We rush through our morning routine and head out with Mr Peou at 5:15 to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. There is already a large crowd of people scattered about. We try to stake out an ok spot, eventually settling in front of the pond in front of the temple.
The 3rd sunrise that never came... cloudy skies mean we leave disappointed (yet again) at 7:15 to go back to the hotel for free breakfast.
A slight bit of sun poking through...
Picked up again at 9am. We head to Angkor Thom area first, with recommendations from Mr. Peou that the lighting will be better at Angkor Wat in the afternoon (though our tradeoff is more tourists). First stop at Angkor Thom is Bayon temple, where I get an elephant ride around the temple. Mr. Peou drops us off and says he will meet us on the other side of Angkor Thom at 12:30-ish.
Since it's only me riding an elephant, I get a small one-person baby elephant. All the elephants have speckled trunks and skin; I hope it isn't a result of the stress of not being in their natural living conditions :-/ The elephant ride around the temple is a very bumpy one and the elephant is not entirely too slow (K had to run to catch up and take photos). The elephant is very well-trained... well, at least he seemed to listen to the trainer's every command.
Elephants can be proud of the size of their poo...
Bayon is really huge with lots of faces (Lonely Planet touts 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara and we later find out there's apparently three expressions on all these faces)... built around 1200 in the exact center of the city.
Looking up, sometimes it feels like the rocks may just decide to crumble and squash you...
After Bayon... Baphuon, but we only get to see the outside since it's under reconstruction.
Kids playing checkers with shells...
Phimeanakas. The sign on the left says "no climbing" while the one on the right warns "climb at your own risk"...
Terrace of the Elephants.
Terrace of the Leper King (narrow turning walkway of many many wall carvings)...
All around the temple entrances are young kids selling items... toys, books, postcards... accosting you as you walk by. They are really insistent, giving you their sad smiles even after you're in the car. At least they're not just begging, but selling something... but isn't there school? If there are no tourists to approach, they just put their wares down and run around playing with all the other kids.
Having finished our tour of Angkor Thom, we have Mr. Peou take us back to the hotel, where we walk five minutes to Old Market and pick a random restaurant for lunch. Thankfully, the spicy Khmer dishes are not deadly spicy like Thai food.
The monkeys come out around noon everyday...
3pm. Picked up at the hotel and head to Angkor Wat... gigantic temple built around the 1100's to honor Vishnu. We, of course, make the step climb up the central tower (rising 55 meters / ~180ft above ground). There is only "safety steps" on one of the four sets of stairs, which is what I use to get back down (K uses a regular set so that Ling, who is watching our stuff, still has time to climb up and enjoy the tower before the temple starts kicking people out). The line to use the "safety steps" ends up being ~40 minutes.
Neither my words nor pictures can come close to doing justice to the amazingness of Angkor Wat. How did they manage to build this back then?!
We then head out to the pond where a nice couple during sunrise told us about the lights that are shone on the temple towers after sunset...
Dinner at another restaurant in Old Market, good food... I get a fish soup... well-flavored with ginger, lime, scallions, basil, and other fresh herbs. It's yummy! But... I get the dish 30 minutes after all the other dishes have come out... and the waitress is all apologetic in the middle of the waiting, which makes us think they had forgotten about my dish. Oh well.
The only people around eating are tourists, of course.
Sleep. 10pm.
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