Got up at 4:30 AM for an early start on Angkor Wat. After breakfast in our room (baguettes, bananas, and Khmer cake from the market, plus apple-cranberry juice and some surprisingly good Cheddar cheese from a minimart), we set out on bicycles for the Angkor complex ticket booth. Took a wrong turn, and when we asked for directions to Angkor Wat, got directed to the complex rather than the ticket booth, as we figured out when we got to a ticket checkpoint where they were not selling tickets. After 2-3 km of backtracking, we picked up our 3-day passes and got back to Angkor Wat a little late to catch the sunrise. Oh well.
Angkor Wat reminded us a lot of other places we've visited this trip. It had a nice symmetric approach through an impressive gate and up a long pavilion, much like the Taj Mahal. Inside, the carvings reminded us of those at Khajuraho, but they were not as nice (both not erotic and also not as well carved). The overall design was basically the same as the Khmer-style wat we visited in Ayutthaya. Otherwise, the architecture reminded us of the many palaces we visited throughout India. The depictions from the Ramayana in bass relief, for all that they were 500 years older, just weren't engaging the way the murals in the Grand Palace in Bangkok were. Also, it turned out there was a dress code (for women) for the inner part, which we hadn't known about and weren't prepared for. And unlike everywhere else we've been that had a dress code, there were no loner articles available. Lucky for Mary, the woman ahead of her in line had a spare sarong in her bag and let Mary borrow it. All in all, Angkor Wat was really nice, but left us wondering a little bit why we'd come so far and at such great expense to see it.
Fortunately, when people talk about going to Angkor Wat, they are actually referring to the whole collection of temples and such in the Angkor complex, all included in our $40 3-day pass. So after a 10 AM second breakfast of most excellent fried rice and lok lak (marked down about 50% from the prices on the menus!), we continued on to Phnom Bakheng.
Phnom Bakheng was atop big hill, and when we got to the top, we felt a little bit like we were on top of a Mayan temple, except it was miserably hot, and didn't afford us the views of the surrounding wats that we were hoping for.
Next up was Angkor Thom. To get in, first we passed over a moat on a bridge flanked by guys who looked like they were playing tug-a-war with a giant naga. Then we passed through an impressive gate.
Finally, the temple in the center (Bayon) was phenomenal and felt very different than anything else we've seen. It was made up of these wonderful huge stone faces.
Also within the same enclosure, we explored a temple (Baphuon?) that our 2002 guidebook said was due for restoration completion in 2004. Let's just say they are only 6 years late so far. But we really liked the raised walkway leading up to it.
There was also a reasonably nice elephant plinth, though Akshardham has kind of spoiled us for elephant plinths.
After an amazing lunch of chicken curry and fried noodles (don't pay the prices on the menu--negotiate for a meal and a drink for between $2.00 to $2.50), we continued on bike around the "mini-tour" and saw a few lackluster temples before stopping at Ta Prohm, which was quite a magical place in an almost sickeningly romantic state of decay, with trees growing all through what is left. The pictures don't really do it justice.
We got back to our hotel a bit after 5 PM, making it a full and rewarding 12-hour day of sightseeing. We were soaked through with sweat and so very happy to take cold showers and bask in our AC.
Speaking of AC, when we got back to our hotel, we found our whole room without power. This surprised us slightly, but since we'd thoughtlessly left our AC on before going out all day, we should have expected it. Lots of hotels in Southeast Asia have an electric box near the door with a place to insert your key ring in order for the room to have power, thus preventing you from leaving anything on while out of the room. (In India this was lower tech, with a light switch outside your room, which you could expect to find in the off position upon return if you left anything on.) In our hotel here, the room-by-room switches seemed to be at the front desk. The weird thing was that when we'd left in the morning (looking very obviously like we were headed out for the whole day), the front desk clerk had asked us our room number (which we gave without thinking about it), and then when we asked why he wanted to know, he gave us this clearly BS answer about his wife being curious how many of the people staying at the hotel went out to the temples each day. This made us think he wanted to know what rooms would be abandoned all day for a fine combing through of luggage for valuables, and thus we suddenly "remembered" that we "forgot" to pack a few of the heavier valuable things we'd hoped to leave in the hotel all day. It all made sense when we returned and found the power off, and no evidence of our room having been entered, but when Josh went down stairs to have the power turned back on, they gave him another clearly BS reason for the power having been off. It was really strange, and more than a little annoying, having them lie to us about this.
For dinner we went to a pretty expensive restaurant for this trip (around $10 for the two of us), and got served watered down orange juice. Fortunately there's no need to fear water in restaurants in Cambodia--they don't drink the tap water without boiling it either--but it was certainly frustrating. I guess that's the trouble with going to restaurants that cater to tourists... but there is little else in Siem Reap.
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Why are you advocating to bargain with these poor people, haggling for a $2 meal. These people have nothing. You must be so miserable. You should pay more than they ask.
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