Breakfast was complimentary throughout our stay at the hotel. It was the typically type of American Breakfast and I found the way they cooked the omelette to differ from what I usually known. In Siem Reap, the omelette was cooked scrambled with the added ingredients and smoothen the surface and shape to oval. Not the kind you fried the egg, put all ingredients in the middle and fold in to half while the egg is still moist in the middle.
The itinerary for the day is exploration of the ancient capital city of Angkor Thom which was built by great King Jayavarman VII. We start with the further circuit and combing down to the smaller circuit with Angkor Wat as the last destination. Before we start off with the tour, we went to Angkor City Hotel to collect our marathon race pack. First Stop is of course to purchase our One Day Pass (USD 20) and having our photo taken just in case you are being impersonate to visit the Angkor Thom.
Our first ancient viewing is at the South Gate of the Bayon, with one row of devas (god, deity – the good) on one side and another row of asuras (demons, sinful – the bad) on the other each holding a giant 8 headed snakes – Naga, like doing tug of war. To differentiate the good people, the statute with a “Cone” crown and the bad guys are flat crown.
Bayon had many towers of massive stone faces on the top of the building and Apsaras craved on the wall of the temples. Most of the temples that we viewed later bear similar resemblance of Bayon. The next temple we visited was the Baphoun and Phimeanakas. Baphoun had lost its formal glory due to poor condition it is in and it is a representation of Mount Meru. Phimeanakas was built with rectangular layout having a central Sanctuary and several courts and ponds surrounding it. We walked the through the Royal Palace, and on top of the Elephant Terrace where elephants performed their acts and in the past it was a way to find the best elephant trainer. At the Leper King Terrace, is a wall of wide of laterite faced with sandstone and I had no idea who is the Leper King.
Before we visited the temple, our driver Sun Same, gave us a brief introduction of the temple, when it were built, by which King, etc. However, his English still need some practicing and you could actually engage a “Licensed” tour guide to take you tour around the temples, definitely with extra cost and also in your native languages. However, Sun only charged us for his driving services only, hence I got nothing to complain. Moreover, he always waits patiently around the car for us to return, come 10 mins earlier on the stated time and he kept a lookout for us too.
We were quite fast walker or viewer and we visit temples of the small circuit: Ta Keo, then we continued to visit the most incredible jungle Buddhist temple from 12th century, Ta Prohm (jungle temple). Ta Keo is the only temple with no cravings or decorations on the walls. This is the only unfinished temple and it unravel one mystery which is the temples are built with constructing the structure before craving of the decorations. Ta Prohm is living in harmony with the trees, e.g. Banyan, figs, which had grown with roots or trucks intertwined with the pillars or the roofs. There is also a famous Tome Raider temple and if I remembered correctly there is also an Echo temple, where if you stand at the sides of the wall and you hit your chest, you can hear the echo sound. In the afternoon, we visited the Blue Pumpkin for lunch, which is quite highly recommended for their ice creams and nice, cosy seats and of course, we got to meet hua’s boyfriend, Eric. He purposely take off and come Siem Reap to be together with hua lo, so sweet.
After lunch, hua did not join us for the Angkor Wat as she had visited the place before and also she wished to spend some time alone with her Dear. Hence, me and my brother continued our visit to a magnificent ancient archaeological wonder of the world from early 12th century, Angkor Wat Temple.
Angkor Wat is the largest and best preserved architectural monuments. It is a replica of the universe in stone. The central tower rises from the centre and symbolizes the mountain, Meru situated at the centre of the universe, while the five towers correspond to the peaks of Meru. The outer walls represent the mountains at the edge of the world, while the moats represent the ocean. The best time to view Angkor Wat is in the late afternoon, the color is nicer during that time according to the guide.
After the temples, we met up with Hua and Eric and had dinner at Nest. Nice place with nice ambience and good food, but the price is for tourists and expats. Only bad thing is there are lots of mosquitoes in Cambodia.
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