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Oh dear.........So the alarm went off at 4.00am, who's idea what it to go and see the Wat for sunrise? We had a driver booked for the morning and to save a little Tom had grabbed another couple to go with us and shared the bill (£4.75 each). Surprise, surprise they're alarm "didn't go off", the button pressed it's self. The driver knocked them up, we had a very tired laugh about the situation, and set off wondering if waiting for them would be the story of the day.
We drove the 8 km in the tuk-tuk and paid the £13 for entry, arriving at the Wat about an hour before sunrise, it was dark, very dark. We'd brought the good for nothing LED torch and entered the Angkor Wat. We managed to take some great photos even though the cameras "Auto" function doesn't work (it even fires the flash on the beach?), and wandered round for about an hour. The Wat is the largest religious building in the world, and at around 1000 years old, really interesting and well worth a visit. We arrived back at the tuk-tuk and the other couple were waiting, good stuff!
Next plan was some breakfast, went to an "advised" cafe from the driver, knowing full well the guy was going for his commission. For a change we actually listened to him and had a look. Seeing the prices (about double we normally pay, not actually too bad considering where we were) we stood up ready to leave and decided hunger was a better option. As we stood the waitress instantly handed us another menu with all the prices 25% off. Having a quick look and still going with the hunger idea we stood up again....... she then offered to knock a further 25% of the second menu, needless to say, quietly smug knowing the other tables were paying over the odds, we ate! Didn't buy and drinks though!
We set off around the next Wat, the driver said we'd take about 2 and a half hours, scooting around at a speedy pace, and the 4am start now feeling like a bad idea, we'd now been looking at ruined Wats for over 3 hours and were back within the hour. The other couple arrived back about 10 minutes later, so it wasn't just us steadily losing interest.
We then jumped back in the tuk-tuk to see another 3 of temples, one we'd been told had been constructed in the mould of a mountain and if you climb the very, very, steep and dangerous steps it had fresh, cool air at the top. As it was now hotting-up (around 9am) Tom though he'd give it a go, the other 3 stayed at ground zero.
Tom climbed the hundred or so foot high step and arrived at the top, yes as expected it was still, 30+ degrees, and 60% humidity, only now Tom was sweating furiously. It turns out those steps were hard and dangerous going up but ever more so heading down.
We then moved onto the ruins traditionally named "Tomb Raider", well not really, no idea the real name as all the locals called it that. It was the location for the first Tomb raider movie. To be honest probably the best temple of the lot but by this stage we were mega templed out! We soon met up with the other couple we were riding with and agreed we'd jump the remaining two Wats.
The temples are very nice, and as a site of national pride very important to the Khmer people, but unless you are a temple enthusiast trying to do so many in one day is too much. Many people buy three day passes for it all, not for us.
We had lunch and went to bed for a few hours sleep, well that we the plan. About an half an hour later the power went and the fan stopped. No sleeping, just sweating. Half asleep and grumpy, Rachael set off downstairs to ask what what was going on and was greeted by a guy without his top on who explained it was off everywhere, it was like returning to India. An hour or so later we got the power back and managed to get a couple of hours sleep.
We spent a little time updating the blog and managed to watch the whipping of Burnley by Chelsea live on one of the cable TV channels.
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