Angkor Wat and Other Temples

Sunday 09/11

And so Sunday morning arrived. The alarm went off early so we could make it on time to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. It's been said online that that is one of the things that one should see if possible. As mentioned in previous post, we had booked a tuktuk. The idea is that he drives us to all the temples and waits for us outside, like our personal chauffeur. When we got downstairs he was already outside waiting for us. We were a bit sleepy considering the early hour, but eager to see what's ahead. The tuktuk driver rode quickly through the almost empty streets, almost as if this was the best part of his day, the reason why it's worth waking up so early. He dropped us of at the end of the path that lead to the great temple. There were countless other nosy tourists that were also heading to the entrance of Angkor Wat. The truth is, any spot at the temple would be great to stop and enjoy the stunning view. We went up then down and stopped at a pond that was in front of the temple. The reflection in the pond was beautiful and we figured it's a very good spot. It was still dark, more and more people were gathering to see the sunrise. Some local sales men and women were walking around desperately trying to sell their goods. "Lady, you want pants? I give you special price!" It's impressive that many tourists actually buy these things from them considering you could get them for half the price in a market that's in a bit smaller town. They thought it's a great buy, so good for them!
Minute by minute the air was getting lighter, the sky step by step was more and more illuminated. The colours were changing as if it was northern lights that we were watching. The sun slowly climbed up playing it's light games with the light clouds that filled the sky. The temple's silluett was more and more clear, the contrast between the dark building and the morning's sky grew more visible. And then in a moments time the sun herself appeared to say that it's time to start the day. It was truly a beautiful sunrise. As the sun was up, most of the people begun to walk about to enjoy the temple itself, and so did we. It's an amazing construction. I could try to describe it, but it's not that easy, best if you go see it for yourself. Because no picture or description is fair for this wonder!

One we had a good long walk in this temple we were ready for our tuktuk driver. It was a pity we didn't think of preparing something for breakfast the day before. So now we asked our driver to take us somewhere so we can fill our empty bellies. But of course he took us to the most turistic place, where the prices were much to high for the food and the service. As Pedro said, we're not tourists, we're travellers, so we should not be treated as tourists. But what can we do? We had our freakfast and headed to our tuktukt to go for the next temple.

Temple by temple we explored the area. To be honest, I don't recall exactly how many we saw, but it was enough for us. It was passed noon and we were ready to go back to the hotel. We had a rest, and then went for a quick cycle trip in the city. We found out that a ferry to Battambang is expensive, so we decided to take the bus there. We found Capitol bus ticket office and passed for the price and if they would take the bikes on the bus. The charge per person was 6.25USD and price for bikes was 3.75USD. We decided to buy tickets tomorrow.
By the market they made some fresh juice mixes, and I finally got my fruit fix. Pedro is not a big fan of fruits, so we haven't really bought any. I picked mango and dragon fruit for my drink. The vendor also added some milk and condensed milk. The taste was very nice and fresh! Yumm!
We then went to a place to do our laundry, at first they said it's too late, because the sun was practically down and they would not dry anymore, but we asked if she could just wash them, and we'd take them wet. She agreed. The price was 1$ per kg. We had four and a half, but be bargained it down to 4USD (16 000 Cambodian Riel).
While it was washing we went for street food dinner, we found a place where locals were sitting, so we figured it was a good place. But sadly the attitude from the girls working there was very unpleasant. At least the food was nice. It was a piece of bread, with marinated vegetables and some grilled meat. With full bellies we went to get our clothes, then went back to the hotel. Blogging in the evening and then we headed to sleep. It had been a long day!