Temple time

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Sammy had arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to take us around the Angkor sites for the day and we zoomed off mid-morning to start our tour. We started with the famous Angkor Wat, making our way across the causeway and up to the main temple complex where we followed the galleries around the outside appreciating (but not really understanding) the murals on the walls. After touring the different tiers of the central building we made our way up to the top level and the five towers that appear in all the photos (duly replicated here).

After Angkor Wat we were driven up to the much larger Angkor Thom and the central Bayon temple which features lots of towers, each of which bears the face of the king responsible for building it. We had lunch at cafe number 9 (one of about 20 identical establishments laid out next to one another in a large ramshackle shed) recommended to us by our driver, who was chilling out in a hammock at the back while we toured the sites. We continued with the various temples, palaces and other structures in Angkor Thom during the heat of the day. I lost count of how many bottles of water I needed.

Our driver picked us up when we’d finished and drove us around to Ta Keo, a steep temple struture with three central towers just to the east of Angkor Thom. We climbed up one side and climbed down the other where we found a well-placed tout selling bottles of water from a cool box (i.e. a plastic box with chunks of ice in it). The next stop was Ta Prohm, notable only because the curators hadn’t cleared all the vegetation away so as to give it the appearance of being partially overgown by the jungle. Several trees were growing in, around and on top of the stone structures, providing plenty of photo opportunities for the coach loads of French and German tourists who suddenly appeared from nowhere. We got a few of our own and then went out the other side so our driver could pick us up and take us to yet another temple. I don’t recall any particularly notable features from this one - a definite symptom of temple-fatigue.

Once we’d finished we drove back to the hostel to cool off before dinner, although Sammy decided to have three pancakes in the hostel restaurant when she thought I was sleeping.

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