Popo

To our baby who has grown to be a fine young man: intelligent, handsome, talented and God-loving...


I may have many more nephews and nieces in the future, but you sure will be my one and only baby...

Happy Birthday!


I know this greeting came a little late, so to make up for it, I promise one big trip with you!


We love you, Popo!

Visita Iglesia

"This is the most beautiful day in four months!  You two are very lucky!", said Kim Soryar and Narnie, our second day tour guides.  According to them, if it rained the day before, people wouldn't be able to see the world famous Angkor Wat sunrise.  It would be gloomy and cloudy.

It shortly rained hard the late afternoon before.

We nevertheless saw the dreamy sunrise!

"We are telling you, it is you and rest of the Cambodia, who are lucky to have us here.  We brought the sun here!", our immediate and staple response to everyone who told us that since we arrived.

They did not seem to believe, they were mostly just patronizing their big-tipping guests.  They want to put it to the test.

After ten thousand clicks to capture the moment, we were told by our guides that we would proceed to the other temples first and would just come back to explore Angkor Wat in the afternoon.  After all, a finale should be grand.

Our first stop, the Bayon Temple.

The temple has 216 identical faces of the smiling Buddha.  However, some also believe that in the tradition of Khmer kings regarding themselves as god-kings, those faces are of King Jayavarman VII, identifying himself with Buddha.

  

Next, Phimeneakas.

This temple closely resembles the Chichen Itza of Mexico and the Machu Pichu of Peru, which might explain why most people think aliens helped out ancient people in building structures way ahead of their time.  After all, how could people from different continents come up with identical designs.

Before heading to the next temple, we passed by this massive grandstand that would shame the Quirino (not so) Grandstand, the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King.  It was where the kings watched spectacles such as elephant fights, among others.  You can only begin to imagine how pompous celebrations were those times.

 

Next temple, Ta Phrom.

 

Admittedly, this was the temple I mistook to be part of the Angkor Wat, thanks to the movie Tomb Raider.  What's amazing about this temple are the gigantic trees that have grown part of the ruins.  Narnie told us that the trees were allowed to grow to help hold the structures together.

Despite our wonder twin powers of conjuring the sun where it needs to be, we still needed to eat so we were brought to Somros Sras Srang Restaurant within the complex.  And I could not be more satisfied with food.  What's more surprising was when the waitress gave us a large bowl of extra rice which we did not ask for.  According to Soryar, it is expected of Cambodians, being big rice eaters, to order extra, so the waitress took the liberty of serving us one.  And boy, you would really need it because every single dish was a smash hit!

 

 

Moving on, Pre Rup.

What I like about this temple is the very steep stair to the central tower which you should carefully climb sideways because the steps are really narrow.

Narnie told us that it was made that way to signify that it is hard for human beings to go to heaven.  I thought it was made that way so that cut off heads would easily roll down and not get stuck in the steps it they were a little wider.  But that's just me imagining a scene from Apocalypto.

 

Next, Ta Som.

 I'd let Wikipedia tell you something about this temple as there was nothing there that I found unusual, at least compared to the other temples so far.

Next, Neak Pean.

This was were we sat for a while and discussed a little about Cambodian history with Narnie.  We learned that the genocide during Pol Pot's regime is not being taught in the primary and secondary schools, only in college.  ET opined that it should be taught as early as possible so that Cambodian children would be aware of what happened as not many children proceed to college.  If they do not teach it, it is like not recognizing it happened at all.  As I understood it, they think that children are not mature enough to handle that part of their history.

After the insightful conversation, we headed to Preah Kahn.

What's different about this temple is that it is flat unlike the other temples that have really tall towers, aside from being very long, and with so many galleries..  This is why we referred to this as the "Megamall of the Temples".

Finally, after the long list of lesser temples, we were headed to the finale, the temple of temples, the Angkor Wat.

Apsara-p!

"Oh, we're sorry! How long have you been waiting?", Evil Twin asked Soryar, our second tour guide.  Because of a whole day of temple hopping, we really had to go back to the hotel to rest a bit and freshen up.

"Ahm, around 10 minutes.  It's ok but we have to be going, the show will start in a while and you have to have dinner first.", he replied.

We were on our way to the Aspara Dance Show at Angkor Mondial Restaurant.  Unlike Sam Tuktuk, our tour guide earlier that day, who was very personal in dealing with his guests, Soryar was a little more professional.  He spoke seriously and smiled little when we were trying to break the ice.

"Oh my, the place is packed already!  Where are we going to sit?", I exclaimed while Soryar approached a restaurant manager to discuss something.

"You follow him.  I will come back later to pick you up.  Enjoy the dinner and the show.", said Soryar.

We followed the manager and threaded the halls of the restaurant, hoping we would not be asked to sit in one of the long tables with a lot of other guests already pigging out.

"Here is your table Sir, Maam.  Enjoy the show!", said the manager.

"Ang yaman mo te!!!  Ikaw na!  Nag-iisa ka!", I worshipped ET.

"Reserved for the guests of Kim Soryar.", it said on our table right in front of the stage.  ET was the one who found Soryar on the net and arranged everything for the Cambodia and Vietnam leg of the tour.  Apparently, ET did not also expect that from Soryar, she nonetheless deserved my adoration!

We had the best view of the show.

 

 

 

 

After the interesting show and the sumptuous dinner,

we met with Soryar outside and asked him to bring us to a good spa for a body massage.  ET pointed out even before we left Manila, that we were going to get a massage every single night if possible for the 10-day tour.

 

Surprisingly, we had the best massage of the entire trip for a measly sum of USD8 for an hour foot massage and USD8 for an hour of body massage.

And we went back to the hotel very happy.