Cambodia Day 2

Cambodia Day 2

Start Time: 0445

"If you go to Cambodia, its because you want to see Angkor Wat.

If you see Angkor Wat, you definitely MUST go during sunrise/sunset"

99% travel guides

And so to complete the ultimate tourist experience

We decided to go for the sunrise session!

And that means waking up at 0400 that kinda hours

When all we did was talk cock and barely have 5-6 hours of sleep last night

Shagged face #1

And so we see the streets of Siem Reap in the wee hours of the morning

pass us by in flashes of dim light

This is one of my favourite shot in this entire trip

You can just feel the whole world passing you by

And you can imagine the speed of the tuk-tuk here

With slight dynamism from the little tilt in angle

So around a 20-30mins ride later

We got our 1-day Angkor Temple pass for USD$20 each

And the tickets have your own face on it!

Cool hur!

The ticketing counter will ask you to look at the camera for your photo to be taken

Like a high-tech system!

So after that it is still around 0530 like that?

To tell the truth

Its like pitch dark

You cant see 10m in front of you

But you can see tuk-tuk and private cars or coaches around

All with their headlights and beams shining

Going towards the direction of Angkor Wat

The 3 photos above were taken in almost pitch black condition

Trust the DSLR to do the trick

Just standing there and letting light come in for 1 second shutter speed

Allows the place to be illuminated in the photo

Awesome stuff!

So we just follow the crowd into the main Angkor Wat temple

Some of the tourists have torchlight

While some have guides already

Well, we were still a bit sleepy!

Hahaha!

But we still realised that we need to give our tickets to the workers there

before we can proceed further

So as we went in

And trying to figure out which way to go

Because there were 2 main crowd

One went straight

The other went right

And so, kinda like reaching a crossroad feeling

We must decide and choose the path to take

In the end, we decided to go straight

And immediately, there is this lady that jumped out from nowhere

She was saying this......

"Hi Sirs, wanna have breakfast?

I got coffee, tea, and bread"

Put this on repeat for a couple of times

Actually we didnt have any food with us also

Aside from the bread/pastries from the first night Blue Pumpkin

But it was kinda way too early to eat something

So we managed to refuse her

And the ending she gave us was damn stunning

"Ok can. Remember my name!

My name is Angelina Jolie!

My stall is stall number 2 ok?"

Muahahahahaha!

Seriously!

Ms Tomb Raider!

*thumbs up*

Anyways

Below are the photos of Angkor Wat in the ghostly hours of 5am+

There are like hundreds of people over there

Just check out the crowd

And you need to push in front

To get the perfect photo

With the angle

The total reflection of the 5 towers of Angkor Wat

The 2 palm trees framing up the entire place

The sky and the clouds and many other etc

Try doing that in that situation

And with bad weather conditions

Its damn difficult to get a good photo

Still need to try out the lighting and settings

Felt quite disappointed with some of the photos

But it all boils down to the cloudy weather I guess?

Makes everything so gloomy

Not what I expected though

=(

Oh well

This was something I expected!

=)

Anyways I think the photos will be good

With just some photoshop editing

Confirm will look damn awesome

Or at least better than what is the actual situation at that point in time

Haha!

Adrian can have this as his new Facebook profile pic

Epic jump shot!

And this was the guardian of the place

Lions were everywhere

Mystical creatures which ancient kings love

So after our sunrise

We went about to find Buffalo our driver

And kinda difficult to locate our driver

Because there were like 50+ tuk-tuk there

And it was like searching for a needle in a haysack

But Lady Luck dont desert those who are determined

I'm quite sure of that

After trying for like 15-20 mins

We finally managed to find Buffalo

And that is like looking back to the same place we have searched before

So with his help

We manged to get a tour guide for the day!

His nickname was "Mr Checkpoint''

And I thought he was a damn zai guide

Anyways we proceed to the other temples first

Bayon Temple if I'm not wrong

Angkor Wat was reserved for the late afternoon

Because we can end off at Angkor Wat and go off straight away

The way in was surrounded by 2 lines of demons and gods

Some of which were defaced already

Mainly due to the weather eroding them

Or it had dropped into the river after so many years

There was this story behind

In which how to obtain "IMMORTALITY!"

The gods and demons battle each other

All in the hopes of trying to drink the "Water of Immortality"

With our guide's explanation

I thought the story was pretty good!

Interesting and very detailed

The river outside

The guide made us walk so high up

My legs were shaking

And he asked us to go over to take a picture

You know that there is no safety support?

The rocks are not slip-proof

And it was like 5 storeys high above the ground

Plus a long way down to the jagged rocks of the place

Any chance you may have a safe landing is ultimately

reduced to a mere 0% if you fall from that height

And yes, my leg was still injured

So the picture showed me with jelly legs then

LOL!

I thought the inside view was way better!

So we took our tuk-tuk further in.......

Bayon Temple looks very Tomb Raider-ish from the outside

    

 "Mr Checkpoint" giving us a brief on what do the drawings/cravings on the wall mean

There is the woman taking the turtle towards her husband's ass

And the turtle took out a chunk of it

LOL!

Thus the frustrated look on the man's face

And people doing BBQ back then

Restoration works going on inside

Our guide also showed us where was the place to take the

total reflection of the Bayon Temple

After which we proceed on to the other side....

Below are some of the pictures of the place

This was cool!

The only angle in the place to capture 3 different Buddha faces

 And the sky looks like from inside the temples

 The Buddha and me

So after touring the place

We were given some time to explore ourselves

So we just go about taking photos and stuff before going back to our guide

After that we went on to another place....

If you realised what the signage is about

It actually shows a Buddha lying on its side

And the photo after it was the actual one at that place

Scary tree with human beings trapped inside

Very surreal

 

Restoration works everywhere

After that we went on the place where the King rendezvous with his mistress

It was on top a tower

And it supposedly have this male and female sex organ statue on top of it

Which helped to boost the sexual prowess of the King

So he can *erm hem erm hem* with his mistresses

Oh well, to see this mystical statue

We have to climb some steep stairs

Sorry but I am the mystical statue!

LOL!

Shagged out by the time we go up

Then to realise that the actual statue was not located there

And it was just a myth

Chey!

And by then

We were already damn thirsty

So it was nearing the water point

Which the guide would bring us to

But seriously lacking water

(not bringing water bottles along were suicidal!)

And we still have to cover some more places before we can hit that place

There were naga, elephants, horse faces and many other statues which represented as symbols in the whole place

Every single thing that was an important piece of information on the temples

Be it with regards to the King, his dynasty, his legacy or etc

And the lava stone used as tiles on the floor was of very good material btw!

Finally reached a place

Whereby we can sit down and have water!

"Relieved" was the only word I can think of

Even the monkey looked glad with his mini-melon

There was this joke about Mun Kay having his "iced lemon tea"

And everytime you travel to this kind of 3rd World countries

You gotta be aware of the so called ''iced'' drinks

And so as soon as we saw the ice being chopped with their knife

We just prayed that the drink was fine for him

"Ti gong bo bi, ice lemon tea bo dai ji!"

=D

We next moved to an abandoned temple, Ta Keo Temple

It was abandoned and incomplete because lightning struck it before

So the people believed it was cursed, thus work was incomplete

It looks magnificent from the outside

But the steps were.....way too steep

We were like filming "The Ring: Cambodia"

And yes, the afternoon heat is......scorching!

Honestly

The view above was pleasant to say the least

Plus it was very windy on top

And you know the saying..... 
"It's always different when you look at things from top-down"

:)

Master of jump shot - Adrian

Then after that

We moved on to Ta Prom - "The Tomb Raider" temple!

The famous tree engulfing the Buddha head

With the complicated roots coming down onto the Buddha head

Just as what the movie showed

And as what every tourist would ask if it was the one Angelina Jolie was in

There was also restoration works going on

The Cambodian government has ordered the branches of the tress to be cut off

Because of the weight straining down on the temple itself

Was causing lots of wear and tear to the ancient building itself

Some people may just feel that its a dumb tree growing out of sorts I guess?

But I think its an act of nature's wonder

To be able to grow and intertwine with the entire temple structure

And thus making it looks very magical

I can imagine the entire filming process and how it must have felt then

TADA!

This is the "Sivalingam"

The combination of the male and female sex organ

Whereby they will pour water into the centre

Which was the female sex organ

And when it overflow, the people will drink the water from it

So as to enhance their sexual powers

Cool hur!

Drinking water from the female sex organ is totally........

The tree within a tree

How the outer tree encase the inner tree

Intertwining and engulfing the smaller inner tree within

Becoming a tourist photography spot

And also trapping a Buddha within

Kinda creepy everytime I look at the photo

The Buddha is smiling back from within the trees themselves

With all the shadows and dark lines

Yup, seriously creepy

From this trip alone

We learnt about how the restoration works going on works

How all those stones are removed carefully and marked individually

Which enables the people to help to put them back in their original position

Finally time for lunch!

Simple Cambodian local food

Stirred fried beef / chicken / pork with rice

After which, it was time to hit the main attraction - Angkor Wat!

The left and right shows the difference between restored stone tiles and un-restored ones

Bullet holes

Which happened during the Civil War back in the 1970s

This was like the "God of War" statue

With 8 arms and all

But it was subjected to looting by the soldiers the last time

Because all the statues have gold in them

So you see the statues have like chipped arms and feet

And only restored quite recently these few years

The Angkor Wat libraries

"Mr Checkpoint" sure knows where are all the good angles to take the photos

The palm tree is the national tree for Cambodia btw

With a horror story which we realised when we travel to Phnom Penh

To be continued till then

And so we moved on to the upper levels of Angkor Wat

All the cravings on the wall tell a story

Which was mainly about how the King fought and how this temple was originated

Bravery, courage, fighting tactics, movement and all that

A piece of history in each individual cravings

After the history lesson

We proceed up to the towers of Angkor Wat

"Steep" is the only word I can mention

I think either they wanna cut down on costs or what

If not, why would all the steps be so steep

All look as if you slipped at any point in time, its a long way to Hell

And yes

Way windy up high

And the temple looks better above

With an unrestricted view of the whole place

Just awesome stuff!

The King's entrance

Whereby only the King himself can use

But.....under restoration also

=/

Scary lady walking in the far distance

I was quite certain there wasnt anyone when I took the shot

Like at least 90% certain

Until I walk away with this photo

=.=

The dried up pool for the King

He was very involved in mystical stuff

Believed in Zodiac and all

With 4 pools

Each with 3 different kind of Zodiac animals

And only after consulting the 风水师 then can anyone use the pool

唐三's horse in 《西游记》!

So after like more than 6 hours touring the entire Angkor Temples

We were finally done with it

It was epic

Draining to say the least

But satisfying

Its like I completed another milestone in my life

And that is the reason why I love travelling

To have this kind of feeling

Priceless~!

So after that

We proceed back to the hotel to wash up

Take some water and out we go again to hit the market

This is something I wanna try

But just looking at the items inside is enough to make me puke

And I also dono if the creatures inside are real or not

Look damn freakish real from the outside though

With the cobra, scorpions, cockroaches and all kinds of slimy stuff

Drink already dono will die or not

Hahahaha!

Sorry I got no balls to drink even though I wanna try

Maybe next time then

Dinner!

With awesome USD$0.50 draft beers

Plus superb fried spring rolls, duck meat, pineapple rice to die for

Washing it down with the Angkor beer

Then proceed to go have dessert at our favourite hangout

Passion fruit ice-cream, and chocolate ice-cream milkshake

With watermelon smoothy and all

Before hitting the night market again

Wah

That is the life!

Day 2 Cambodia completed!

:)