wednesday, august 9, 2006

a final day in angkor wat...a great opportunity to wrap things up in what is probably one of the best sightseeing spots in the world, period.

we woke up earlier because we really wanted to take out bikes for the final day. the map suggested a route that could take us to all of the really important and big temples close by, so we thought a bike would be perfect. getting a rental, though, was a bit of a hassle...i found a sort-of mountain bike, while the guy tried to give amanda a shopping bike with no working brakes and flat tires. we kindly said no thank you and got a bike for her somewhere else. still, our bikes seemed to have no juice. wed pedal hard and get nowhere. add to that the chaos of traffic that is siem riep and after 10 minutes of getting accustomed to the bikes we wondered what wed got ourselves into.

so we did what anybody should do in moments of doubt...go for a nice breakfast. pancakes and maple syrup did the trick, and after that we were ready to tackle angkor. by the time we got to the front gate, about 5km away, i was literally drenched in sweat. it was white hot that day, little breeze and having to cycle through the humidity was going to be a challenge.

still, we went on and started to see what we wanted to see...including the bayon, with its 218 hideously smiling faces of the king etched in stone, and the elephant terrace, where the king would make his speeches about building more temples or whatever. by about 3 pm were getting tired. we were both disgustingly sweatlogged and sunburnt...i think i went through about 5 litres of water in 4 hours and still didnt need to take a slash yet.

the final temple was probably my favorite...ta prohm, aka the jungle temple because the jungle is literally devouring the temple as we speak. trees share the same space as doorways and the roots of trees rise higher than the outer walls. its amazing, and the shadows created by the late afternoon made the place even more spectactular. i took almost a whole roll of film at that place alone...i think i took around 50 pictures this day, which for a point-and-click camera is alot.

but yet again it rained hard around 5pm. we were smart and bought rain ponchos to protect our bags and backs but we still got soaked biking back into town. after returning the bikes, getting a well deserved shower and rest, we did the usual thing to do in siem riep at night...go for dinner, then go for a massage, and then go to the bar. for dinner we went to a place called the red piano...its famous here because its where the crew for the film tomb raider stayed while shooting the movie in 2001. angelina jolie pictures are everywhere...she liked the place and the country so much she adopted a cambodian kid before she left.

we loved the place too, and for all the hard work the bikes gave us, it was much more rewarding than the motos. but wed seen all the temples and it was time for a new country.