Ankor What?

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So we arrived in Siem Reap yesterday. Stayed at Victory Gues House. The place is clean and quiet, though quite a few mosquitos outside.

At around 8AM we set out for the Temples of Angkor. We decided to rent bikes, and bike from temple to temple. Nevermind that it's 92 degrees out, and nevermind that I have a balancing problem... Altogether it was probably 20 ~25 km that we biked. Not alot, but my ass still hurts because the bikes here don't have very good cushioning. My first time biking amidst crazy traffic, but I survived, though there were a few near-hits.

We visited Ta Phrom, Takeo, and Bayon.

Ta Phrom: A temple in ruins, overgrown with trees. Parts of the temple are actually buried in the roots of giant trees. Quite a sight. This site was used to film Tomb Raiders. The carvings are incredibly intricate.

Takeo: A half-built temple. Very tall (probably 6-7 stories tall), with very VERY steep steps. I had to crawl on all fours coming back down, and even then I thought i was gonna slip and fall.

Bayon: Its a massive complex wth multiple structures, the center of Angkor Thom. It reportedly has > 170 faces of deities. I didn't really try to count. By the time we got to Bayon, the sun was setting, color the statues a golden hue, and the whole structure sort of glowed with the setting sunlight. It was quite beautiful.

On our way back we encountered some monkeys. One of them came up to me, looked through my backpack, and took out my water bottle, opened it and proceeded to drink from it. Amit was being a nice guy and helped it by holding up the water bottle. Nevermind that I'm still thirsty and that's my only bottle of water...

We biked back to the city as it got dark. Oh yeah, and I got separated from Amit and got myself lost. But let's not talk about that now. =P Suffice it to say that I did eventually make it back to the hostel, and promptly took a shower.

Tomorrow, we will set out at 5AM to see the sunrise at Ankor Wat. And if we're lucky, ride the elephants.

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