The Rest of Angkor

What we did today, most people do in two days (at least according to the Lonley Planet). After the landmine museum, Net took back to the main area and we visited Ta Keo. By this time, it had gotten really hot and we were already pretty exhausted, but this temple was perfect. Although, not very intricate in design, it was very tall, so we got lots of shady places to sit and rest, which we did. The steps were really steep going up so we spent a lot of time at each level just sitting.


When we finished, we joined Net outside the complex under a tree and just talked to him for a bit. We learned his life story and how tough it was trying to make a living as a moto or a tuk-tuk driver. However, by this point we had already decided to give him a $2 tip because he was a really nice guy and gave us a pretty good tour of Angkor.

The next stop was Banteay Kdei ... another temple. By this time, we'd already taken pictures of every column, every archway, every high angle and low angle shot, every wall with vegetation growing on it, every spire with blue from the sky ... we were tired of taking pictures and had about 500+ already. We just walked around and killed time before our last stop.


Once we left this temple, we walked across the road and got a nice view of a large lake termed Srah Srang, which means "Royal Bath." It was a nice change of scenery.


Net ten took us to our final stop, Phnom Bakheng, which was a temple atop a hill. This temple wasn't as nice as the others, but the 100 sunset pictures (to add to our other 700) were worth it. It was about a 30-minute hike up a dirt path and we got to the top about an hour before the sunset. From here, you can see off in the distance, Angkor Wat and bast jungle that surrounds it. Hundreds of people were up here (some took a $20 elephant ride) and we all waited for one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen. I've done the beach sunset and the city sunset, but the sunset with the silhouette of ancient ruins in the foreground was new.



After we were satisfied with our pictures and before it got dark, we hiked down, took a few pictures with Net, and then he dropped us off back at the hotel. We were walkin around looking at temples from 5AM to 6PM, but it was a great day and very satisfying ... except when a little girl named Pau got the best of me and sold me some water.