The day started off at 8am with a greeting from our tour guide, Mr Sakada. Brother Hassan did not accompany us this time as he had some errands to take care of before our team heads back to Malaysia.
We
all climbed in to the van once again and drove to our first pit stop, which was
the place where we had to get our Angkor Wat day pass printed. The day pass
cost us 20 dollars each. We were called one by one, our pictures taken and the
pass was ready in 5 minutes.
We hopped back onto the van and made our way to the first temple - Bayon Temple. The moment we climbed out of the van, we were swarmed by street sellers who targeted tourists and sold hats, traditional flutes, keychains, shawls, fridge magnets, you name it! 'One for one dollar, Madame' they would coax us into purchasing the items. Even children were among the sellers, following us all until we made our way into the temple.
A group picture in the Bayon Temple
Sakada giving a history lesson on the intricate carvings inside the temples
Avid street sellers
There
were a variety of tourists but according to Sakada, the main tourists that come
to visit the Angkor Wat during this season were the Japanese, Korean, and
Chinese. And he was absolutely right. It was an interesting sight to see the
tourist guides each catering to the language of the tourists from different
countries. Some spoke, Korean, Spanish, and even French.
Our
next stop was the Angkor Tomb where the filming of one of the scenes in Tomb
Raider took part. There was a large tree, which was shaped like an octopus,
which looked amazing, SubhanAllah. All of us had a fun time unwinding and
taking pictures around the temple as the carvings in stone and the smiley heads
of the Buddha were the main cultural attraction. The sun was scorching so many
of us decided to purchase hats for comfort from the sun.
A group picture with another scene from the Tomb Raider
After
the Angkor Tomb, we headed back to Faisol Angkor Guesthouse for Zohor and Asar
prayers, and met again for our next tour at 2pm. This time, we were finally
visiting the Angkor Wat!
It
was tremendously huge and according to Sakada, needs 3 whole days to fully
appreciate the beauty of the Angkor Wat. It is the biggest temple in the world
and is part of the UNESCO world heritage site and is maintained in conjunction
with various countries such as Japan, France, and India. It was an amazing
site, not to mention the abundance of tourists during our visit.
The famous Angkor Wat in all its glory
Children singing to attract tourists
After the amazing Angkor Wat trip, Sakada brought us jewellery shopping at one of the renowned jewellery stores in Phnom Penh.
Bling blings!
All
in all, we had an amazing time, although deeply tiring, added to the fact that
we were fasting as well. We had Iftar at the guest house again and after our
tarawikh, we had the chance to visit the night market for the last time.
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