The hotel called precisely at 4am as promised and delivered our first breakfast at 4:30am.  At 5am we walked out and found our guide and tuk-tuk ready to roll.  It’s pitch black and away we go.  The tuk-tuk ride takes about 15 or 20 minutes.  Our eyes are barely opened, but not being able to see anything in the dark, it didn’t matter.  We arrive at Angkor Wat and the guide goes to buy our tickets (combo Angkor Wat and Bayan Temple, cheaper if you buy them both, who knew? Just go along with it.). Our guide is Rom pronounced Rome.  He’s extremely knowledgeable as I’d expect an Amansara guide would be, patient, and kind, which seems to be a requirement to be Cambodian except for that Pol Pot guy. 

 We got back into the tuk-tuk and drove another 10 or so minutes to get into the back entrance or at least where you walk (hike) to get into the back entrance.  Quick history lesson.  Angkor Wat started as a Hindu temple when it was built in the 12th century that became Buddhist over the years.  I’m not sure how one reconciles Buddhism with all the wars that took place, but that’s for another discussion.  Apparently, there were a number of kings, but J7 (J is short for an unpronounceable name that starts with J) is the main guy.  He converted the people to Buddhism and built a temple, Bayan Temple,  that, if I understood correctly, allowed both Hindu and Buddhism to live and pray side by side.  Angkor Wat though is much more than the largest religious complex on Earth.  In the mid-16th century over a million people lived around the temple complex, making it the largest city in the world at that time.  Crazy, right? There’s a square moat dug by hand that surrounds Angkor Wat (1.3km by 1.5km) that provided water for the million people.  Unfortunately as time passed, wars raged and the water system fell into disrepair so the king at that time moved the entire city to Phnom Penh.  The temple complex was abandoned and not rediscovered until the French came upon it in the 1860’s and began putting the pieces back together that’s still going on today.  It’s the largest jigsaw puzzle on the planet or maybe Lego puzzle is a better way to explain it.  There are literally piles and piles of hundreds and hundreds of stones that archeologists are still trying to figure out how they fit.

When the sunlight finally started to show, we could see thousands of people from every corner of the world who also sacrificed sleeping in to witness the sunrise.  Lisa was brought to tears seeing the temple at Angkor Wat coming through the sunrise, she was so moved.  

I can’t say that I was that moved, but I was taken by the number of languages I was hearing and the fact that all these folks probably missed breakfast.  

Rom was a wealth of information.  I don’t understand how anyone can tour Angkor Wat without a guide.  (Caveat: anything I got wrong here is his fault. I take no blame. I’m just a gullible tourist who doesn’t know better.) There are several smaller temples within Angkor Wat and after touring the main temple we went to see J7’s Bayan Temple, the famous one that had trees and tree roots growing in and throughout the walls.  It’s where Angelina Jolie filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  (I’ll bet she stayed at Amansara.). Here’s a photo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie when they were there.

We finished at Angkor Wat by about 10:30. There was way more to tour the following day, so we went back to the hotel to have a more proper second breakfast and a nap.  After a quick snooze, we had our trusty tuk-tuk driver (more cold towels) take us to an innovative Khmer restaurant for lunch called Jomno.  Delish.

Since neither one of us brought a nail clipper, I was badly in need of a manicure. I never get manicures but I was desperate.  The driver spoke little English but he understood my hand/nail motions and took us to a hair and nail salon after we finished eating.  While waiting my turn, we were riveted by these two twenty somethings having their hair and makeup done.  We had no idea about what they were doing, but they were doing a lot of primping for some reason and the whole salon was working on them. When they were nearly done, finally the salon sends over a young manicurist who doesn’t say anything to me so I assume she doesn’t speak English.  She just takes my hands and, after her shock wore off, took a deep breath and started working on them. When she was finished (she was tenacious, it took 30 minutes), she looks up at me and says, “I hope you like it.” She spoke fluent English.  The cost?  $6.  I gave her $10 (big tipper here).  She was thrilled and so was I.  She did a great job.  Lisa, inspired by my experience, finds a different hair salon to try her luck taming her humidity soaked locks. They do a great job and I can only wonder what our tuk-tuk driver thinks of the these two senior Americans and their Siem Reap sudden grooming needs.

We went back to the hotel to get ready to go to the Phare circus.  Did you ever wonder where Cirque du Soleil finds its talent?  Not really? Well it’s at the Phare circus.  The circus is an educational and circus training center for poor people in the countryside to get decent paying jobs performing. It does help that they can bend their bodies in weird positions and have enormous upper body strength. The circus is actually more acrobatic than circus and the shows they put on are theme based. Some are quite profound like the one about the genocide.  Come to the circus! See people slaughtered! Thankfully, our show was a happy one and because we were Amansara guests and therefore supposed VIPs, we are put in the front row of the round stage.  The whole thing is very small.  No more than maybe 2-300 people per show.  There’s dinner, a bar, and a market before the show if you want but we made plans to eat at the hotel after the circus.  All the money made goes to the educational program.

As soon as they seat us in the front row, I leaned over to Lisa and whispered, “I don’t want to be part of the show.”  Well, that was prescient.  In the very first routine, one of the performers, the comical one, lands right in my lap. Fortunately, they didn’t drag me onto the stage. I just had to look surprised and then help him get down, which I did with theatrical aplomb. The performers were fantastic and more than a few were notably gender fluid (wasn’t expecting that in the middle of Cambodia).  I’m also quite sure one was a eunuch.  He was doing splits in the air, and you couldn’t help but see he was missing some parts.  (Not being judgy here.  My role is to report what I saw or in this case what I didn’t see.)

There are no visibly identifiable eunuchs in this photo. Foreshadowing: there will be more eunuchs in Vietnam!

After the show we couldn’t find our tuk-tuk driver. He was more desperate to find us because if he couldn’t find us, I’m quite sure he would have lost his job. Amansara looks down on Tuk-tuk drivers who lose their clients. We finally found each other and after more cold, wet towels, we were on our way back to the hotel where we were greeted again by the staff and even more cold, wet towels.  

Not a memorable dinner at the hotel.  Not bad, just not particularly memorable. And that was the end of a full and thrilling day 2 in Siem Reap. We crawled into our bed and our eyes were closed before our heads hit the plump, lush pillows, but not before we indulged in the “free” Negronis.