Travel notes from the second day...
Today we got an early start and saw the sun come up in Angkor Wat. Since we got there early and beat the crowd, it was so nice to have the temple all to ourselves. It took the king 37 years to build Angkor Wat, including 3000 elephants, 15,000 laborers, and tons of limestones, sandstones, and lava stones. It is breath-taking, especially to know that it's been erected for over 1200 years. This temple was abandoned and the jungle flourished over it. In the late 1800s, when a french man, Henri Mahout was following and catching a butterfly, he stumbled upon the east gate of Angkor Wat and opened it up to the world.
After that, we went to Ta Phrom, which is also known as the jungle temple. This temple is especially famous because a scene from Tomb Raider was filmed here with the sprawling tree roots growing and extending down the west side of the temple.
After an extremely hot morning, J and I headed back to the hotel to cool off in the pool and have some lunch pool side.
After lunch, we visited the Bayon temple. It is known for all of the buddha faces decorated on the top of the towers. This is when it started to pour heavy heavy rain. It was hard climbing up and down the deteriorated steps, as well as hold an umbrella and making sure our cameras and phone stayed dry.
After Bayon, we toured Beantey Srei, the "pink temple." Of the hundreds of temples in Angkor, this temple is constructed with the best quality stone, pink sandstones. The carvings on this temple are also more intricate and withstood the nature better. This temple is Hindu rather than Buddhist, and the mythical characters are so vivid and tell the stories of Prana - the creator, Vishnu - the protector, and Shiva - the destroyer, according to Hinduism.
For dinner, we enjoyed some delicious French food at Abacus, recommended by ABOUTAsia, the tour company we used, which 30% of the proceeds go toward "I Am Cambodian," a non-profit org that supports Cambodian children to goto school. We then met up with a friend of Josh's from high school whom he hadn't seen in 15 years. Him and his girlfriend are on a long holiday traveling throughout southeast Asia. After 15 years, they meet in Cambodia. What a small world!
Looking forward to our 3-hour spa appointment tomorrow!
Minnie
7/23/10
Angkor Wat from the hind gate
Ta Promh, the jungle temple
Cooling off at the hotel pool
Dinner at Abacus
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