Temples

I had a nice 'lie in' today, so woke up at 7am to visit the Angkor temples! Our guesthouse provided my very own tuk-tuk driver for a set day price, who drove me to the temples I wanted to see. 

The first temple we stopped at was the famous Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious complex. Seen as I was on my own, it took me a little while to actually get into the temple; finding someone to take my photo, then having to stand next to them for their photo(?!), trying to turn away pester-ers who wanted to give me a private tour/sell me stuff etc. eventually I reached the architectural wonder and quietly took myself around the bas-relief corridors and ancient ruins.

Angkor Wat

Bas Relief

I decided to just take myself around the temples rather than get a tour guide, and that's probably how I managed to see them so quickly. I aimed to see my three main ones (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm) in a morning so I could relax by the pool after a loooonnng week of non-stop dentistry. But to be honest I was more interested in keeping moving and seeing the beautiful awe inspiring sights, rather than  having a proper tour. 

It was a scorching hot day today but at least that meant no toilet stops during sightseeing, as I sweated out all the water I drank! 

Next stop was Angkor Thom ('large capital'). Bayon was my favourite temple amongst these, as it looked like the original structures had been untouched - reminded me of something out of the jungle book, and I had '...now I'm the king of the swingers....I wanna be like you oo ooo....' Stuck in my head, whilst clambering around the derelict fantasy. There were elephants giving rides and monkeys grooming each other on the road between the temples. Bayon is surrounded by hundreds of sculpted faces, four on each tower to represent four different qualities of the king.

Bayon

My favourite temple of them all was Ta Prohm - the tomb raider temple. This was magical, the temple walls are caressed by intertwining branches of nature's trees, engulfing the 'jungular' housing with beautiful shapes and textures. It was also a relief to be shaded by the jungle, and it gave me a chance to cool off a bit.

Ta Prohm

Templed-out, I spent the rest of the day by the pool to cool down and get some R+R from the busy week. Now revitalised, we're off to dinner and tomorrow will be taking a zip wire through the Cambodian jungle, with 'flight of the Gibbon'.