Angkor Wat

And finally - Angkor Wat.

We did the sunrise thing (after one false start...), and it was nice, but, dare I say it, kind of overrated. I mean overrrated cos the place is already so amazing and breathtaking, the sunrise thing seemed like a tourist gimmick.

You should know by now that Angkor Wat is full of tourists. Whaddya gonna do. I mean, there was even a tethered hot air balloon in my view looking out from the Angkor Wat temple! With that in sight, and so many people around you, it was hard to try and imagine what it must have been like centuries ago. I'd like to imagine it was kind of... magical. Ah, perhaps I am romanticising it. But you look at the architecture of the temples and there's no denying it was just so... GRAND.



It was also a shame too that some temples had scaffolding and green tarps in certain places, due to the reconstruction work. But I guess that's a good thing, though.

Visiting the temples involved climbing a lot of precarious rock stairs. Tip: visit Ta Prohm (aka the "Tomb Raider" temple) first!! Just book it over there. Otherwise, when you get there at 10 in the morning, like I did, it will be full of Korean tourists, who are the Japanese tourists of the 21st century. Not that there's anything wrong with them, they're fine, but I couldn't even get a photo of the temple without a Korean in my frame.

Then we got temple fatigue. So we decided to go to one of the "outlying" temples. Only 49km away, we thought. So we stupidly told our tuk-tuk driver to take us there. Tip: don't go by tuk-tuk! Riding through clay countryside roads with potholes the size of buffaloes was a stupid thing to do. Poor driver. And we got coated in dust.

And then we arrived at the "outlying temple" (Kbal Spean) at 3:10pm, it was closed! It closes at 3pm! Ha ha. What dolts we were for not doing our research. Duh. Slap ourselves on our foreheads, turn around and make that arduous 2 hour (2 hour!) tuk-tuk journey back. Then it starts to rain. (Poor driver!) Then a coconut tree falls in the middle of the road. True. But the villagers came out and sawed it apart and the road was cleared in no time!



OK, one last Angkor Wat story. I met this precocious little kid at one of the temples (Banteay Srei) hanging around. And this is what we said:

Kid: Candy?
Me: Candy? (look around, point at me)
Kid: Candy!
Me: Sorry, I don't have any candy.
Kid: Pen?
Me: Pen? No, sorry, don't have that either.

Kid thinks. Face lights up, points outside.

Kid: Ice cream?
Me: (worn down by intense cuteness) OK. Ice cream.

I realize something.

Me: But just you!

Later, he tries to bring a couple other kids with him, but I'm adamant about only getting one ice cream. That's right, I'm the cheap aunt. Only one ice cream. Share it with all your siblings.