Cambodia Report Day Four

I'm just gonna jump in here. Our days at Angkor Wat are so much more difficult to write about. There wasn't nearly as much to ponder as there was in Phnom Penh. That certainly doesn't mean that it wasn't amazing, incredible, and probably any other superlative you can think of. It just wasn't challenging like poverty and desperation.

I was hoping to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, but when we heard sunrise would be at 5AM plans changed pretty quick. We decided to head out at 7AM. That was plenty early. It's about 10~15 minutes to the entrance, where we popped out to purchase our 3 day pass, then continued on for a few minutes to Angkor Wat. It's HUGE. The outer walls are 1KM squared. I knew that before, and I've seen pictures, and you'll see my pictures, but you just can't believe how big it is.

Photo by Sara





Next, on to Angkor Thom:





The main temple within the city of Angkor Thom is the Bayon.





Photo by Sara





We then headed to Baphuon and Phimeanakas. No pictures. I'll tell you more about everything later. I'm just trying to get something up here.

Terrace of the Elephants



Terrace of the Leper King



The West Gate of Angkor Thom



Then we headed out the east gate of Angkor Thom on the short circuit to Thommanom.

The next medium sized temple was Ta Keo. You'll notice there's a complete lack of decoration. It's a very stark contrast from all of the previous temples. Work on this temple ceased after the top was struck by lightening. The king took it as a bad sign.



Next stop, Ta Prohm. Much of Tomb Raider was filmed at this one, famous for the trees that are destroying the temple works. It's neat. But not as good as Beng Mealea.





Almost done! We headed for Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang, which are situated on either side of the road. We were SO exhausted by this point. But the lake was really beautiful.