Nico's Vacation - Day 7

19/12/2009 - It was an Angkor Temples day. After breakfast, we set out to Angkor Thom and started the temple crawl from Bayon. There were already a lot of people on each site even though we started early. It was quite hard to take pictures dodging those tourists. But then again, I suppose those tourists also thinks that they should start early to avoid crowds. It's just quite amazing that Angkor has so many visitors every day and yet there are still some parts of it that is quite run down - particularly some paths to the temples which are still sandy roads. I suppose the boom has just started a couple of years back and possibly it will turn better in the years to come.

It was 1ish when we finished Angkor Thom - the place is really big, luckily we are on the mini coaches that drove us around the temples. Otherwise, I would imagine it will take almost a whole day to cover the temples. Drove back into town and had lunch at a Cambodian Chinese restaurant before being dragged into a gems store where the only thing they do is give you free cambodian coffee and tries to con you into buying their gems and jewelery!

Next in the itinerary is Angkor Wat itself! The scorching sun hold us back. Went back to the hotel to freshen up and relaxed by the pool for about an hour before heading back out.

As the bus turned into the junction nearer to the sacred building, the moat was the first insight. The moat itself is pretty amazing. I felt very peaceful and calm and as the building itself came into view - there is just a very 'sacred' and 'holy' feeling that I don't quite know how to describe - serenity is the word. It is quite evident how grand and amazing it is. We got to Angkor Wat around 4ish and it took about another one hour to visit the temple. The crowd has subsided then. There are still a fair amount of visitors but not as busy.

Headed for dinner buffet and cultural show at a restaurant called Amazon. There were a lot of cambodian, vietnamese and thai food. I particularly like the vietnamese Bang Sung. The cultural show was a bit boring and so we left after half an hour of the show and went shopping at the Night Market instead!

Angkor Night Market is another buzz. A lot of tourists having their beer and fish massage sessions. Most of the stuff they sell are souvenirs ranging from handicrafts, bags, clothes, local produce etc.

That is it for a 2 days in Siam Reap...

Will be looking forward to another visit - a photography expedition!