438 replies to this topic

[dixon cox]

I find that shot at Spean Thma fascinating the way the roots completely take over the ruins. Great stuff D C

Cheers Tel, if you liked Spean Thma then you'd love Ta Prohm, that's the one where the temples and walls have been truly overcome by the jungle, which also gives an easy visual of how old these places really are.

Ta Prohm is awesome in the true sense of the word, but you can guarantee that it's on every visitors itinerary so it does get busy. Getting a picture without someone else in it requires patience, there's a few more to follow.

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[dixon cox]

Ta Prohm, along with Angkor Wat and the Bayon, are probably the 3 biggest must-sees within Angkor Archaeological Park and feature in all the guidebooks. In addition to these three there are a vast number of other temples, buildings and remnants to see and it's worth stopping at some of the less busy ones for a peaceful temple climb and rest. I never saw any of the coach parties doing any climbing.

Having entered at the west side of the Ta Prohm compound we made our way through along with hordes of others who were arriving by the coach load, occasionally grabbing an opportunity to take a picture without anybody else in the frame, not an easy task. Quite a few areas here had purpose built wooden walkways and steps to facilitate the movement of people.

Despite the asshole officials at the start and the crowds, Ta Prohm still ranked as one of the major highlights.

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[dixon cox]

Officious twats seem to be a global pain in the erse.

Bad show picking on your lady, shame on them.

You're right Petesie, picking on such an easy target is shameful :|

When things like this happen it's too easy to let it spoil your day by dwelling on it. We gave them the finger once we'd moved some distance away and they saw us laughing about it so that made us feel better, so we were over it pretty quickly.

Life's too short to let some numbnuts ruin a nice day out to one of the great wonders of the world

[BigTel]

I see what you mean about Ta Prohm, spectacular.

[katana57]

Officious twats seem to be a global pain in the erse.

Bad show picking on your lady, shame on them.

You're right Petesie, picking on such an easy target is shameful :|

When things like this happen it's too easy to let it spoil your day by dwelling on it. We gave them the finger once we'd moved some distance away and they saw us laughing about it so that made us feel better, so we were over it pretty quickly.

Life's too short to let some numbnuts ruin a nice day out to one of the great wonders of the world

Very true.
But it just goes to show that the old saying,about twats like them,holds firm
...."You can't polish a turd"

[dixon cox]

I see what you mean about Ta Prohm, spectacular.

I hope you get to visit the temples someday Tel, I know you'd appreciate and enjoy the experience

Very true.
But it just goes to show that the old saying,about twats like them,holds firm
...."You can't polish a turd"

Too true Katana. But I'd still never hold anything against a whole nation over a few isolated incidents by a mere handful of their citizens. Assholes exist in all corners of the world.

As it happens, I'd forgotten all about the few negatives until I reached this part of the TR, but it's a fact that the worst two occured in Siem Reap and Angkor. Maybe that's due to the drastic influx of tourists over recent years and their sudden exposure to the wealth of others from around the globe.

[dixon cox]

Departing Ta Prohm seemed quite tranquil as we walked eastbound for the last few 100 meters to the east gate. It seemed that the coach parties must have been ferried back in the other direction to rendezvous with their transport back where they started. For us our ride was patiently waiting in exactly the right place.

No smoking in or around the temples, so once out I sparked up and navigated through a small group of sellers and hawkers who were not allowed to operate within the temple grounds. Onto the tuk-tuk again and we were off again, heading for Banteay Kdei just a short ride away.

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[dixon cox]

I'm not quite certain how to refer to a female monk. Maybe she's a priestess, a monkstress or a monkess, but I don't think they specify the role based on gender so I'll refer to her simply as a monk.

Banteay Kdei was empty, but inside was a monk offering an opportunity to pray and be forgiven for all your sins, plus the warm inner glow of banking a few more credits for the next lap of life was available too. I declined the process as I'm agnostic but respectfully indulged my girlfriend's desire to perform the ritual. I enjoy her feeling good about such things.

Judging by the size of the tip box the monk had high-hopes, but there were barely enough contributions in it already to cover the bottom of the see-through box. Once they were finished I fed a small clump of riel notes down into the slot to show my gratitude and it looked nice as it fluttered down, but probably only totalled about $1.50 in value.

I don't mind giving when the time is right.

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[dixon cox]

A little further up the road on the corner is Pre Rup, another less visited temple. Some of these lesser trodden temples were just as enjoyable as the main attractions but far more peaceful and tranquil.

Unfortunately at Pre Rup my camera battery began to show signs that it was about to expire and like a muppet I'd failed to bring a spare. It's so easy here to click away at anything and everything and forget such things. Luckily we'd already climbed up and I'd taken all the pictures of this place that I wanted to, but with a flat battery and Angkor Wat still on the agenda it was decided that we'd have to go back to the Hotel to deal with it.

She negotiated an additional $2 to be added to the tuk-tuk costs to run us back to the hotel and then meet us again a few hours later before bringing us back to Angkor Wat. There was no way I could not have a useable camera for the centre piece of the whole visit.

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[dixon cox]

I doubt a ride to the hotel and back would have ordinarily cost a tourist just $2, but we'd already negotiated a day rate and the extra $2 was just to cover the juice. This made the total tuk-tuk costs for the day 13+2=$15, plus he was a nice patient and pleasant young man too, the same guy who originally took us from the boat dock at Chong Kneas when we'd first arrived.

It was nice to break up the day especially with the midday heat peaking and a return to the hotel pool for a dip and a cool down with the AC in the room while I waited for the battery to recharge were most welcome indeed.

Both feeling tired and hungry we decided to eat at the Passaggio restaurant, adequate food although it seemed a bit expensive for what we got. 2x chicken fried rice at $4 each and a sprite for $1.50. We were picked up again at 3pm and the sun was shining very nicely now. Definately cap weather.

Angkor Wat had some areas under construction with tarpaulin covers which was a bit of a shame. There were loads of other tourists too, mainly Asian with a healthy sprinkling of barang.

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[dixon cox]

A very enjoyable but tiring day out all in all and one day would be enough for most people, including me, unless you're a real temple fanatic that is.

A photo ID ticket is created at the ticket building on approach to the Archaeological Park, all the drivers know where to stop for it. They take your picture with what seemed like a 1MB webcam and then printed a ticket with your image upon it, there were little or no queues with plenty of booths and I passed through in two shakes of a lambs tail.

You may be asked to show your ticket ID from time to time by ticket inspectors around the Park but this only happened to us once at Ta Prohm, as previously reported.

A single day entry fee costs $20 for a foreigner, Khmer's enter for free, no pass necessary, just their own Khmer ID.

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[dixon cox]

After returning back to the hotel after what seemed like a long day we rested, showered and gave each other a much needed foot massage before going out for food at Viva again. A very tasty and substantial plate of food each so were well fed and we needed it. I had the beef burrito again, she had lok-lak and we shared french fries.

After food we took a look around and there are so many eating and drinking options within minutes of the main market area. Back via Pub Street and some prick of a Cambodian tuk-tuk driver pissed us both off by being rude to my ladyboy girlfriend, nevermind. There must be something in the water up here in these parts.

All that daytime walking had caused my crotch to become a bit sensitive and sore and with each step I felt discomfort.

For those of you requiring a ladyboy bed-warmer or a LB ST we passed quite a few on the Old Market Bridge on the way out and on the way back again around 10pm there were several more. I expect later at night there are even more options to be had there.

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