A few photos taken in the baking Ankor Wat morning sun

Although I got an early night it and set my alarm for around 4:45am it required a knock on my door by the hostel receptionist telling me that my tuktuk driver was waiting for me downstairs to finally get me out of bed.

Not that I wasn't prepared once I was awake, my battery was recharged, entry ticket already purchased and as dawn wasn't for almost another hour I had high hopes of getting some amazing shots of the dawn overlooking the central Ankor Wat temple before coach loads of tourists arrived and turned it into a circus. I left my hostel with high hopes but upon arrival this deflated down to no hope as the road was already pretty busy and there must have been well over a hundred tourists already there, milling about and clambering for the best position.

Determined not to be too disheartened I set about taking some scenic shots and did my best in the pre dawn dakness to get around and find at least one spot that hadn't already been staked out with a clear view.

My efforts were rewarded in that although the entry side of the main temple was already cram packed the reverse side was not too bad, and here was the best chance of getting an shots of early morning sunlight hitting the right angles.

I had mistakenly told me tuk tuk driver that I would only be about an hour, which was a rediculously short space of time to visit the central Ankor Wat complex as there are at lesat three large temples in the area and I barely got to experience the main one before I headed on back. This was even more a faux pax as the driver did not want to stop or go back over a place we had already been to once we departed and so a half day tour that should have finished at 3pm ended up being finished before midday.

The next few temples that he took me to was pretty much the same thing, tourists everywhere and it was only with extreme patience, timing and good angles that I got any photos without a head or body appearing into view right when I least wanted any.

I stopped mid morning for a snack and as fortune would have it I bumped into a woman that looked familiar and upon flicking back through my photos I realised that I had taken one of her in the back ground while I was in the foreground. I chanced to strike up a conversation and was happy that was not only half British, thus spoke perfect English, but was friendly and so while we had our seperate breakfasts we chatted away merily for about half an hour.

It turns out that she originally worked for UNESCO but like so many people who have tried volunteer or charity work, she soon became disallusioned when she realised how much was milked by the system and the top bosses, so she quit and now works in setting up luxury hotels for rich tourists in some far out places like, Siem Reap.

After parting company I headed on back to my tuk tuk driver to the next temple, which was all about elephants and yet a litle way off were some great gateway towers all lined up that had almost not a single tourist near them, which made no sense at all as they were very beautiful in their own right especially when reflected in one of the many pools that were in the area.

I don't think that I saw all the temples that were meant to be on the tour, and I was a bit miffed that I had paid for a tour and all I was getting was about 6 mini tuk tuk rides and for the most part I was paying the driver to sit around and wait, which was unncecessary as there always plenty of other tuk tuks around and even a bit of haggling could have seriously reduced my travelling expenses.

After a brief stop at a temple that was impressively high, and had very challenging steps leading up to it, we finally made it to the "Tomb Raider" temple, so called because of the Iconic encrouchment of nature that was so visually spectacular in the film. There were plenty of examples of where nature had defeated structure but here especially the tourists were out in force and wherever you looked you could see them all jumping, climbing or hanging off of part of the temple, all in search of an amusing or genuine photo opportunity.

Once I had got bored of watiing and taken the best shots that I could I moved on and back to my tuk tuk driver. It was a shame as I would have loved to have found a secluded spot and sat for a few minutes in contemplative silence but here that was impossible as there was nowhere secluded or quiet in which to do so.

When I found my tuk tuk driver, which was an effort as he told me to meet him on the other side ot the temple, but of course I had no map and the place was huge and overgrown so I had no idea which exit I came in or left from, but I found him waving at me and then I noticed that there were some paintings of a sight I would have loved to photo, being just the large heads overgrown with moss either side of a river where elephants were crossing.

Of course I didn't expect to get lucky with the elephants but the rest was great stuff, only the tuk tuk driver and the girl selling the painting told me that I had already seen it in one of the earlier temples.

Bemused I said that I certianly didnt recognise anything like that, only to be told that it had been changed and no longer looked like that at all, so what was almost the perfect photo was now impossible to capture.

With this news and the unrelenting heat I felt all templed out, so I told the tuk tuk driver to take me back to the hostel where I would work out what to do next, and when I got back I found that my friend from Phnom Penh had been calling and was eager to meet me.

And so, as I felt that I had seen the temples that interested me most, and I was short of time in gettting back to the UK I made the decision to press on to PP as sooon as possible, which turned out to be in less than a couple of hours as a bus would be leaving shortly if I was that desperate to reach there today.

The experience also humbled me a little, as it was only after I left the young female market seller that I realised she was speaking to me in English good enough for me to understand, but she is also totally fluent in Cambodian, Thai and with a little Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French enough to complete a sale and all without being able to write a single word, not even her name.

While it is true that she started young and her need for foreign languages is born from a desire to sell, to make money and to live, this only makes it more admirable when you consider that she is a street child, living in a wooden hut and all her learning in done in real time as and when she can get the tourists to talk to her, thus without any structured lessons, college tuition or self help books. Her formal education may be non existent but anyone calling her stupid would be incorrect and ignorant themselves. 

If there had been much else to do in the city I might have booked an early morning bus for tomorrow and headed on out to see what else could be seen, but all the internet and guide books had said was a cultural heritage centre, some blind massage therapists and the main attraction being Ankor Wat, I felt that I was not really missing much and an extra day saved here and there will pay great dividends for if later on I love a place and want to stay longer.

Arranging it with the hostel I paid another US $10 dollar for a bus fair to Phnom Penh, with dollars I had grabbed from the ATM just moments before, and then headed on out on a bus that I hoped was right as the number wasn't the same and neither did anyone speak any English, yet my tuk tuk driver assured me it was the right one.

Pre-dawn and first light Photos at Ankor Wat, Cambodia

Ankor Wat in Cambodia at Dusk and a Traditional Dance Show

When the taxi finally reached Siem Reap, after passing mile after painful mile of dodgy dirt roads and about a million straw huts raised on stilts, we were given a free moto service from the taxi drop off point to our hotels, as the taxi driver was not a local from Siem Reap and also could not speak any English.

Although this seemed like a good thing it was all part of the con, as once I arrived at my hostel the moto driver would not give my bag back til I agreed to use him as a guide for Ankor Wat for the next few days, at a price we had yet to agree, and he demanded that we fix a time for us to meet the next day. Prepared for this I agreed whole heartedly and said that we could meet up around 8 or 9am the following morning, already knowing that I was going to be long gone from the hostel and be on my second or third temple by the time he showed up at the hostel.

There is a lot of contrast in Siem Reap, as there were some fabulous looking luxury hotels that we passed, like a Raffles where they had vintage cars on display, possibly as a taxi service, whereas across the street and down the road a few yards are shops and stalls so poor that a years salary would barely get them a couple of nights accomodation in their neighbouring hotel.

The hostel owner was friendly as chatty, agreeing to arrange a twilight tour to see sunset and then a full days trip staing before sunrise tomorrow for me, plus a meal and traditional dance show for the nights entertainment all just adding a few dollars to my bill for my convenience, and when I mentioned wifi he said that this too would cost but possible down in the main reception area.

I am getting fast fed up with having to pay to use my own equipment and despite his smile and friendliness after the day I have had I am starting to not like Cambodia or Cambodians very much.

There was just enough time for me to grab a shower before my tuktuk driver arrived and whisked me off to the ticket booth near the entrance to Ankor Wat, where a moments insanity grabbed me and even though I could see tonight and tomorrow on a one day pass as the time was past 4pm, I asked for a 3 day pass and ended up paying US $40 intead of only the $20 I should have.

The tuktuk driver then took me to the bottom of a hill and said that I had to climb up in order to get a good view of the sunset, but this meant navigating my way past hundreds of other tourists and once I did the sun was in the wrong place for a nice sunset over the main Ankor Wat temple.

What it did give me was a nice view over the area and a chance encounter to meet a group of exchange students from Singapore who were here taking a weeks jollies and after chatting for awhile, it all started over my camera gorilla tripod, we arranged that if I had time I would meet them at their hostel and together we would all go out together for the night.

I did my best to take a few photos but the summit was so packed full that in the end I barely got to take any good photos before giving up and heading back down where my tuk tuk was waiting for me. On the way down I passed a couple of elephants used as transport up the hill, which only took about ten minutes to walk, and for the US $20 that they were charging it was a total rip off.

That is the other problem with things being in US $, they may be small, but as you are being hassled every five minutes and never get any change it all adds up to a lot in no time at all. At one stage one of the many guide book sellers came up and tried to sell me a guide and when I waved the one I was using in his face to prove I didn't need one he totally deflected it and said that yes, I had one but that his was different. What womderful logic ... he honestly tried to sell me a second guide book just because it wasnt identical to the one I already had !!!

Heading on back to my hostel I could feel a headache start to come on and so I was doubting if I would be able to meet the others later on, but the decision was settled when neither my tuk tuk driver nor anyone at the hostel knew ( or admitted to knowing ) where the Siem Reap Hostel was, as this was where we were meant to meet up at 9pm.

Thus, even though I had time to do both, in the end I just went to the meal and dance show and then returned. The restaurant was a lot further away that the hostel guy said it would be, which barely gave me 25 minutes to eat before the show started.

I do not mean to mock the ancient traditions of either Cambodia or England but when I saw a group of them dancing with each other at first I could not help but compare their actions with our own Morris Dancers, and the similie would be even closer if you exchanged coconut shells for beating sticks. The only real difference I could see was in their clothes and backing musical instruments used.

The main dance was more to my liking as it was a demon in red trying to seduce a princess or queen without luck but at least this looked more classical and their movement seemed more oriental in origin.

The final show I stayed for, before heading on back to my hoste with a massive headache, was a love dance between what seemed to be a female rice planter and a lobster fisher boy, with the boy stealing her basket and teasing her before she turned the tables and walked away refusing his attempt to return it to her til in the end they kissed just as their friends arrived to see them.

Although it was only about 9pm I could not help but struggle with the continued heat and even with a fan and air conditioning unit going full blast I tossed and turned for an hour before the paracetamol worked and I was able to rest and get a good nights sleep for the pre-dawn visit to the Ankor Wat.