Brief early morning conversation with all in Mississauga to say that $80 had been pried loose from
the Niagara Falls casino! The gods are smiling.....
This was the day to visit Angkor Wat the famed UNESCO temple complex near the central Cambodian city of Siem Reap (310 kms north west of the capital city of Phnom Penh). My contracted tuk tuk driver was waiting for me in the hotel lobby---$14US whole day service deal and we drove the approx 8 kms to the temple site. Ticket deals come in single, 2 day and 5 day packages. I opted for the $20 single day, figuring quite correctly that I would be 'templed out' after 4 hours or so walking and and climbing countless steps. In fact, I saw several cases of elderly Angkor Wat. Cambodia is clearly making big plans for capitalizing on this famous world heritage site. The approach roads are lined with resorts and very high end hotels, convention halls and I even glimpsed a casino tucked away. Most of the massive tour buses appeared to have either Chinese or Korean script on their sides. Clearly, this hotel and entertainment investment boom is set to rapidly expand.
western tourists suffering health emergencies in the sweltering heat. Angkor is a massive complex of hundred of different temples I am told, of which I only saw a selection on my "small tour", as it is denominated. Angkor has high meaning to the Cambodian nation and its silhouette is featured on the national flag, its leading beer and much else. For full specifics on Angkor please connect to the Wikipedia link:
To be honest, my state of mind before reaching Angkor Wat was somewhat negative and I was not feeling the sense of high expectation that many say they sense upon visiting. Generally, my travel philosophy is to steer a 180 degree course away from hardcore tourist destinations. High tourist season has not yet (begins mid Dec.) commenced in the area and already Angkor was very busy with the packaged tour crowd---mainly from China, Korea and Thailand. The queue to ascend the temple towers was 45 minutes in the blazing sun---this tourist declined on the basis of stiff knees and the thought of all those stairs.
I have to admit that my enjoyment from the visit to Angkor was much enhanced by my
involvement in photography and the old chestnut--look at details (closely) and don't just see things. It is a very photogenic place, particularly given to rendition in black and white---most of the walls of the temples are overwhelmingly grey and black. I did notice that only about 5% of tourists make it to the back areas of the "small tour" route---heat, boredom, disinterest? Your intrepid scribe here was able to scale high up the outside walls of one of the smaller temples to "capture the shot"---in fact, he did not realize how high and how steep had been his route, until it came time to figure out the route to descend! Apparently tours to Angkor at dawn and dusk are very popular with the photography crowd---although given the number of grey, wet days the SE Asia region has experienced in the past month, I am not sure that getting up early would have paid off---shades of rousting out at 4 am in Darjeeling 2014, to see Mount Everest and seeing only dense grey clouds....how is that for negative thinking!! Took about 250 photos and have to whittle this down to max. 50 'keepers'. How did those poor folks
manage in the days of Kodak film, when 250 shots would have been 10 rolls of film.
In all, a worthwhile experience to visit Angkor. My one regret is that I never found/saw the famous tree where the roots have grown up and "drowned" an entire wall of the temple.
As mentioned, I had an arrangement for my tuk tuk man to wait for me in the parking area and that his vehicle (#7) would be there. Well, you guessed---this tired, hot tourist and tuk tuk were unable to connect in a parking area with at least 150 tuk men awaiting their passengers. Had to hire another driver to get me back to the city---so somewhere, is an unpaid driver looking for me around the ruins!
This was the day to visit Angkor Wat the famed UNESCO temple complex near the central Cambodian city of Siem Reap (310 kms north west of the capital city of Phnom Penh). My contracted tuk tuk driver was waiting for me in the hotel lobby---$14US whole day service deal and we drove the approx 8 kms to the temple site. Ticket deals come in single, 2 day and 5 day packages. I opted for the $20 single day, figuring quite correctly that I would be 'templed out' after 4 hours or so walking and and climbing countless steps. In fact, I saw several cases of elderly Angkor Wat. Cambodia is clearly making big plans for capitalizing on this famous world heritage site. The approach roads are lined with resorts and very high end hotels, convention halls and I even glimpsed a casino tucked away. Most of the massive tour buses appeared to have either Chinese or Korean script on their sides. Clearly, this hotel and entertainment investment boom is set to rapidly expand.
To be honest, my state of mind before reaching Angkor Wat was somewhat negative and I was not feeling the sense of high expectation that many say they sense upon visiting. Generally, my travel philosophy is to steer a 180 degree course away from hardcore tourist destinations. High tourist season has not yet (begins mid Dec.) commenced in the area and already Angkor was very busy with the packaged tour crowd---mainly from China, Korea and Thailand. The queue to ascend the temple towers was 45 minutes in the blazing sun---this tourist declined on the basis of stiff knees and the thought of all those stairs.
I have to admit that my enjoyment from the visit to Angkor was much enhanced by my
In all, a worthwhile experience to visit Angkor. My one regret is that I never found/saw the famous tree where the roots have grown up and "drowned" an entire wall of the temple.
As mentioned, I had an arrangement for my tuk tuk man to wait for me in the parking area and that his vehicle (#7) would be there. Well, you guessed---this tired, hot tourist and tuk tuk were unable to connect in a parking area with at least 150 tuk men awaiting their passengers. Had to hire another driver to get me back to the city---so somewhere, is an unpaid driver looking for me around the ruins!
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