Saturday 30th November - Angkor Wat

For half of the Group, it was a very early start, meeting in the foyer at 4.45am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, an ancient Budhist Temple. We got onto Tuk Tuks, to travel to Angkor Wat, at short trip. Once arriving we had to buy day passes, which the rest of the group would do later. We got back into the Tuk Tuks to go to the bridge across the river to Angkor Wat. Walking ac

ross this bridge was very scary as we did not know that there was a five metre drop into water, with no side rails. Around a thousand people were lined up to see the spectacular sight of the sunrise. At around 5.40am the sun started to rise above the Temple, and the cameras went crazy. We did a short walk around the front of the Temple, before heading back to the hotel for a quick shower and breakfast, ready to travel once again to Angkor Wat, this time with the whole group. Everyone else then had to buy their day passes before we were given two hours free time to explore the Angkor Wat Temple. It was an impressive sight and great fun to climb in and around the Temples. The Temples were covered in stone carvings which were just amazing to see. Lunch was our choice of the small cafes at Angkor Wat. We then moved onto a another Temple at the site. This one was very fragile and colapsing in many places, but had a maze of small tunnels and stairways for us to explore. A few of us participated in a goodluck blessing, where we placed a stick of incense into a pot of sand, knelt before a Buddah and were given wool braclets which are the symbol of goodluck, we are ment to leave these on until they fall off. Then back onto the busses to move to the final Temple. This one was again falling apart in many places but was Temple in which the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. The Temple was covered in trees which had grown in strange places due to the droppings of birds containing tree seeds. Some trees had grown over both sides of stone walls while others had grown from the roof. It was then back to hotel once again for a shower, and free time for tea in the few blocks around the hotel. We are all going to bed early tonight as we have a very early start tomorrow to board the boat to Phnom Pehn. We are all very sadly saying goodbye to the receptionists at the hotel, as we have all got to know them very well and have had many fun jokes with them. Esther Thomson, Murray Van der Drift.