One delicious year of adventures: The temples of Angkor

6th September

A long beautiful exciting day with so many pictures!

Good morning Vietnam, NO, Cambodia. So many countries, its very easy to get confused. But we are ready, the sun is shining, the tuk-tuk is purring like a kitten. We get going, first stop is Angkor Thom, withing its walls is the Bayoun Temple. Its already 10 am at this stage and people are pretty much everywhere, its hot and hard to get a picture without someone ruining it. We take our time though and really enjoy the ruins beauty. Dehydration sets in so we retreat down to a coffee shop, or shaould I say children shop. Basically very young children surround us and start off their morning business. The stories are all the similar about how poor they all are, etc etc. That is all true, but they still don't give us a moments peace. And this is how it is at every temple. Not to worry, the temples make up for all the hasle that comes with it. And in some small way those children become a part of the days activity. Well saying "NO" to them is the activity. We spent a good 3 hours at the first place, and another small miracle we discovered. The locals for once have to pay to use the toilet, and tourists don't. Now thats progress. Anyway, more temples follow and Ta Prom is mindblowingly beautiful, with tree roots draping over the walls of the temples. It makes for a wonderful picture.
The sun is nearly disappearing, so its time to go to the mother of all temples "The Angkor Wat" itself, its big, its cool, and its a perfect end to the temple tour. Plus the rain starts pouring anyway, so on we go back to town.

Angkor Thom

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David & Lion

ass to ass

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Angkor Wat
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Angela & David
Ta Prohm
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Ta Prohm
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Buddhas in Angkor Wat
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This evening we are going to try something different for dinner. We get the same tuk-tuk to bring us to a special place on the river. Its dark, its raining heavily, we get further and further away from the town. The road starts to loose its asphalt, we start to think that this is the last journey we are taking tonight. We come to a stop at a dimmly lit wooden house on stilts, on the river itself. We are told to get out, and so we don't argue. We take our seat on the floor, and we wait, with a worried look on our faces. Out the lady comes with a big steaming hot pot of ..............snakeeeeeeeeeeee. We dig in. Yum yum it tastes bloody good, and the beer helps it to be washed down even easier. We have a great talk with our Cambodian friend, and after all that worry we end up having a great time, and its something different to experience. A fabulous end to a fabulous day.