Day 89
The alarm beeps at 4.30am and getting up this early is painful but has to be done to see the temples at their most magical. We are downstairs pretty quick and our driver is early which is nice, and the hotel have made us a breakfast to take with us of simple but well needed, boiled eggs and fruit.
The rides about 20 minutes and the sky is starting to lighten, very slowly, as we pull up in front of the Angkor temple. We decide to watch the sun rise from the bridge which was quiet quiet and we got some great shots, it was so peaceful, I kind of got lost in it. Once the sun is nearly up, we make our way inside, taking in all the beautiful architecture and stone murals on the ways. We walk about, taking all the outside in for about an hour and a half before we make our way into the inner temple, which is apparently the best bit. We have to wait a bit for it to open but it was cool and a perfect time to devour our breakfast. The queue starts to get really long and we contemplate not going in as the wait looked huge but it moved quick. I'm so glad we stuck it out, it was beautiful and cool and the views across the park was really something. We'd said to our tuk tuk man that we would be back at 8.30 so we make our way back to meet him.
Next on the itinerary is the Bayon which is inside Angkor Thom and through the very pretty south gate. The Bayon is the one of the most recognisable temples with its large faces and it's pretty impressive inside if not a bit haphazard as it was built and added on to as so many different times. I love the way the bricks seem all different sizes and the temples seem to be held up by weight tricks and not a lot else. Ben gets loads of snaps and I get a bit ogled. The top level is busy but the lower down one is dead and we get to sit down and take it all in. Our driver is meeting us at the Leper King Terrace which is the other side of Bayon, past the Elephant Terrace so we begin walking that was but ad it's Khemer New Year the place is filled with stalls which are closed at the exact time we need to walk through them as the Prime Minister was just about to arrive to check it all out. It meant moving was really difficult and we can't seem to make our way across. We do spot the Suor Prat towers which are near empty so we got explore and I can help think it looks a little bit like an angry birds set.
At this point Ben's stomach reminds us it's not happy and he rushes off to a portaloo (there are some blessings of it being a festival site). This little detour does mean we manage to sneak into the Elephant Terrace and the Leper Kong shots before meeting up with our tuk tuk man. We cut our tour short for today because of Ben's stomach problems but we get taken back a really cool route which we are dying to explore tomorrow.
We hang out at the pool for a bit before heading into town for some food and an explore. We grab some food from the Blue Pumpkin which was a bakery we ate at in Phnom Penh, it instantly upsets my stomach though and we rename in Blue Pookin as we now suspect it might have has a part to play in my initial food poisoning, grr.
We've heard a rumour that at sun set, at the Palace Gardens, a swarm of huge bats leave the trees, which we couldn't miss. As we walked up with had our eyes trained up but couldn't see any flying creatures and then suddenly the ground started to smell like the zoo and we approach a set of trees that were literally full of them I mean easily 200-300 it was amazing. We had about 2 hours till full sun down so we sat on the grass and watching them flying in and out of the trees in preparation. It was so cool.
Music was being sound checked as we were sitting and once the sun was down we decided to go explore where it's coming from as its New Years it's got to be something a bit fun. Turns out it's a Leo Beer sponsored concert that although the music was awed up and we couldn't understand any of the jokes, we did get a set of very snazzy hats which we won in a darts thing. We were trying to win a helmet but you can't have everything. I'm waning at this point and Ben's showing signs of the 4am start so home we go.
Day 90
We have a lovely lay in this morning and get all organise with booking our Kuala Lumpar before setting off back to Angkor, today to find Ta Phrom, the temple which is all over grown. Our tuk tuk man isn't too impressed with the idea of taking us and I kinda understand why when I see the traffic. It's grid lock and most of the way in, and all the sides are filled with family's picnicking and partying, it's such a cool atmosphere.
Once there, we start on the long stretch up to the temple which seems to appear out of the trees. It's amazing to see what happens when when its nature vs man and nature wins. The trees are growing out of the temple as seeds drop into the cracks and the roots force their way through the stone to ground. It's fine when the tree is living as it still supports the building but as soon as it does or gets blown over in a storm the rock goes too and seemingly half the building as well.
Part of the conservation project here is rebuilding these fallen sections and it's really awesome to walk through the corridors how they should have been. We stay here for about 2 hours, exploring the ruins and temple as there's no ropes to stop you and it's got to be one of my favourite parts of the Angkor complex so far.
Next we head 10 minutes down the road to Banteay Kdei which is another temple where the trees have taken over but it's actually in a better condition than Ta Phrom. Some of the wall carvings are really beautiful and a lot of the arch ways are still intact. I grab some presents on the way out and we admire the gateway before heading back as the heats getting a bit crazy.
We eat and cool down at the hotel before heading out at 7pm to explore the city a bit more and we get a tuk tuk to the main area, to a bar Ben wants to check out. It's really relaxed and we say sipping drinks till our stomachs demand feeding and we head further in and find an Italian place right next to all the noise of pub street. The food is so good and I'm about to fall into a food coma when we notice a cloud of familiar smelling stuff, creeping over. We head towards the music and realise one of the customs we had heard about Khmer New Year was true. In Thailand they like to throw water, here in Cambodia it's baby powder and it's hanging like a haze over the centre. We thought we could get away without being ghosted but slipping down a side street, a young guy comes up to us shaking his head, we trying and protest but he's adamant and we get our cheeks covered, after that we decide if you can't beat them join them and we get stuck in the throng and completely covered! It was such a fun atmosphere, with about 1000 or so people covered in talc and dancing in the street to bad dance music, how can you not have fun in that!
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