Angkor Temples – Day 7
Saturday, December 15th, 2007We started our final day at Banteay Kdei. For some reason we didn’t go through the whole thing the first time through and we liked this one so we put it on our repeat list. And we finally bought the 10 pack of postcards for 1 USD. I know this is just going to give John’s brothers ammunition to make fun of him but I thought it was sweet and a I felt bad after the fact. This kid was RELENTLESS – would not stop bothering John to buy something from him – usually you can shake these kids after a few minutes but this one wouldn’t go away. Finally, John said “give me a dollar” to me since he didn’t have one on him. I said no, this kid will bother every tourist that comes through here if you buy from him. I turned my back and walked away. I was not going to give this kid a dollar. John runs up to me a few minutes later and says “give me a dollar – this kid is so upset and he’s crying – he tried to hide his tears from you but I could see him crying”.
I gave him a dollar and walked away. John caught up with me holding the pack of postcards. He said he just couldn’t watch this kid crying his eyes out. He just couldn’t take it. That the kid was so unbelievably happy when he handed him that dollar. I’m not sure if that kid was the best actor in Cambodia or if he really needed the money for something. We’ll never know…
Anyway, on to more temples…
We went to Ta Phrom where Tomb Raider was partially filmed – it was kind of hard to see through all tourists…for some reason, maybe because it was Friday?…there were SOOOOO MANY TOUR BUSES!
And we went back to Bayon. There were probably 20 x as many people there then the first time we went but it was kind of fun. We sat in this one corner that was a bit shady and tour guide after tour guide came up to this one spot to tell his tourees to take a picture from. It was totally funny. And tourist after tourist was told not to climb on the carvings. I guess there’s a huge desire to have a shot of yourself next to a big head.
We also saw here and at Phrom a guy doing watercolors that were amazing and this other guy doing these amazing sketches. I didn’t realize all these sketches and paintings around here weren’t screened on – they looked like prints but apparently there are some amazing artists around here.
After a brief, last stop to look at Angkor (sob!), we were done with our 7 day trip. It was amazing. Better than I had hoped for.
JohnCin