Day 2 (Part 6): Lunch! & Ta Keo

After a whole morning of walking and climbing, after Terrace of the Leper King, Songpiak drive us back to Bayon where the food stalls are. He takes us to his female friend's stall for lunch. Here's what we ordered. Kaiyi orders chicken noodle soup, Xiulan orders beef noodle soup and I order pineapple chicken fried rice. Ever since I've touched down in Siem Reap, I'm eating more rice than I have for a month if I were in Singapore. We decide not to have beer for lunch. We still have a long way to go. So coke is the way.

Food is not cheap. 3 cokes and three main courses you see above, cost about US$13.

Great news! Xiulan receives an sms to confirm her acceptance into NIE to be trained as a Chinese teacher. Congratulation, 表妹!


After lunch, Songpiak drive us to Ta Keo. One of the most memorable part of our whole Siem Reap trip. We are going to climb all the way to the top.

The stairs are steep...

These children go to school in the morning and sells trinkets in the temples to the tourists. If they know that you are not buying, they will ask you for sweets. Bring lots of sweets to give to these poor children. We have a hard time climbing the steep stairs but these children take less than 3 minutes to climb one flight of staircase. We take more than double the time.

It is not easy climbing up the stairs make me look slimmer. Hahaha! At this point in time, I have no mood to do pretty poses. My foot can only fit into each step when they are placed side ways. And the sign at the side says, "Climb at your own risk"

Such a memorable climb, we definately need to take one photo each. This is just the beginning. Actually Kaiyi doesn't want to climb up after seeing the sign. But Xiulan says, "凡走过比留下痕迹". Refused to be left out, she climbs with us. See below for what happens.

This is Kaiyi coming down from the highest point. Frankly it is scary. The sun has heated up the side stones to so hot, it's almost scalding to place our hands there for support. We resort to using our bums for support. Like babies coming down the stairs. Kaiyi stops halfway, complaining and weeping at the same time about her "jelly" knees. Chinese-teacher-to-be Xiulan rubs it in by saying, this is what you call "骑虎难下", "进退两难"。

When we are at our last flight of stairs down, a little touting girl gave out instructions to the easier route down the steps. She uses the side stones. No wonder she is giggling at the tourists' clumsiness when climbing the stairs.

At this point in time, you might be asking, where is Kaiyi's jumping pose. You think "jelly" knees still can jump meh?

经过这次的经验，我深有感触。Kaiyi因为我们的激发而决定豁出去陪我们一起爬上去。下来的时候，Kaiyi因为脚软而差点下不来。Xiulan和我一前一后，牵着Kaiyi的手，让她靠，鼓励她走完全程。就是因为我们一起度过困难，互相扶持，才能在今天一起回味当时的酸甜苦辣。有感动，有感动。。。