Wow......how amazing were they? We had heard plenty of stories from fellow travellers about the beauty of the temples and by the time we had reached Cambodia we were pretty excited!! We brought a three day pass and had the original plan of just going for two days, but as it turned out we used all three days.
We got a tuk tuk for the first day and had drafted our plan of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see...but had a bit of difficulty with our driver. He suggested that there wasn't enough time in the day to see all the temples we wanted too...we were positive there was (although we really didn't have a clue). As it turned out we saw less temples on day one than what we had wanted to and we were back at our guest house by 2pm! Wat! We wanted a full on day of sightseeing and were told there wasn't enough time! Consequently we used another driver for day two.
We first visited the Roulous wats which were the first built...made of sandstone...they were quite spectacular. About 800 years old we stopped to imagine just what it would be like back then with people building them and life revolved around them. All the temples, and there would be about 30 of them, are spread out over many acres. On the second day we drove one hour (40km) to see one of the 'top three' - quite a journey through the amazing Cambodian countryside. The temples are exactly like how they would appear on 'Tomb Raider', so im told anyway. We actually visited one where Angelina Jolie would have been. It had massive trees growing over, around and through thick stone bricks and is described in the travel books as the "most photographed" of all the wats.
I thought that visiting so many wats would be tiring and that i would get sick of them, especially after seeing them many times throughout the last 10 weeks...but alas we did what apparently not many tourists do and what those fantastic 'guide' books suggest not to and saved the big puppies (Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom) for last. Us Kiwis are just great pioneers aren't we!?
I was excited, then drained, then enthused, and then excited again about the prospect of waking up at 4:30am and cycling in the dark some 12km to see the suns rays as it awakes again shine over the old stone of Angkor and its surroundings. We parked our bikes up on day three opposite the long and drawn out entrance way as hundreds of tourists piled out of their noisy and polutant tuk tuks and walked the same path as us. In all its glory it, this majestic gem in the middle of nowhere, stood as it had for many centuries before and glowed in the morning sun. Everyone is told to visit it at sunrise and those guide books suggest that nothing will prepare you for it....and they were right....heleulah! While it was disappointing that there were many other people there at the same point in time and that this took the shine so to speak off the visit-i think that there is no time in history when there ain't a group visiting this wonder!
At every wat there would be many children and women trying to sell you books, bracelets, water, food...you name it and they've got it and they will hassle you and prod you to buy. This also took the shine off the visits, especially when they were hidden amongst the stone of the temples and ready to pounce. We heard sayings such as "if you don't wear this you hate Cambodia" - this from a little girl, or, "you buy postcard sir?" - "no thanks - already have" - "its not the same" - "its exactly the same", or, "you buy bracelet from me" - "no thanks" - "for your girlfriend" - "i don't have a girlfriend", then they would reply with "you know why you don't have a gf", "no", "coz you don't buy bracelet". It seems as though there is an answer for everything.
So...we visited the wats and left Cambodia...which is a lovely country with nice people but alot of poverty and still struggling with the horrific tragedies of the Khmer Rouge's trying to wipe out their own race and trying to ensure that the past is a more pleasant place to live. I would recommend a visit to Cambodia!!
So Dave and I have been shopping our hearts off in Bangkoks markets and preparing to leave for the mighty UK on Sunday night.
Peace and Love....and remember....try not to work too hard 'coz life is short.
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