I arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to take me around to some of the other temples today. He picked me up at 8 this morning and we were off. I was pretty tired – this past week I’ve been waking up naturally at 5:00 or 5:30ish for some reason, and I can’t get back to sleep. I haven’t been going to bed early, and it’s catching up with me. So I was tired and I was wondering if I even wanted to see more temples. We passed by Angor Wat and I thought “well that’s nice”, then we passed by Bayon (my favorite so far – the one with all the faces) and I thought “man that’s amazing”, and by the time he dropped me off and I was walking through the jungle in the morning heat to see my first temple of the day I thought “holy shiza, I’m in Cambodia – this is AWESOME!” and it was all good.
I had 7 temples on my list today, but I hit 5. My driver made suggestions of ones to cut out and when and where to go to avoid the crowds. The great thing about this place is it is so spread out. At my first temple I was behind a big Chinese group, by the middle the crowd had thinned out, and at one point it felt like I had the place to myself. I even got lost and somehow came out at a different entrance than the one where I was supposed to meet my guy – how did that happen?
It’s crazy how you can pretty much walk wherever you want in these areas. You can climb the steps, you can scramble around the rocks and there are no ropes and few signs that prevent you from going to places you feel like you shouldn’t be going to. It’s pretty cool to see the varying states of the temples from those that are being restored, to ones that are in a total state of disarray.
Got templed out around 2:30 and started to head back to town when it started to rain (the pattern for the last few days has been cloudy – clear – overcast – thunderstorm around 3:00 – clear). We got stuck in the rain so we pulled over and just waited it out.
I had plans for a yoga class or another activity at the center, but I was feeling lazy and decided instead to walk to the main area for supper and then a massage. I splurged and went to a spa. Had a 90 minute traditional Khmer massage and it was luxurious! Don’t know how I’m going to pay Canadian prices for a massage again! On the way back, I walked through Pub Street just to see what the fuss was about. Not really my thing, but it was nice to be out and about. I love tropical weather in general, but evenings in the tropics have always been my favorite.
Off to my last temple day tomorrow.
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| Ready to start my day. |
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| I’ve already been to this one! |
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| Through the jungle to find some temples. |
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| Wow! |
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| I wanted someone to take my picture here, but no one was around! |
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| I think restoration of these temples goes from them looking like this . . . . . . |
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| to someone somehow lining them up in the right order , , , , , |
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| and putting a number on them so they go in the right spot. Putting things where they belong? That might just be my dream job! I had a brief period of time when I was a kid where I wanted to be an archaeologist. Why did I major in anthropology again? |
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| I can’t believe I’m here! |
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| I believe the area around here (and the next few pictures) was where “Tomb Raider” was filmed. |
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| AJ, this one’s for you! There are machines here. Are they mighty machines? |
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| Thanks for the tip! |
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| Am I causing the inconvenience or are you? |
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| This place was on the way to the spa I went to. I was assuming that I wasn’t the clientele they were looking for! |
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| A spot on Pub Street. Hey Nes, this looks like something you’d be into! |
