Day 4

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Having had our fill of temples in the heat, we wanted to do something else. Shea suggested we visit the museum and a tuk-tuk driver had mentioned the cultural village, but on checking out the cultural village I was under the impression that it catered more to large groups of tourists, there was nobody there! So we did a u-turn and headed to the museum. Pricy at $12 ea and we weren’t slowed to take pics unless we paid extra, like $3 I think, hence, no pictures! We did enjoy the experience, learnt a lot about the history and saw a lot of statues and carvings. Was it worth it? If you are into stuff like this, certainly. It was well put together and there were quite a few people there. Shea liked it, so what kind of 13 year old wants to go to a museum and actually enjoys the experience? That’s Shea for you.

We had arranged to do a last temple, Phnom Bakheng, a hill top temple popular with sunrise and sunset viewing. So after the museum we went back to the hotel to chill for a bit then headed out keeping in mind that we will be seeing a lot of people there. The trek up the hill was dusty but not too bad. The temple was a small collection of ruins but was mainly a viewing platform because of its location. We picked a spot and waited as people slowly filled up the place, and fill it up they did! Within a few minutes there was hardly standing room, mostly tourists of Asian origin and a few westerners who looked a bit out of place. Shea and I managed to get some great shots of the sunset and it did cross my mind that I could just as well be doing this in a big field near by home as all we were taking pictures of was the setting sun and yet it felt somewhat exciting, moving from one vantage point to the next amidst snapping cameras and young ladies in creative poses (framing the setting sun to look like it was resting on the hand was particularly popular!). Soon it was all over, people left as they had arrived and Shea and I managed to hang around long enough to savoir the tranquility of the temple at twilight, in fact we were the last to leave. So that was it, the end of our Angkor Wat adventure, next we head for Phnom Penh to stay with friends. We had made arrangements to catch a bus early the next morning but first, one last meal at a roadside restaurant we had seen the night before, and it was good!

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Photos

Museum
So this is where all those missing heads are!

Museum
A face of contentment.

Bakheng
Early arrivals. From this......

Bakheng
...to this!

Bakheng
My favorite shot.

Comments

[anonymous]

Wow! Were that crowd all tourists at Bakheng temple?

[sunnynna]

Bakheng
Yep, the whole place was awash with tourists!