Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and the Small Circuit

We were having breakfast at a café when we noticed people running in the street. An American who went out told us there was a fire, and Henri couldn't resist investigating. Go Tintin!

The next day, we woke up early, at 5 am exactly, and found a remorque (Cambodian tuktuk) driver sleeping near the river willing to take us to the Small Circuit.

The first time we went there our still camera went kaput, this morning we could guess better where the tourist trafic would be so we had a plan to avoid the tourist bus crowds.

We started at Bayon, where we planned to catch the first rays of sunlight. Unlike our first visit, there were only 2 other people at Bayon. Everyone was at Angkor Wat, watching the sunrise and going around the different levels of the temple with their loud guides. Here, it was quiet, it was peaceful -- it seemed like we had stumbled into a quiet, undiscovered ruin.

It is believed that the faces were modeled after King Jayavarman VII's, the Buddhist King who united Hindus and Buddhists through his temples.

His face looks over the four cardinal directions from the top of 54 columns.

It is a face of peacefulness and compassion. The day before, we heard a guide say the upturned smile is what makes the face so Cambodian.

Abba!

We had a tuktuk driver/"guide" with us when we first visited the small circuit, an old poet who speaks and writes in French, but he has bad knees and I suspect he had a stroke so he couldn't walk with us. So, we followed people who had their own guides and listened to the stories you couldn't find on the Lonely Planet.

I discovered some of them have a dislike for the Chinese. The soldiers below are part of the invading Chinese army, and the guide said the eyes are small because they think of money so much. Scandalous!

These kids were running when I lifted the camera, and shen I clicked, one of them lifted his shirt and peed (faire pipi) mid-run.

Baphon, the "jigsaw puzzle" whose cheat sheet was lost
when the Khmer Rouge came to power. The French team are still
attempting to complete it, if they could only figure out where the stones fit. 

We just came back from Pai yesterday afternoon and we're leaving again soon, so we'll finish the story a little later.

TO BE CONTINUED.