To Infinity and Bayoned

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When we awoke this morning, the skies were clear and bright so we decided to give the bikes another try. Thankfully I had better brakes this time though the saddles on both our bikes were pretty uncomfortable. We set off earlier today and were at Angkor Wat before 10am being spurred on with many more cheery hellos from fellow local cyclists. We parked our bikes and sat by the lakeside for a while simply enjoying the beauty of our surroundings. It was easy to imagine how Buddhist monks have come here over the centuries to reflect and meditate with nature's glory all around. Angkor Wat is undoubtedly the king of the temples here: a vast complex of libraries, galleries, towers, pools and terraces all enclosed by an outer moat. Just lovely.

We strolled around the grounds, enjoying the morning sun and came across the biggest spider ever. He was black with yellow markings on his body and hung from a palm tree without a care in the world. He was about the size of my whole hand - we still can't believe how big it was! We then ventured inside to take a look at the bas reliefs which we didn't have time to see on the previous visit. They feature some of the most amazing carvings of both real and fantastical scenes from the life of the kings of old, including an attack by a monkey army and a visualisation of heaven and hell. It was all pretty impressive.

We hopped back on our bikes again and headed to Bayon temple, possibly the second most famous temple here after Angkor. This is the temple that features faces looking out from all four sides of its numerous towers. It was really beautiful and the missing piece from our collection of temples visited here in Siem Reap. It seemed like a fitting way to complete our tour of Angkor and as our backsides were aching from the bad saddles, we agreed to pedal it back to the hostel and have a lazy late afternoon of it.

Tonight we're off out into town for some food (hopefully at the Khmer Kitchen again) and I daresay we might make it to Angkor What? bar again for a pitcher or two of beer to toast what has been a brilliant leg of our round the world trip. Easily the most expensive week we've had since Japan but also easily the best. Tomorrow we fly out to Bangkok nice and early for country number 5 - Thailand. We'll be really sad to leave Cambodia but I get the feeling we'll be coming back here again as soon as we get the chance :-))

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Comments

[esther,papa,franziska]

weiter so
hallo ihr lieben, hier regnet es auch in stroemen seit ner woche, seitdem esther da ist. fahre heut mittag wieder nach muenchen. essen noch zu mittag - hasenwuerste - ehrlich. habt spass in cambodchia! bis bald. viele gruesse aus dem schwarzwald! esther, papa u. franziska

[mom and dad]

thailand
hi kids glad to see you are having a good time at last yes we did have the kids took them to sealife they loved it leighna loved the turrtles and the ray fish when she wriggled her fingers they came to the surface she thought that was great also we took them to corey and jaynes they went in the pool with corey also leighna loved it on the trampoline we got them a bouncing activity centerwith 5 activities plus some playsand witch lee and dad liked to play in well must go cooking dinner and getting ready to go back to work to morrow sob sob love to you both mom dad lee and kids x x x x x x