THE DATE: April 26, 2012
THE TRIP
06:00-08:00 Waking up early to see this…
…is worth it.
I’m not a morning person, and even with work, I still hate waking up before 10AM. Divimom, on the other hand, is used to a 5 or 6AM wake-up call. I must have been excited for our sunrise at Angkor Wat that I woke up before Divimom did. This is not included in the package so I have to tell them beforehand that we plan to visit Angkor before sunrise. We left the guesthouse around 6AM. There were a lot of people already but not as many as I expected. There were also peddlers, some of them children, offering coffee and mats and selling souvenirs and scarves. Despite the eyesore of a scaffolding and the dirty lake, waiting for the sunrise in Angkor Wat was quite an experience.
08:00-09:30 After two hours, we returned to the guesthouse for our free breakfast and to upload pictures. We stayed for a bit to charge my camera in preparation for a whole-day tour of the temples.
09:30-15:30 With both our tummies and my camera’s battery full, we went back to tour the temple complex. We didn’t hire a tour guide (25-30 USD) since it’s not within our budget but I did borrow a small magazine from the guesthouse that provided information on the different temples.
I may not be able to remember the names of the other temples but I will never forget Bayon temple due to its many serene, half-smiling faces.
And that’s the last thing my camera lens saw. Just when I need to take a picture of one of the most visited places in the temple complex, the camera battery ran out. Just like that. No notice, no warning. It just died. I got it two days before our trip so I wasn’t able to acquaint myself with its features. Oh well, charge it to experience :p
15:30-18:00 Went back to the guesthouse to charge my camera but decided to skip the rest of the tour instead because it’s sooo hot.
18:00-20:00 We had dinner at the Angkor night market and bought some souvenirs. Again. It IS our last day in the market so we can’t really be blamed.. right. Anyway, we returned to the stall where we bought the pretty one-dollar scarves to buy the coolest wrap-around pants ever. And because she recognized us from all the haggling yesterday, she gave us discounts!
See, good things come to those who haggle nicely.
THE EXPENSES
For consistency’s sake, 1 USD is 4,000 KHR and 1 USD is 43 PHP.
*We availed the 66USD package of Bou Savy Guesthouse. For purposes of computation of expenses, I divided 66 USD into: 12 USD per night for three nights and 15 USD per day tour for two days. I treated the breakfasts and one-time dinner as freebies.