DAY TWENTY - ONE

Waking at 0430 hours certainly wasn't received so well in the Beaumont/ Bruce hotel room. Reason being was that we were being picked up at 0500 hours to visit the Angkor temples, in particular Angkor Wat at sunrise. There was a slight hitch in this plan and it wasn't that I was running late as usual, it was raining. Probably not much chance of a sunrise then!!
When were arrived at the entrance in the pitch black, we were greater by the standard sales staff, this time trying to sell books about the temples at $29.95! They kept following us, even I was extremely obvious in my response! Ha ha. ( the same book was 5 dollars by the end if the tour).
There was already hundreds of tourists waiting for that magical shot of the sun rising over what is described as the largest religious ceremonial building in the world, and recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Shame for the hundreds of hopefuls, it was a similar to a standard English winters morning....grey and wet.
The light did reveal an extremely intact architectural wonder, and it was like an Olympic Games opening ceremony moment with the amount of camera flashes going off. We entered the temple over a long concourse path which is the only access due to a large moat encasing it. The temple is quite remarkable, and as we were getting to the stage of being over-templed, when you bear witness to something on the scale and grandness of this, you cannot help but wonder how a building of this magnitude and the level of ornate additions was possible without modern day tools, machinery and planning. It was built over 1000 years ago, and the stone used was floated 5 miles upstream from a quarry. We bumped into Matt the Aussie from earlier in the trip, so we continued the tour together. The main steeple and the highest is only opened at 8 in the morning to tourists, so at 6am I slipped the guard 10 dollars to let us in. He agreed and we had the best view without any other tourist. Money talks as they say, and probably a lot to do with the level of corruptness in the country!
We spent the next 5 hours moving around the various temples, some in magnificent condition, others in ruin. One temple which was quite amazing was Ta Prohm, which apparently featured in the original Tomb Raider movie. There are huge trees, roots and vines weaving throughout the structure, making it maze like.
While we were there a huge tropical storm hit, turning the paths into rivers.....most of the tourists cowered under sheltered areas, but we decided to press on as we were already soaked. It turned out to be a good idea, as soon as the rain stopped, we had full access without anyone else in the photos.
Next on the agenda was a visit to the floating villages and markets, which we had been told was very good. Now if anyone ever listens to any advice from me, this is probably it. If you visit Siem Riep, avoid this like the bubonic plague. We paid $20 each, hoping to see similar to the floating markets in Thailand, but that couldn't of been further from the truth. We were taking to a floating school, where we had a tour and the story of how the children are very lucky as they have rice, egg and chicken donated to them, so they never go hungry. The tale led onto how corrupt the government was and that after the atrocities of the 70's the country has not recovered, unlike the positive tourism facade that is being sold to the rest of the world. Fair enough I thought, as I had seen it with my own two eyes. Next thing, we are at a market which sold.....rice! Another story was accompanied by a request for me to purchase rice for the kids. I offer to buy a fivers worth, as it was the only cash I had, but this was refused as i needed to purchase a 30 kg bag apparently which cost roughly around $60 USD! When I failed to produce more money, I had my 5 dollars thrown back at me, and told to go back to town to get more money. I laughed and said no, and we got back onto the boat. The tour guide was very apologetic, and said 'so sorry, only give if you can give'.
Next stop - a souvenir shop and fish exhibition. Well, they had catfish and a few crocodiles and a shedful of souvenirs, including the mates of the crocs that had found themselves now stuffed and put into ridiculous poses!
We thought that maybe the tour would start now, but all we did was go to the opening of the Tonle Sap lake for two minutes then drive back. Total trip time 25 minutes - rip off. We were then told to tip the boat pilot, but we explained that surely 40 dollars at this point wasn't proving to be any value whatsoever. Walking into the car park, he then apologised, agreeing that the trip was overpriced and that he was going to buy his own boat and start his own company. I wished him luck and said goodbye, but I was then questioned ' where is my tip?' and ' you promised me'.
I told him what I thought, and declined to which he started complaining his family would be very disappointed. Oh, did I mention he was completely off his melon the whole journey, and told us stories of his days as a 'gangster'. I don't think he was very good at 'gangerstering', as he was covered in scars, including a beauty on his nose where the was a hole, and white skin probably from being exposed directly to flame for periods of time.
An afternoon dip in the pool was followed by Cambodian tapas and a few beers with Matt, as he was departing for Laos the following day, and we were continuing on to Battambang.