Sunday, June 17, 2007

Adventure Cambodia - DAY 2

We woke up at 4.15am. So siao on to watch sunrise right?! Wth, why the sun rise so early over there. Rise between 5 to 5.30am!

Our meeting time with the guide is 5am at hotel lobby. He was late for about 10 mins! During that time, we panicked... eh, the sunrise waits for no one!

Purchased to Angkor Wat tickets at the checkpoint. Its USD$20 for a day, or USD$40 for 3 days. We took the 3 days package....and off to Angkor Wat we go~!!

Angkor Wat's total area is almost 200 hectares, making it the largest temple at Angkor... It was damn tiring... U shall see why later on~

Our very first temple shot! The sun has already risen. . . Good also lah, if start from total darkness, how to walk? They dont have streetlights there. I love the reflection on the water!

The lion that guards the temple. I heard its similar to Egypt?

Sitting at the stands waiting for a nice view of sun over temple.

We're not professional photographers with zhai cameras like some with lens even longer than my face... but I think we do have decent pictures!

The spiritual journey into holy ground.

Ah, after we walked past the entrance, we were greeted by the majestic view of the 5 towers...and a lot of people!

The inside shot of the entrance, with the hot air balloon that overlooks Ang Kor. Heard it costs about USD$15 per person to go up on it for Asians...and $20 for Americans (coz they're bigger in size).

This pic makes a very nice background for msn conversation =D

We took many pics along the way to the main temple. . . .






The path that leads into a thick forest. I read that its best to visit this forest at noon, when the sun rays seep thru the canopy... can get beautiful shots there.



This is one of the nicest carvings to me.. of dancing girls aka Apsaras [celestial dancers who entertain the gods and are the sensual rewards of kings and heros who die bravely. In hindu mythology they always performed with the celestial musicians, but in Khmer mythology they were elevated alone to special importance in temple decoration].

A poor attempt to mimic their dance posture

According to our guidebook which we purchased for USD$8 (after bargaining) and then somewhere else, another kid is selling for USD$1 (wtf!), this part is known as the
cruciform cloister' - an interesting architectural invention that connect the galleries of the first and second levels.

Danny climbs whatever he can climb.

wee!~

I like this shot...tall guy with a tall structure behind.

We are nearing the highest point of this structure... looks like the final ascent of a great mountain. The stairs are 11m only... but its steep angle and the proportions of the massif make the climb memorable...

On one of the steps, two japanese guys decided to be spiderman.

It was amusing to watch them climb =X Looking up, I kept telling Danny "later, later" when he wants to go up too. I admit that Im scared! Going up is tiring...thats fine. BUT COMING DOWN?!! In my attempt to delay. . . we took more shots in the surrounding area first =X




I like my shadow in this shot! =D

My time is near......

and up we go!
Wtf...when I reached the top, my legs were wobbly man!! Yet, its such stuff that makes this trip fun =)


View from the highest point!~

This emo monkey is damn cute!! At first, I was looking at the big frog its holding by one of its arm. It looks damn real.. Moving closer, I saw it move. OMG! Its holding a live frog like some toy! Like hiding its little treasure, the monkey placed the frog at its private part and emo-ed. Poor frog!

Coming down was indeed scary...I took deep breaths all the way down to stay in control. Grabbed the thin metal railing as hard as I can... and make sure got 3 point contact!

Going down a level to the second level where the bas reliefs reside, we began our journey in the gallery area! All these are arguably one of the most famous creations in Khmer art...the carved area covered 600m in length and 2m in height. The scenes are from Hindu sources, mainly the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. Since I only have a brief knowledge of this stories from my history classes, I built some climatic story on it to describe to Danny haha!

The whole place is so beautiful and huge...Tried to imagine how it was in its glamour years. Pretended that we are the prince and princess walking down the corridor and looking up the high ceiling... Ahhh.... In such places, you cant be in a rush... should stroll, sit down, absorb, relax and meditate. =)

Saw a long inscription which we dunno wat it is... so I act smart and cooked up a story, behaving like I know what its saying. haha! Named it 'our story' =D

Forgot to bring water along with us... and we were super dehydrated.. Thus, we had to make our way back to car.

Byebye Angkor Wat.

Being very tired due to the early morning, we decided to return to hotel for breakfast and a rest. Gosh, its fried rice again!! Its our 3rd meal in Cambodia....and all 3 have fried rice!! The drinks provided were in jugs...plain water and orange syrup. Hmmm, afraid to drink their water, Danny ordered a can of Coke. Siao!!! So early drink coke. 8+am only leh!! Danny was still kinda thirsty and drank 2 cups of their orange syrup. GG. He had an intestinal disorder characterized by abnormal frequency and fluidity of fecal evacuations after that.

Moral of the story: do not consume water of unknown source.

At 12pm, we arrived at Angkor Thom. This is the largest of all Khmer cities and remained as the capital till ard 17 century.

This is the magnificent South Gate with its towers with 4 faces pointing in each of the cardinal directions and elephants, preceded by the no less impressive avenue of gods and asuras [demon, and enemy of the gods. Asuras and gods are locked in perpetual conflict, although in the Churning of the Sea of Milk they act, albeit temporarily, in concert. Asura originally meant something quite different...like divine being] lining the bridge across the moat [water that surrounds a town/castle].

This is one of the scenes we saw in the gallery of Angkor Wat called Churning of the Sea of Milk.

Danny's favourite shot. =) The water behind is called the moat.

Passing thru the South Gate, we went north to Bayon. This is one of the most enigmatic and powerful religious constructions in the world. The temple is extremely complex both in terms of its structure (yes, we vouch for that..after sometime you have totally no idea where you are even if you possess a map!) and meaning, having passed through different religious phases from Pantheon of the Gods, Hindu worship and Buddhism. It uses a mass of face-towers to create a stone mountain of ascending peaks. There were originally 49 towers, but today..only 37 are standing.

*Such a beautiful place!!*



Lots and lots of face towers!! Most are carved with 4 faces on each cardinal point but sometimes there are only three or even just two.

Byebye Bayon. =) One of my hot favourites!

We walked on through one of the short cuts to Bapuon - an enormous temple mountain to the NW of Bayon.
Sad to say, its closed down for restoration works. . .

walked on to the Phimeanakas & the Royal Palace..

along the way we were pestered by young kids trying to see us fans, flutes, postcards, bracelets... =/

the thickest web I've ever seen!

This is the Royal Palace. It rises in 3 levels of 12m each...so no thanks! We din go up as we're tired already.

Leper King Terrace! On the top of the terrace, a statue of the god of the Underworld was found in the centre: a naked male figure (with no sexual organs), he is portrayed in a seated position, with the right knee raised, carrying a mace on his right shoulder. Possibly because of the strangeness of the figure and the corrosion of its surface by patches of lichen, it later became known as the 'Leper King', following an old folk legend that one of Angkor's kings was a leper.

Jeez, we din manage to find it =(( I wanted to see him a lot lor...

we found a lot of weird bright red insects instead. we thought it was fire ants, but after googling fire ants image...seems like its not.

As for the famous Terrace of Elephants, we only drove past it slowly. We had not much energy left to explore further. Its interesting...except that its beginning to look all the same.

Last temple of the day: Preah Khan, at North Eastern Angkor.

One of Jayavarman VII's largest projects, Preah Khan was much more than a temple: with over 1000 teachers it appears also to have been a Buddhist university, as well as a considerable city.

We only walked straight into the centre of the structure...



where the Stupa is located.
This angled shot is taken by Danny. I have another shot of this stupa..with the glowing area right above the stupa..and joss-sticks beneath. I think thats nicer.. while Danny thinks his is nicer.. we scissor paper stone to decide... yea, he won.

Heads hacked out..

Danny at his attempt to imitate emo monkey. haha, he's really tired. Right after that, we made our way out of the temple. I'm dying off too.

Sidethoughts: It is a trip to relax..so dont want to stress ourselves out by rushing through or be over-ambitious. Afraid that we would burn out. So far, althought we're very tired, we still enjoy every bit of this trip!!

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Since we are so sticky... its time for a swim!!!!!!

My first impression of the pool is that its seems abandoned... plus dirty =/ with some dead insects floating around on the surface. oh man! Went in nonetheless, coz we've changed. Its a gradual steep pool. Made him two me around... ^_^

He tried to teach me how to trap water... FAIL miserably!



Danny asked me to take a video of him swimming, coz he havent seen how he looks like when he's swimming b4. Posted it up for fun~ thought it might be interesting to some :D

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Whats for dinner? Asked the driver to recommend us to zhai restaurant. He brought us to Chao Praya...the best restaurant in town according to him.

Danny absolutely love the place! Its the highest class restaurant at a decent rate.

The ambiance is very nice too.. with these carved paintings. =)))

I ordered a thai sampler set..many small dishes with rice..because 1 of the dish made me gian - shrimps fried with cashew nuts. Danny ordered salmon in garlic butter sauce... urm, end up we exchanged orders as it was kinda spicy.. and he complained that I've made a bad choice =X

The main course came with a complimentary buffet salad bar.. spoilt for choice by the varieties!!


Cocktails @ USD$3. Cheap!! We ordered Angkor Paradise (taste like orange) and Magarita (lime).

Cheers!~ What a great meal to end the night =))

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Will be ending off here.. I'm heading to Phuket with my family tomorrow! Super last min plan.. only booked the tickets and hotel today. My dad's factory shut down for 2 days..and its rare he has any off days..so he was eager for some trip. They wanted to go Penang initially..but I boycott Malaysia and Indonesia de..so sorry. Our next ideal destination is to view ancient wonders in Mymmar or Vietnam. We went down to People's Park Centre...tour packages for these 2 countries need at least 4 days..However, my mum has to work on fri, and I have to meet Edgefield Primary's principal that morning too. Thus, we only can go for a 3D2N trip at most. The choices changed to Phuket or Krabi. As I've been to Krabi b4, I insisted on Phuket. Yeappp, here goes!!

Back on thurs night =)

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posted by sebby @ 11:13 PM