Temples, temples, temples

---

A VERY early start today... We set off at 4:45! It was worth it though to see the sun rising over Angkor Wat. We have another guide today... Lin, who was great, he embraced our love for silly photos and poses. On the way we had to stop to get a photo pass that entitled us to visit the temples in the area. It was crazy to see so many people that early in the morning. When we got to Angkor Wat, the sun was still very low in the sky, we were lucky though, as the sun came up, the sky turned a beautiful pink colour, which made a spectacular backdrop for the huge temple. It is amazing to think that in a country that is now 95%!B(MISSING)uddhist that Angkor Wat was built to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity. It was constructed between 1100 and 1175 and the attention to detail is amazing. If you stand at the central point on the first level and look back to the libraries and gates, everything is perfectly symmetrical - the Cambodians constructed it using plumb lines and their own judgement, incredible! Whilst Angkor Wat has been preserved and not left to the elements, Angkor Thom was the complete opposite. Nature has started to reclaim the temple and creeper vines and trees are at one with the crumbling tomb. This temple was famously used in the film tomb raider... I managed to get a photo in the same spot as Angelina Jolie, although my pose was more 'squatting for the loo' than poised for action! ? There was something magical about nature meeting man, which made it more interesting than Angkor Wat. The morning was stiflingly hot and felt like it lasted forever, some of the group had enough of temples and you could tell they were traipsing around. It's a shame really as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you just have to accept that you are a sweaty mess and embrace the experience. Luckily the majority wanted to see one more temple before lunch. My absolute favourite today was The Bayon temple. In the Lonely Planet it is described as being 'decorated by 216 cold smiling, gargantuan faces', however I did not find them 'cold' at all, quite the opposite, there was a positive energy in this temple and the smiling faces gave a sense of calm and wellbeing. Unlike the very structured Angkor Wat, this temple looked less organised and I loved the ragged appearance of it. We had great fun creating silly pictures with Lin - jumping around and pretending we were nose to nose with the face of Avalokiteshvara. After lunch we headed back to Siem Reap where we had the choice of heading back later for a sunset at the temples or having a relaxing afternoon and exploring the market. We choose the latter as the lack so sleep and early morning was catching up on us and Lin had said the sunset would not be as a good as the sunrise. So we had a lovely sleep, before meeting up with Nia and Michelle and heading to the night market to pick up some bargains. I love bartering, I wish we did it in England! They tried to charge us $8 for elephant trousers, I only paid $4, it's great fun walking away and hearing them calling you back. We had a great evening in the Red Piano bar that Harry had recommended. I had a brief break from the rice and had a very western hamburger and chips, it was delicious! In the bar we also had their famous tomb raider cocktail which for every 10th drink you get a free cocktail and for every 500th cocktail you win $100. Michelle won a free drink and had the bell rung for her. We then met Harry in the Beep Beep bar for a few more drinks and finally got to bed at 11:30... A long day!

---