole meal] and so it all just tasted perfect.
I finished my night in the `Angkor Photo Festival` opening where I met my new friends from the shared cab the same day earlier. It was late, I was tired, but it was nice. I saw some very nice pictures. Unfortunately, I went home pretty early, since the next day was supposed to start obscenely early.

The second day – or Welcome to Angkor Wat. The day started not promising at all. Well, I just had to get up at 4:20, try not to wake up my roommate [And even now, I still don’t know who that was, since I never met him/her and he/she was out when I got back later that day] and get ready for my long day. Well, at that moment I did not know even how long will I be able to last it.

I started by going down and meeting my driver Kurch [I guess this is how I should spell his name]. we started to move more or less sharply at 5 a.m. in a complete darkness and went for the `Angkor Wat` direction. We stopped not long after to buy a ticket. Reminder: don’t believe your guide book [if it is a liar just as mine is]: you don’t need your picture, since they take it there for you, on a spot and it takes no more than 10 seconds and for 3-days pass you will have to pay 40$. Several minutes later we stopped and I moved [I was surprised by the way how many people are there before the sunrise] to take the good spot for the upcoming sun. Useful tip: bring a torch/flash light. It’s dark there. And although the sunrise wasn’t visible due to too many clouds in the sky, but it was still somewhat amazing and magnificent to see this Angkor Wat, coming from the blackness.

It is almost as fascinating as people tell. It is a piece [a huge piece for that matter] of great art and gives a big question mark – how they managed to built it from stones with no machinery – just as Pyramids. There’s nothing much to say about it though – you definitely have to see it to understand the fascination. And I would say it is worth seeing.

I finished my trip in Angkor Wat around 8.a.m. and went for lunch [doesn’t that sound at least a little funny?]. and moved to Angkor Thom – an old capital something thing. Once again – fascinating really. This one was my personal favorite. People who know me understand that walking through stones and other ancient stuff is one of my things and so I enjoyed every minute in there. Bayon was really amazing, I just couldn’t stop walking around it, watching all those gods/devils faces made out of stone. So I walked around it, checked it all [one again, you have to see it to know what it is like] and got back to my driver. We went to some more temples after, the names I cannot even remember 5 minutes after I was being told, but it’s the standard way to go, so every bike/tuk-tuk/guide will take you there. There was one with steep steps, where I met some russians, who were truly amazed that they met someone in Cambodia who spoke Russian. Me, on the other hand, was completely amazed that they managed to find a tour guide, who spoke fairly good Russian. There was another one, with trees growing on it, where I met this guy who understood my frustration while trying to get a good shot of the picture with no people in it. And then two more that were mostly just `ancient stuff` style. Still amazing though.
But just before I left my first day from the Angkor Wat, I found some monkeys in there. I was taking some pictures of them when I remembered I have some cookies and that it would be nice of me to share those. I tried to give it to the small baby-monkey when the big one jumped, grabbed the cookie out of my hands and looked at me as I was a public enemy No 1, but kept the cookie and ate it. I was pretty damn sure it’s going to attack me, and only because I gave it a cookie. Never be nice to anyone in this country – you might get hit.

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