In stones I found beauty: Angkor and its temples

Arrival and Phnom Bakheng

Date: 28 Dec 2003 ~ 02 Jan 2004
From: Singapore
With: Surya
Album: Angkor

Surya and I decided to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in style, visiting the exotic land of Cambodia to see the famous Angkor Wat temple. Call to our travel agent got us a reasonable package for an extended stay at Nokor Phnom Hotel. Supposedly the Silkair tickets we got were the last ones available! Since Siem Reap has the facility for visa-on-arrival, we decided to use that, rather than get the visa from the Cambodian Embassy in Singapore. As it turns out, as long as you can sprint a bit (and dodge some slow-clueless-walkers) on arrival at Siem Reap, the visa is yours within 10 minutes.

Day 1 - 28 Dec 2003

The fligh into Siem Reap was uneventful. Since we were seated in the front, we had no problem arriving at the visa application counter pretty early. 10 minutes later we emerged with the visa having forked US$20/- and one crappy photograph each in return. However the officer at immigration decided to spoil the smooth exit. He got worried about how I will get back into Singapore. As I am a permanent resident of Singapore, I don't need a visa but instead have a seperate stamp on the passport. This was new to the poor guy I guess, for he went in search of his superior. Couple of minutes later he emerged, happy that the big weight of an overstaying foreigner has been lifted. Surya had by then, cleverly, shifted into another queue and was waiting for me, having encountered no problem.

Coming out of the airport, we were greeted by Mr. Bon (pronounced like the chinese name Boon) who had his airconditioned car ready to take us to the hotel. He gave a briefing on the weather, nothing new - it was cool and dry. I am sure not many people will agree about the "cool" part. He subtly informed us that he is available for hire noting that we were going to be there for 5 days. He asked for $25 per day. I knew it was a bit on the higher side and let it go, making a mental note to bargain when we finally made a decision. He left us at the hotel telling us know that he will be back later in the afternoon to discuss our trip itenaries.

A nice lunch and an afternoon nap brought us back to life and at 3:30 we were ready to go. Bon came down and after some discussion we got him for $20 per day, on the condition that he will take us to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset for free (!) that day. We inturn promised to pay him $10 more to go to Banteay Srei.

From there we went to the pass counter to get our 3 day Angkor pass. Buying the pass in the evening lets you visit the ruins after 5 p.m. So even if you had bought the pass for next day, you can still see this day's sunset. Seeing no big queue at the photo-taking counter, we decided not to use up the photos we had brought. 4:35 p.m. and the photographer started clicking. Now, this process is so quick that if you dare to blink, even for a second, you will miss the whole process. You are motioned to the stool and even before you could sit down and bring out that smile you know you have, the photographer would have clicked and motioned the next person to come forth! I can still remember the experssion on the face of a elderly lady as she sat confused waiting for the photographer to tell her to smile, when in reality he was waiting for the next person to sit down.

Once we had the photo, Bon decided to cheat and cut the queue and positioned himself right in the front. I guess none of the tourists wanted to cross path with a local man and hence let him be.

Arriving at the base of Phnom Bakheng, we climbed the hill and encountered the narrowest of all steps we had ever seen. I had though that climbing the golden steps at Sabarimala was the hardest. Well no, these steps (and many more we would encounter in days to come) set a new standard! How small was the ancient Khmer foot to have used such narrow steps?

The sunset was beautiful but it was very crowded. So crowded that if I would swing my hand without looking, it will land on someone's face, as it did. The color of the temple ruins and carvings as the sun set was indeed very beautiful and set the mood for the rest of the amazing trip.

More sunset photos can be found in my Phnom Bakheng gallery.

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