Day1 in Cambodia

Here goes a series of post on the 6 days trip we had to Cambodia. We left for Siem Reap on the 12th of May, 2008.

We left for LCCT at 4 in the morning, as our plane to Siem Reap was at 0700 hour. I was tired no doubt, having not been able to sleep, over-excited I supposed.

Surprise surprise! We reached Siem Reap International Airport at 0800 hour. It was only then that we knew Cambodia is one hour behind Malaysia. And I was actually wondering how could the trip from KL to Siem Reap was just of one hour when we bought the ticket.

Once we touched down, and after we cleared all the immigration stuff, we were set to explore the foreign land. I was still wondering what would be our next move. I sent an email to the Angkor Tour Guide Association, requesting for an English-speaking guide to the temples of Angkor on the day before, but I suppose it was too late a move that the association could not comply, thus not sending a reply. But to our surprise, we saw a guide standing right outside the arrival gate with our names on a piece of paper. After much discussion, we finally decided to get along with the guide and the taxi, which costed 25USD and 20USD per day.

It was 1000 hour when we went to the temples of Angkor. We purchased a 3 days pass at 40USD per person. We first visited Angkor Thom. Literally, "Angkor" means "capital", while "Thom" means large or big. Mr. Shambat, our Khmer guide, told us about the history and of the structures outside the entrance - Gods and demons holding nagas, built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century.

After that, we visited the Bayon. Bayon is located in the center of Angkor Thom. It's a large building, simply breath-taking. We spent almost 2 hours inside Bayon, admiring the bas-relief and taking loads of photos. I'm just posting a few here, as it'll be too long a post if I'm going to post all my favourites. It's hard to pick, really. But sad to say though, quite a lot of the photos taken in the Bayon didn't turn out well, too much light exposure.

We walked over to the Bapuon not far away from the Bayon. It has got an elevated causeway leading to the main building. Mr. Shambat said it was filled with water beneath the causeway in the past, making it seemed as if the King were walking on water. Or something like that. Towards heaven if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, I thought it's really unique. Too bad the main building was not open to the public as restoration work is still under progress.

The weather wasn't really helpful as the day passed by. We walked over to Phimeanakas next to Bapuon, passing by some Khmer traders. And it started to drizzle. CH, KK and I climbed up the steep stairs to seek refuge inside the Phimeanakas while our guide opted to stay under the covered stalls with the Khmer traders.

In the end, we gave up waiting for the rain to pass and went over to the stalls as well. We bought cheap rain-coat from one of the Khmer girls for 1USD each, and headed over to the next attraction. We were showed the Elephant Terrace and the Leper King Terrace. The carvings were superb. Too bad it was still drizzling, making it hard to move around and take photos. But we still did captured some. How could we not?

Finally, we were brought to the Angkor Wat before calling it a day. There's only so much I can tell you about the temple, you have to be there to see how beautiful it is. And well, as cliche as it sound, a visit to Cambodia isn't complete without visiting Angkor Wat. So yea, photos taken at Angkor Wat numbered up to 120, from 3 cameras that were. It could've gone up more, if it wasn't for the rain. We could've had watched sunset or something.

Day 2 coming up next...