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Our last day in Siem Reap is spent round the Angkor temples, we wake up to another scorcher of a day and even though it is before 9 am it is boiling hot. First stop is to get a ticket for the day, this has to have a photo of you and they take a picture which makes me look like a squashed frog, which Shenton finds very funny, somehow he ends up looking ok in his.
The first temple we visit is Angkor Wat (which literally means the temple city) which is very true as this is where over 1 million people lived during the 12th to the 14th century. As we arrive the roads are well maintained and the grounds are very lush a complete contrast to the city just 10 minutes away. We get conned into buying a guide book buy some girls who do a very convincing job of telling us that there are no guides inside, of course we walk about 50 meters on and we are asked if we want a guide! Oh well the book is very good and does explain about all the temples in the area (there are loads) and we
will only get to see three today. The temple is amazing, the whole area stretches over 5 hectars, this area was also a city with the central area for the temple and palace, all of the carvings are so intricate, the scale of the place is huge. We explore the temple and climb up some really steep steps to the tower which gives a fantastic view over the whole area. The temple was built for hindu worship but is now is home to Buddha, the carvings show the all aspects of life, the dancing figures gave the inspiration for the modern day Aspara dancers.
The next temple we visit is called Bayon, this again dates back to the 12th century and has been built on by many different rulers and so it is a real maze inside. There are lots of columns here each with 4 faces at the top and it seems everywhere you walk you are seeing the profile of another face made of huge stone rocks. Very beautiful. We walk on through the forest to the Elephant Terrace which is where we are meeting our Tuk Tuk driver. This is a beautiful terrace of carved elephants
and I would like to explore it more but I am so hot now I just want to sit somewhere and cool down.
We visit one more temple called Ta Phrom, this temple has been left pretty much how it was found amongst the forest and so trees are growing up through and around the temple. This place used to be a monastery and it is our favourite place as it feels untouched and you can really see how the forest started to reclaim it adding its own natural beauty to the ruins once the temples were all deserted. Huge fig trees spring up all around and the roots snake and entwine around the ruins.
I am now really overheating and so we just have lunch in town at a place called “pub street” not a great place to be honest as it is very touristy and really contrasts to what we have seen on our travels on the bikes which to us is the real Cambodia. After lunch Shenton has a Dr Fish massage, which is basically a big tank full of these little fish that nibble away all your hard skin..... He puts his feet in
and immediately starts to giggle, the fish love his feet and are swarming all over them. He convinces me to have a go but I can’t keep my feet in there and it just feels too weird. Eventually pull him away from the tank, he is loving it, even when the bigger fish take a big nibble he still likes it....
Back at the hotel and I have to go and lie down in the air conditioning as I am completely overheated and exhausted. Shenton goes for a swim and then a huge storm begins. He is having a great time swimming with the rain beating down but then the thunder and lightening starts and when it hits the ground very close to him he gets a bit nervous and comes back to the room. After the storm we head into town for some food and take a look around the night markets. We end up having one last massge and this time the girls are having a laugh and joke with us and for some reason they keep calling Shenton a Ladyboy, I am laughing very hard at this and finding it difficult to concentrate on my massage.
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