The thing to do here is to see the sun rise behind Angkor Wat so we were off in the tuk tuk at 5am. Tessa's query to the hotel guy as to whether the strong breeze and lightning in the night sky might mean rain was met with a dismissive laugh. And we said to each other íts the hot dry season afterall!'
And of course by the time we got to Angkor Wat the rain was pelting down! Another sales opportunities for the kids who try to sell you guide books, postcards, penny whistles and what not - they were now chasing every tuk tuk with armfulls of pac a macs. So you can see the result in one of the photos - Tess has the fetching pink one and me the billious green one - and the sky behind is looking steadfastly grey, untouched by those rosy fingers of dawn! Oh well someone may photoshop it in for us.
This reluctance to ever give you bad news is of course a common problem for us travellers. Either people don't understand your question and a smile and nod of the head is deemed so much more acceptable. Or they understand your question but don't want to discourage you with bad news. As a result when you really need some information asking people often leaves you even more sceptical about whether that bus will arrive, whether seats are available, whether its going to rain etc - you get the distinctive feeling you have just been told what they think you would prefer to hear.
But despite the rainy start and the appalling apparel we were forced to wear for a while we have had another good day at the temples, with such an early start once again (apart from Angkor Wat itself of course) we found ourselves alone or nearly alone at many of them. One of the temples has been left in its ''original" state of discovery in the 19th century with great trees growing out of the walls and huge numbers of fallen stones. Many walls look like they are about to collapse and it was at this site that we found ourselves surrounded by a large tour group and I admit to hoping for a wall collapse as soon as I heard that American child whining about not bringing her camera and what a rip off it was!
Brian
My legs feel as though I have done several hours of step areobics, the muscles in my calves are protesting and the fronts of my thighs ache too. Its called 'Temple leg' (I just christened it) and you get it after two days of climbing up steps and then going up and down over the very frequent lintles between bits of every temple you visit. An Australian woman I was talking to yesterday who had done about seven hours of temple visiting has just hobbled past, suffering so much she could barely walk.
I am still laughing when I think of the two sweet Sweedish girls we met in Kuching, you probably need to read this next bit in a Sweedish acent. They had been to Siem Reap and said it was wonderful, but they hadnt really known what they were coming to see. They were made to get up at 4am and driven out to Angkor Wat, 'We sat there with many, many other people. What is going to happen we thought? We sat there some more and nothing happened and then the sun came up, oh! thats why we were sitting here, its a temple'. They spent the morning looking at temples and then decided they had done enough of that. There were ten of them then, we only met two and they had a lovely time in Kuching looking at wild life and then were off to Bali to meet up with the other 8 and PARTY.
Tess
And of course by the time we got to Angkor Wat the rain was pelting down! Another sales opportunities for the kids who try to sell you guide books, postcards, penny whistles and what not - they were now chasing every tuk tuk with armfulls of pac a macs. So you can see the result in one of the photos - Tess has the fetching pink one and me the billious green one - and the sky behind is looking steadfastly grey, untouched by those rosy fingers of dawn! Oh well someone may photoshop it in for us.
This reluctance to ever give you bad news is of course a common problem for us travellers. Either people don't understand your question and a smile and nod of the head is deemed so much more acceptable. Or they understand your question but don't want to discourage you with bad news. As a result when you really need some information asking people often leaves you even more sceptical about whether that bus will arrive, whether seats are available, whether its going to rain etc - you get the distinctive feeling you have just been told what they think you would prefer to hear.
But despite the rainy start and the appalling apparel we were forced to wear for a while we have had another good day at the temples, with such an early start once again (apart from Angkor Wat itself of course) we found ourselves alone or nearly alone at many of them. One of the temples has been left in its ''original" state of discovery in the 19th century with great trees growing out of the walls and huge numbers of fallen stones. Many walls look like they are about to collapse and it was at this site that we found ourselves surrounded by a large tour group and I admit to hoping for a wall collapse as soon as I heard that American child whining about not bringing her camera and what a rip off it was!
Brian
My legs feel as though I have done several hours of step areobics, the muscles in my calves are protesting and the fronts of my thighs ache too. Its called 'Temple leg' (I just christened it) and you get it after two days of climbing up steps and then going up and down over the very frequent lintles between bits of every temple you visit. An Australian woman I was talking to yesterday who had done about seven hours of temple visiting has just hobbled past, suffering so much she could barely walk.
I am still laughing when I think of the two sweet Sweedish girls we met in Kuching, you probably need to read this next bit in a Sweedish acent. They had been to Siem Reap and said it was wonderful, but they hadnt really known what they were coming to see. They were made to get up at 4am and driven out to Angkor Wat, 'We sat there with many, many other people. What is going to happen we thought? We sat there some more and nothing happened and then the sun came up, oh! thats why we were sitting here, its a temple'. They spent the morning looking at temples and then decided they had done enough of that. There were ten of them then, we only met two and they had a lovely time in Kuching looking at wild life and then were off to Bali to meet up with the other 8 and PARTY.
Tess
1 comment:
brian and tess, you both looked like you need the space-helmet to complete the outfit. looks like the gigantic trees are as much an attraction as the ruins and the temples.
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