Cambodia – Siem Reap – Small Circuit

Tourists as us need not to worry about how to visit the whole Angkor. Every tuk tuk driver will introduced the route with us using a map. It is mainly divided into 3 routes: the small circle (Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom), the big circle (Banteay Kdei, Sras Srang, Preah Khan..etc) and the most far route to Bantaey Srei.

Transportation will be taken care by the tuk tuk driver, some tourists will hired a tour guide for explanation, heard that it is USD25 per day. Ho, along the visits, lots of Cambodian guides speak in different languages!! The most heard language is French. Impressive!! For the backpackers like us, the guide is the travel books!!!

Small Circuit (8am – 3pm)

Angkor Wat (吴哥寺)
The sunlight was so dazzling that we hardly can lift our eyes up to see a clearer picture of the tower. The most significant of this wat is the 5 corn-shape towers (but me & jx felt that the tower look like a few layers of lotus) and the bas-reliefs （浅浮雕） galleries which surrounded the whole Angkor Wat as the most outside enclosing walls. The bas-reliefs tell the stories of ancient battle, the Vishnu god..etc. We took the guide book for self-story-telling. So funny that a Chinese couple approach us and asked us few question on the bas-reliefs and would like to join us touring around. Another Vietnamese Chinese passed by and gave us an “impressive” compliment. Well, all these have to be thanks to jx that done the reading while doing explanation to us. Keke.

Angkor Thom (Bayon 巴戎寺, Terrace of the Elephant, Victory Gate.. etc)
Bayon is famous with the 54 towers, total 216 nos of faces. Unlike Angkor Wat, the layout of Bayon is not in order. Really impressed by the skills at that time.. how can the faces be repeatedly look alike? It was noon and the sun was extremely hot, we are tired after walking along the terrace of Elephant with bas-relief of elephants and others sites.

It was 3pm when we back to town. Without hesitation, we went into the Blue Pumpkins for a drink. Another tourist hot spot with free wireless internet, cozy sofa and drinks. We have plenty of rest time before our dinner at Khmer Kitchen for the Amok dish. Our dinner always end as early as 7pm, and we start to have our 2nd round of beer session which others still searching for dinner! Can’t believe that both juices and beer are selling at same price! That’s indeed good news for jx & ekit!!!

As usual, both my tourmates could sleep soundlessly easily, is it becos of the beer? I have to wait for the hair to dry b4 I could sleep.. lucky there’s plenty of tv channels entertaining me.