And you thought I was sick of temples….

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Sep
15

And you thought I was sick of temples…. (Return Visit Angkor Story)

Posted by chi.nh

Christopher Parkin told his interest when traveling around Angkor temples.

September 15th 2008

Stare at the sun

Let me start this off like I always do…short bus ride…tuk tuk drivers and hotel offers…we know where we are going…so leave us alone…get our room…done. Now the fun begins.

Well the first day was not much fun… We had some planning and some business to tend to so it was spent mostly on searching around all the travel offices pricing out the best flights and buses. After a quick bite to eat we were off to bed because the 2nd day was going to be a long one.

Up at 5 for sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was said to be a thing of beauty so we decided to make the trip. It wasn’t anything special because the cloud cover was too thick and the hoards of people made any photos almost impossible. We had booked a full day tour from sunrise to sunset of all of Angkor’s temples. yeah I know I said I was sick of temples but this one was actually something I was looking forward to. The temples are very Indian Jones-ish. Even parts of Tomb Raider were filmed here…explains Angelina’s obsession with adopting Cambodian kids, that coupled with the fact that these little guys are pretty cool…I don’t blame her.

Temple

Anyway, the temples are pretty cool looking. Krista read the book to us as we wondered about and acted as our tour guide. She is a great job as she always does but something about 5 am makes me forget all that I learned. I don’t even remember the names of all the temples. It was a lot to do in a days time but it was well worth it. As I walked through I just couldn’t get my head around how all this stuff was built so long ago. It is like the pyramids…I just don’t get it.

Walls carved with detail intricate scenes. Face after face carved out of the towering buildings looking over the towns below. Everything was amazing…it felt like at anytime I would be chased by a huge cement ball with my whip as my only weapon, spouting cheesy lines like…”snakes…I hate snakes.” dun dah dun duhhh…dun dah duhhh…”run, Indy, run!” We even found a room that looked like the room that the blow dart shot through walls. Careful not to set off any booby traps we made our way through each temple. Sorry I got a little carried away with the Indian Jones thing but it really did feel like that.

Sillhouette at Ankor

We went to watch sundown a top of one of the huge temples on a hill where once again the clouds and crowds had there way. We made our way back to our tuk tuk and eventually home. Well that was our plan until was saw a Mexican restaurant on the way. We have been over budget but it was Kev Bones last day with us. We left it up to him to decide what we were going to have for dinner so Mexican it was…we might have had some influence considering Kevin is an Irish vegetarian…I don’t think he has much taste for Mexican food. Chimichangas and chips and salsa…I’m happy and extremely tired. Bed-time for me. We had a goodbye beer with our Lucky Charms friend Kev and made our way home. I will say this…before this life is over I will come back to Cambodia (i said the same for Vietnam) The people here are amazing. Yeah they bug you for money and rides on the tuk tuks but it is because they don’t know any better. Westerner = money. That is all they are taught.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

When you actually talk to them and try to make friends, you find they are great people and smart kids, with a ton of potential if given the right opportunities. I love this place. I will miss it.
Time to pack the bags and move on to Laos. See ya!