Roni awoke early early to make sure the rain had stopped. It had! Yay!
Soon we were both up, clean, dressed and waiting out the front raring to go at 0455. A lovely clear morning. Waiting...we did a bit of this as we watched the light beginning to sneak in...until 0520.
We gave up on Mr Mom after another 5 minutes then negotiated with Lee (another tuk tuk driver loitering nearby). Finally on our way!
He wasn't the speediest of drivers but we made it out, in the gate and through walls to the lake for sunrise. A W E S O M E! Then for a coffee and pancake (Angkor price - not so awesome) that we carried with us to begin exploring.
Wandered all over the place, Bray spotted a parent + baby monkey who we watched avidly for a while - cute! MANY photos later :-) climbed the bakan and explored up there too. It's just so big and with so many cool decorative touches. Roni loaned her krama to an Italian who wasn't dressed for the occasion (arms and legs covered) so we sat and waited for her while having a noise-making interchange with a Khmer kid hunting bottles for recycling.
Once the krama had returned we continued on our circuit of Angkor Wat before heading out. Just inside the main entrance we met Mr Mom - he was quite apologetic and understood our p.o.v too. Paid him for yesterday's trip and wished him luck.
We lept into our waiting tuk tuk and off we went - shortly to pass hordes of monkeys (pause for photo op) on our way to Bayon. This temple has hundreds of faces (of the king) all over the place! Many more pics and a bit of clambering and exploring here before heading onwards.
Preah Khan was our next stop - a longish walk from the road through the jungle to get there. Well worth it though! Cool entrance and some great architectural features.
Onwards again to Neak Pean this time - an artificial island named after the two entwined naga it includes. Spotted a ma-hoo-sive spider above us on the walkway in and snapped a pic, after being invited to lunch with the guard checking our tickets at the gate! :-) There is one main pond with temple bit in the middle and four mini lakes around it. Each mini-lake has it's own 'gueardin'...person, elephant, ox and dragon.
We were fading in the heat so to time to get hydrated! The krama were coming in handy to shelter us from the sun as we explored too. Pre Rup was our next stop and had many steps for us to clamber up for yet another stunning view. Roni likes the pics from this temple the best as the light was a bit diffused by this time so our camera didn't wash them out and they look great!
Last stop - Ta Prom. The temple the trees are destroyibg/reclaiming. Currently a joint project between Cambodia and India to preserve and restore what they can on Ta Prom but the trees have huge roots and will have their way in many places we think! Fun to explore and some great views.
By now it was after 3pm and after 10hours of temple hopping we were pretty done for. Mr Lee kindly dropped us home (Bray nodding off in the back seat) where we purchased 3 beverages and polished them off in quick succession. A bit dehydrated methinks!
Shower time and into clean clothes before wandering off down to Lucky where we munched out on a whole lot of chicken (lunch + dinner combined) and an ice cold beverage at the cafe (plus a donut) to 'grace note' it.
Checked out the prices at Lucky Supermarket (going to get some essentials before hitting the Euro - ouch!) then stopped at Caltex to purchase ice cream on the way home. Once in our room we discovered 'Spring Wipeout!' was on TV and Bray got his LOUD laugh on for a while. Classic.
We were exhausted but once again the room temperature made it a challenge to get zzzz's. Made it in the end and woke up needing to shut the door in the early AM - oops!
