Angkor Archaeological Park Ticket Office

angkor conservation entrance

7.15am

meeting our driver at 7am, we arrived at the Angkor Archaeological Park ticket office about 15minutes later. the ladies working there were all smiles and told us all about the 1day, 3days and 1week passes as if they were asking for us to sign up for credit cards. i do not understand why there were like 5 ladies attending to one customer but anyway all of them were very friendly. after we opted for the 1week pass, we started to hand our pictures over as every source had told us about but the ladies simply said "no need photo." they proceeded to take our $60 and told us to look at the same weird looking round camera sticking out of the table as the customs had in the airport. suddenly, one of the ladies exclaimed to me from my left, "SAY CHEEE-EE".. and that was it, it's done. we waited about 5minutes before we could colelct our passes. i looked weird in the picture, with a smile resembling a smirk. i couldn't help but burst into peals of laughter after taking that photo.

buddha

7.30am

we arrived at Tep Pranam after driving around the small circuit and getting to know where the ruins are roughly located. our first ruin! the very first! the excitement was almost killing us since we've been waiting for so long to stretch our legs finally. Walking across the stone pathway and taking a dozen pictures of various stones, we reached a Buddha statue. it is said that this was a Buddhist shrine in the 9th century. To the western end at the side of the shrine, we came across another statue. this seems like it was built from a variety of rough stones, seemingly more rugged than the previous one. we were offered incense sticks to pray to the statues but declined since we didn't know how to react, this being our first stop and our first statue. there is so much more to come, and i just hope that we can see as many things as we can in this trip.

7.52am

just a few steps away from Tep Pranam, we reached our next stop, the Preah Palilay, a long abandoned tower built in sandstone and laterite. It is dated to be built around 12th century /13th century although the carvings and features suggests a later construction date of 13th century / 14th century. We saw for the first time the sign which we would get very familiar with on subsequent days. "Warning. Climbing at your risk". and being us, of course we ignored it totally! haha..this is a very short tower so there wasn't much difficulty in going up or climbing down. but being up there didn't reward us with any great views so we didn't stay long and decided to move on. it feels very cooling from the morning dew but i suspect it will get much much warmer in the later part of the morning.

little girl with bracelets

8.20am

The weather was getting very very warm now and while on our way to the Terrace of the Leper King, we met the first girl who wanted to sell us bracelets. everything you have read about them is true! they will follow you and tell you they need to work for school fees, and it really got into us. So much that we decided to buy something from her, which we really shouldnt' since it's making the whole situation worse. but nontheless, it was quite heart wrenching to see her alone in the woods with no other tourists, and she saw through us when we beckoned to her that a tour bus was coming(which she quickly pointed out that it was empty) so we gave in. i kinda like teh bracelets anyway, even though i know she most probably didn't make them. we did though, ask her to pose for a picture after buying the bracelets.

terrace of the leper king

8.31am

with such a weird name, who could resist this? when we reached the terrace, it was downright warm and sweaty. the sun was already high up and we were starting to feel the heat. that being said, seeing the deeply carved nagas and demons was a treat. the wall was filled with them. it seemed to be endless and just went on and on, row after row after row of carved beings. we took a short walkthrough video of the terrace and i realised something. my digital camera was running low on batt! what the?! i had decided not to charge it the previous day as it showed a full battery, and now it's showing me just one bar away from empty?! i had no choice but to stop taking as much pictures so as to save up on the battery life for Bayon later in the morning. 

5 headed horse

8.44am

a very, very impressive 300 meters long terrace filled with elephant carvings throughout the terrace. the tourists were starting to pile in at this time and we got to listen to a few chinese and english tourguides explain the features of the site while standing at the side pretending to be from the tour..haha..free lessons from the professionals! throughout the trip i realise i love doing this alot, pretending to be innocent looking and with a face showing a great deal of awe for what the speaker says, getting free and interesting information..as a matter of fact, i seem to do it everytime i hear a chinese or english guide speak..haha..one image i remember clearly here was the 5 headed horse carved at the northern section of the wall. everyone wanted to take a picture with it!

tower

9.02am

the Prasat Suor Prat consists of twelve laterite and sandstone towers standing opposite and parrallel to the Terrace of the Elephants. It's said to signify the twelve zodiac signs (at least that's what the tour guide told his chinese tourgroup when we were beside them). the real intentions and functions of these towers are still unknown and widely debated but while we were close up looking around, all the towers seemed totally identical to each other and they were all single emptied out rooms, empty shells with seemingly no purpose. the weather was starting to get very very hot at this moment and we were getting mroe tha na little sluggish, just trodding around lazily trying to avoid the dozen cow dungs littered on the floor. oh did i mention there was a cow grazing about with buzzing flies as big as your thumb?

monks

10am

this is a huge temple tower located in the heart of Angkor Thom. being in very bad condition due to collapses, the ruin was under extensive restoration when we arrived. workers can be seen climbing up and down the tower fixing all the crumbling parts. being left cordoned off from the main temple, we just sat there on one of the steps by the entrance looking at the workers for a few minutes, catching our breath and sheltering ourselves from the intense heat. a few of the tourists proceeded to sit next to us too, seeing how hot the weather was and how comfortable we seemed to be. being from singapore, we had thought that we had gotten used to this kind of weather, but seems like this is some other freaking warm weather! i think it's because there's totally no shade at some parts of the conservation park. or maybe we ran around too much for the whole morning.

climb at your own risk

10.30am

built from sandstone and laterite, this lone standing pyramid is pretty impressive. i gave climbing it a miss since i wasn't feeling that well to climb (i was afraid i would suffer from severe vertigo at the top of the pyramid since i had just knocked my head on some beam in Prasat Suor Prat) so my friend just went ahead without me. i saw him scramble up and almost fell, which he later said really did happen since the steps were incredibly steep and small to have a grip over. he told me that the view was really nice when looking down from the top but i think he's just trying to make me jealous since i didn't climb up! it was said that a serpent which would transform into a woman inhabited the golden tower of the temple. everynight, the king is required to make love with the serpent, lest disaster befalls the whole kingdom!

bayon

11.30am

Bayon was something totally different from the other temples. our driver drove us all the way around the temple and along the road you can see all these peaceful faces smiling at you. that undying, unstopping grin on the faces. the stone faces which just couldn't stop smiling at you, and truthfully they didn't really seem like they wanted to stop. these faces are said to be moulded after both the Buddha and King Javavarman VII himself at the height of his reign, t odepict his god like all seeing status over his kingdom. it was pretty warm when we were there but there was still quite a number of tourists around, snapping pictures of every face they see, just as we were. i wished i stayed there longer but our stomachs were grumbling and we were starting to feel the first strain of exhaustion. i can never forget the place, those faces, the feeling that you are being looked at from all around. i believe it must be freaky to see those faces alone at night!

bayon

12pm

by now we are almost at the brink of unconsciousness and exhaustion. after looking around for our driver and failing since we had forgotten where he told us he will be, we decided to eat without him. which was a very bad thing to do since at the back of our minds we had a feeling he was waiting to bring us for lunch. but we decided that maybe there might be the chance that he would have had lunch before us. which will be a thought very much regretted having later. we went over to this foodstall opposite bayon and ordered a fried rice with egg each, which was the only thing we dared to eat since we were afraid we still weren't too used to the food just yet. i must comment that the fried rice with egg actually was quite tasty, and we were being too safe for not trying the other food. i have no idea whether we were too hungry or the cook was good.

1pm

when we finally found our driver, we told him we had eaten as we were too hungry. the puzzled look on his face made us regret our decision. he too was looking for us, driving around since he was curious wh ywe haven't met up with him yet. i thought at hat time that we should have crawled to him even if it meant killing us. he proceeded to take us to the Kleangs and we offered him what little we had after he refused to go for some cooked lunch without us, a packet of lemon filling cookies. we had initially bought this from the supermart for breakfast but didn't eat it as we were too busy running about like mad kids. the Kleangs, meaning "storeroom" are rectangular sandstone buildings sitting opposite the Terrace of the Elephants, behind the prasat Suor Prat. Truth is, i don't have much recollection of the place..heh..

overgrown trees

1.19pm

Chau Say Tevoda is a small temple of very similar design as the Thommanon just across the street from it. a much more neglected and run down version though, it had been lingering and languishing in worse conditions as the years go by while the Thommanon is restored to it's past glory at the other side of the street. currently under minor restoration though, parts of the Chau Say Tevoda are now slowly being rebuilt. the carvings are still in fair conditions and have not totally worn off  from the weather and naure yet. i was walking around when at this exact moment, i caught my friend eating from the biscuit packet that we had initially given to our driver as his lunch since he wasn't going for any cooked ones. What the?! how could he do that?!

naga statue

1.45pm

built from sandstone at about the same time as Angkor Wat, the Thommanon is a pretty attractive temple, albeit small, situated just opposite Chau Say Tevoda across the street. the carvings were still in very good to excellent condition when we visited, largely because it was extensively restored in the 1960s. it's pretty weird why Chau Say Tevoda was largely left to rot at that time when they were so close to each other. we were still pretty energetic at this moment, maybe because of the red bull i took during lunch and the coconut my friend took. that was the first of many coconuts he would be taking for the whole span of the trip. the battery life for my panasonic digital is pretty cranky and unpredictable at this moment and is low on batt for one moment, empty the next, low on batt again, and empty the next. i am consideing switching to my Leica Minilux if this persists.

man on ruins

2pm

just opposite the Terrace of the Leper King, these five small temples sit quietly in a world of their own. the temples themselves are not in the best of shapes but looking around you would see all these random pieces of rocks strewn about everywhere, some with very interesting carvings. the jungle seems to have swallowed this part of Angkor Thom with ease and walking around it we only met 2 other tourists trodding about the ruins when we were here. By now i've totally exhausted my camera's battery life and have taken to using my psp with a small 1.3megapixel camera attached to it to document my day. although definitely not as clear as my panasonic digital camera, i have no choice if i really want to take down all hese amazing sceneries. so much for a 6megapixel camera!

steep steps

2.30pm

after one of the guards from Apsara Authority checked our passes, we were allowed to enter the woods. it's about a 45 minutes slow walk up the hill before we could reach the temple. the walk was relatively easy, without any other tourists since we were there quite early. there were though quite a few keepers from the Apsara Authority (i presume) sitting around at some of the stops where there are no railings and a fall could mean death. up on top of the hill, the height of the temple was downright scary, and being the first high hill i was climbing, i was trembling a little and couldn't keep my mind off on how i'm gonna get down! But don't get me wrong, the view from the top is nothing less than beautiful. We were abit too early for sunset so we gave it a miss but in every 20 minutes or so you would be able to see clearly the hot air balloon rising above ground into the sky. before we knew it, it was time to go down off the ruins again.

moss

8pm

we ended our day with Phnom Bakheng and proceeded to get some rest in the guesthouse. must  have been the longest day iv'e spent looking at ruins! before long, it was time for dinner and we decided on The Touch. a restaurant right next to "the balcony" with a 2nd storey terrace overlooking the end of pub street. crowded with tour groups and we chose the balcony sit with a dozen peeing lizards above us. we were lucky the place was dark and we couldn't really see our food. there's a live band but it wasn't live when we were there. we seem to have something against the appearance of live bands, we can't seem to catch any! i ordered a pad thai while my travel pal ordered something i couldn't see in the dark. pad thai was good and rich with flavours.

staircase up to the second storey filled with artificial plants below it was a nice touch.

bayon

9pm

after dinner, we decided to shop a little before going back. that was when we came across the Rajana. selling a wide range of products, Rajana is the place to go to for quality local items at a good reasonable price. it is worth it for the quality of the items though some figurines and instruments are definitely slightly more expensive than what the villagers can offer you at the temples. me and my travel pal went in twice and picked up a few souveniers for our friends back home. filled with spices, coffee, silk paintings, cards, paper handicrafts, wood carvings and figurines, bracelets, silverware, t-shirts, musical instruments, lamps and many more, we were fascinated by everything in the store. whats' more, Rajana is a Local NGO that provides employment for many young cambodians from rural and urban groups. nothing is better than paying a few cents more to help the poor locals in learning a skill to provide for themselves.