I woke up early and Taes and I met up at 5am with plans to be at Angkor Wat for Sunrise. Unfortunately, there was some confusion the day before when booking our tuk-tuk and it wasn't actually officially booked. We ended up getting to Angkor Wat as the sun was rising but not officially for sunrise.
Angkor Wat is really nice early in the morning (around 5:45am was when we arrived). There were other tourists but it wasn't too busy. We walked around the temple and climbed the steps steep steps to the center platform of the Wat. The steps are narrow and very steep and though it doesn't look high in the pictures it feels pretty high up when you reach the top. I was nervous about getting down again but after we had walked around the top looking at beautiful carvings, taking many pictures and relaxing I had calmed down enough that I was able to attempt the climb down. Nearly every inch of the inner galleries of Angkor Wat are covered in carvings, every pillar and wall seems to have something and the outer gallery is extremely detailed.
I bought a book and some post cards from the vendors while exiting the temple grounds. The vendors are something else, most of them are young children who will follow you trying to sell you things with unrelenting determination. I had wanted to buy the book since Lynne had shown me hers and though it doesn't have a ton on information it has many pictures which are beautiful.
After we left the temple we found our tuk-tuk driver and he took us into the Royal city of Angkor Thom and to the Bayon temple. Now this is a wonderful temple, I can see why it is so popular. There are giant smiling stone faces everywhere and I found that it gave the temple a comforting feeling. You couldn't look at any section of the temple without seeing at least five faces. The outer wall of the temple is covered in base relief carvings depicting battle scenes. While at Bayon Taes and I ran into a girl who was also staying at our guest house and we decided to travel together the next day, it ended up however that our travels together were to start immediately following our trip to Bayon as we had planed the same excursion for the rest of the day and it made sense to walk around together.
Our next stop was Baphuon and from there we walked to Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, and the Terrace of the Leper King. There are all within the city of Angkor Thom and are quite close together. I took many pictures and will have something to post from each place we visited. The Baphuon stands at the centre of Angkor Thom and represents the mythical mountain, Meru. There isn't a lot to see of Phimeanakas as it was under restoration and we weren't able to climb it's steps or get too close. The Elephant terrace is a large walk way with many elephant carvings the highlight of which is the mythical three headed elephants on the main platform. The Terrace of the Leper King was interesting because of the statue at the top and the interesting walkway which had intricately carved walls portraying naga as well as other scenes.
Taes and I were very hungry by this point and so we took a break for lunch at one of the stalls where the cars and tuk-tuks park. I had a great lemon grass chicken and an ok mango shake (a little too runny without enough flavour).
After lunch we had regained enough energy to explore other temples and so our next stop was Preah Khan which is the temple of the Sacred Sword. This is a large temple with a lot of carvings, we took our time walking around as there was a lot to see.
Next was a visit to Preah Neak Pean. This was a public bath I believe, there are four smaller pools and one large pool, though non are filled with water any more. The area is quite small and it's a pretty quick walk around to see it, but there are a few Naga heads and a human head spout, horse head spout, elephant head spout, and a lion head spout. Taes was pretty tired after our trek around Preah Khan and so she lounged in the shade while May and I walked around and then May and I joined her for a little lounge on the side of one of the pools. It was so hot out I wish that the pools had been filled with water!
We weren't done our adventures for the day and went next to Ta Som. I liked Ta Som it was pretty crumbly but there was a huge tree growing at the back of the temple and it was beautiful. I love it when the lines between nature and civilization blur a little. I'll post a picture of the tree eventually.
Two more places to visit and our day of trekking from temple to temple finished. The second last stop was East Mebon which is a Hindu temple. There are large circular holes in the stones here and I read that they are probably there because they used to be covered in metal plates. There are elephants at the corners of one of the levels of the temple and I took pictures of them for Adina (my younger sister likes elephants). We climbed to the top and took in the view. It wasn't terribly high or steep but that was ok with us, we had one more temple to climb and didn't mind taking it easy. I started to notice at this temple that despite my sunscreen application I was still getting a little burnt. It would seem I can't go on vacation with out getting at least one burn, at least it wasn't as bad as the one I got at Ko Phi Phi.
The final stop for the day was the temple Pre Rup. This temple is a popular one for watching the sun set, you can see Mabon to the South West and Angkor Wat on the horizon to the North West. I read that this may have been an early royal crematorium as the name Pre Rup means "Turning the Body". We didn't end up seeing the sun set because at the last moment the clouds came in an covered the sun. I didn't mind not seeing the sunset, I made a friend named John who was from London and it was just nice to have a sit for a while.
We left Pre Rup before the light was gone since we couldn't see the sun properly set and went back to our guest house to clean up before dinner. Once we were all cleaned, changed and presentable we went out for dinner and a stroll. On our walk a little boy (who was really young, maybe 5 years old?) who was carrying his one year old sister on his hip and holding and empty bottle in his hand followed me crying and begging for money so that he could buy formula for his sister. It was awful, and I couldn't do anything for them. That was the hardest thing about Cambodia, the poverty is so obvious and wide spread and you feel powerless because you don't have enough to help everyone.
After our walk we arranged for a tour for Monday afternoon and then went back to our guest house and to bed. I couldn't sleep so I sat out front and wrote my journal and talked to the guest house staff. This didn't work out well for me. I was nice and friendly and they taught me some Khmer but then another guest joined us (some guy from Japan) and the night ended with first the Japanese guy trying to invite himself to my room and then when I got rid of him the guy at the front desk told me he loved me and I was the only woman for him (a statement he held on to and told me every day until my departure). Oye!
Today's picture is of the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
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