Day Two- Angkor Wat

Sunday 12Nov2006
Day two of the Angkor temples- I tried to tell Shawn about "Wat" burnout- I think he is beginning to understand what I mean!
Today we awake at 4 am, eat breakfast at the guesthouse, which we had conveniently ordered the night before, boy, they really do cater to the tourists!! Somjay, our tuk-tuk driver arrived promptly at 4:45 to take us aound the 'big loop.' We had to leave the guesthouse at 5am in order to make it to Angkor Wat for the sunrise- apparently this is another one of those 'touristy' things to do. We know this by the number of bus horder of Japanese tourists that were there.
Now, normally I am a very tolerant person, especially other cultures and such things. This is going to sound pretty bad of me, but the Japanese tourists really are annoying. They walk around as if they own the place becasue they are better than everyone else. The Koreans are right behind them. They all travel in thesde hordes of bus loades with tour operators but they are everywhere!! You go to a temple and need to try to get around them becasue they just stand everywhere- blocking anyone else from moving around and they really have no considersation that other people are trying to enjoy what they are seeing as well. I actually got shoved out of the pathway by a Japanese guy trying to get down the hill faster than anyone else- I am not a slow person- and I couldn't believe the audacity of him to push me aside and not even recognize to me that he did it!! I was steamed. Anyways off that subject, I know that it is a few out of many but there were numerous things that we kept noticing in our time at the temples that were just crazy! Many things that we thought were just backwards, and we couldn't imagine that type of behaviour going on in Japan as they are such an advanced country!

Back to Angkor Wat- sunrise was cool to see and we actually enjoyed the cool breeze on the way to the wat. We knew that it wouldn't last long! Somjay was in long sleeve shirt and a jacket!! We were trying to do okay in shorts and t-shirts!!
The large loop consists of these temples:
Preah Khan- in which we took lots of pictures. We actually got a biut scamed at this temple but we really didn't mind too much. We were the only people there since it weas soo early and this 'police' officer came up to us and started to speak to us and tell us about the temple. Which King built it for his mother and how there are 4 entrances -three for Hinduism, and one for Buddhism. It was an amazing temple and the 'tour' was actually very insightful. At the end he asked us to provide him with a tip, when Shawn graciously handed him a few dollars the guy got more specific and requested a $5 tip. The audacity!! I was a bit scared at first that he was some sort of shady cop so I made sure in the beginning to check to make sure that he didn't have a gun or anything, that would have made it a bit more scary I think. The temple is also overtaken with these enormous trees, which is the best to me! The overtaking of mother nature on man. Very cool!!! I kept raving about it and so Shawn was able to see why I thought it was soo cool!
We moved on to Prasat Prei and then onto Neak Pean which I thought was totally awesome as well. It is a temple in the middle of the water like an island with 4 pools at everyside and each pool entrance had some sort of statue as a water spout in it. Very cool.
The second day tour around the 'large loop' consists of temples that I did not get to see last time I was here at Angkor so I can experience some newness as well!!
Back on the temple track- we went to Ta Som, East Mebon which totally remonded me of the Kingdom of Champa in Vietman the wat the long grass grows off the top of the temples and blows in the wind. I think that it is soo cool that they can take root there on top of the temple!!
Then on to Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei, and then to Sras Srang. All this before noon!! And boy it was gotting quite steamy out!!
This day at the temples was different than the day before mainly because the touting was different. You see, Ihave experienced it all before, felt bad, want to help them out, then the realization that this is all over the world and this is just a small poart and that the Khmer Rouge really did this to this society. Then you want to help but giving them anything really poerpetuates the problem and older people using thier children as bait instead of looking at their future to educated tyhem, no need if they can beg and rip off the tourists, becasue if they are here then they are rich, which I can see their view. However, it is a sad reality that you cannot help the world out of this- it is far too large. Shawn was experiencing this for the first time. Today was even harder than yesterday becasue at least yesterday the touting stopped when we entered into the ruins. Today they were in the ruins, begging and such things. "Mister, you want to tak epicture of me? One dollar." "Missy, you give me one dollar okay?" It is sad but drives you bonkers after a bit. I can look away, even if my heart breaks. It really got to Shawn and by the last temple they were chasing after us shouting at us. Then inside the temple I was admiting this huge status and this old man saw me. He left and got his little daughter- i swear no older than 3- to come tout me. "You want postcard missy? You buy postcared from me? You see, Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom. Missy, You buy. You buy." I mean come on. How sad.
Shawn was done with Cambodia after that. I don't even think that he wanted to go out to ewat or anything, just stay in the room in fear that he would get touted some more.
We had Somjay drop us off in the Old Market area and we ate lunch and walked back to the guesthouse, which was a ways but a nice walk. We slept for a bit since we were soo tired, already such a huge day! When we woke we took a tuk-tuk to the Old Market part of town, looked around the market for a bit. We ended up eating at this really yummy Indian Restaurant, we opted for Indian as Khmer food is pretty bland compared to Thai food. We like spicy and this was anythign but. I think it is a combination of French influence and the Khmer Rouge taking every luxury away that created such bland food.
When we arrived back to the guesthouse for the night Shawn had the biggest mosquito bite ever!! I swear he is sweeeeeet!! Good thing we are taking the anti-malaria meds!! Good thing!!