Greetings and salutations one and all!
We had a big day today, finally getting to see Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples. The day started early as we had booked a Tour Guide and a tuktuk for 8am. It cost us $12US for the tuk tuk and $25US for the "engrish spreaking" tour guide for the entire day. The day consisted of a guided tour around three of the main temples within the complex. We visited Ta Prohm, where the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed, you may recognise the big tree we are standing beside. The temple was beautiful, if only we could have understood our tour guide i'm sure there would have been some interesting facts about the temple which he seemed to know nothing about. Unfortunately, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge decided to destroy a lot of the temple but it was still beautiful.
From there, we went to the Bayon temple. From what we could decipher from our tour guides mumbling and half-gibberish, elephants used to fight there for sport. But who knows what really went on haha. The place was beautiful even though it hasn't really stood the test of time very well. It is currently undergoing extensive maintenance and is covered with scafolding.
We then drove to Angkor Wat where we had lunch at a restaurant out the front. We needed the sit down more than the food, both our legs felt like they were about to drop off! The main temple is huge and you could really see why it is one of the Great Wonders of the World. It consists of a long driveway (350m) over a river, then the main wall, and then another driveway (350m) to the main temple. It too is undergoing extensive restoration which was unfortunate because we couldn't get into some of the main parts of the temple which made us want to get in there even more! We did manage to get over a barrier for a photo, check out how steep the stairs are! We would love to tell you more about it but our tour guide seriously didn't know a thing, the only information we really picked up were on the few signs around the building, which he decided to read to us (poorly) like we couldn't do it ourselves haha. The temple walls were facinating with all sorts of carvings depicting great battles and religeous stories. They have really stood the test of time. All in all, the temple complex was amazing. Would much rather have done it without a guide, but we were told you needed one in a guide book. Although there were people walking around by themselves. If you're ever in cambodia, you have to check it out!
We have booked a 1st class coach to phnom pehn for tomorrow morning at 7am (early early.) Its about 4-5 hours so it shouldnt be too bad. Will try to get on tomorrow night but we won't have much to say having traveled all day. Otherwise you may hear from us once we hit Ho Chi Mihn city, Vietnam. We are really looking forward to getting there!
Love you all!
Love Ben & Nic
Over and Out!
XOXOXOX
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