4am, Temples and coffee…

4am came around all too early! But none the less we only hit snooze once and we were up and ready and downstairs in our tuk tuk at 5, cans of ice coffee were having the life sucked out of them at a blistering pace as we headed out of town in the darkness along with quite a few other tuk tuks alll filled with people with the same idea. We stopped to buy our ticket and then off to Angkor Way again to watch the sun rise over the majestic beast from the other side of a small lake inside the main walls, as soon as we got there a Khymer lady came over and asked if I wanted a hot coffee, nedless to say I did! Now thats service. The sun rose and slowly shed light over the Wat and from the other side of the lake it was all reflected and added to the beauty of it, we sat for an hour or so then headed back down the causeway and back to our tuk tuk. Next stop was Angkor Thom, a big group of temples and buildings covering a massive area much bigger than that of Angkor Wat but all still encased by a moat and a wall. We entered in the south gate which itself is a sight, with big stone faces and the casueway in is framed by 54 ish 7ft stone men all holding a giant snake stretching from one side of the moat to the other. Once inside the walled city the first place we saw was the temple Bayon wich was in pretty good nic and covered in giant stone faces, at that time in the morning the sun was just starting to creep through the trees and it was all very stunning, we wandered around for a while and got a bit lost in the maze like corridoors before heading to some huts for breakfast where a few children were throwing the hard sell for bracelets and books, but we had our bases covered and had brought a big bag of sweets to keep them happy. The next few temples we walked to as they are all in the same area and close enough to do so, just. We walked around Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the terrace of the elephants, the terrace of the leppar king and the Prasats Sour Prat taking our time and reading our little guide book along the way, several are having repair jobs done and what a massive project that must be! But they are all still amazing and just awesome, some of the carvings are beautiful and on such a massive scale it just boggles the mind. We spend several hours climbing up steps and enjoying amazing forest views before heading back to our tuk tuk to see more. Out of victory gate and stopped and saw temples Thommannom and Chau Say Thevoda and Georgie bought some hand made flutes from a little boy after a wicked one handed solo by the little chap, then along to Ta Keo a big pyramid like temple ripe for the climbing and very worth it too, by this time we were starting to feel the early morning and all the climbing and walking but determined to get our monies worth we pressed on. We went to Ta Prohm, Sras Srang and finally Banteay Kdel all very stunning and beautiful but by now we were completely done in so we went back to town with the intentions of a nap and to return for a ballon ride sunset style. We ended up napping while having a foot massage and getting some quality grub then when we returned the ballon wasn’t going up because of the wind so we went back to the don Angkor Wat and watched the sunset begin but didnt stay till the end because we were for want of a better word… fucked! We went back to our guesthouse and got an early night, we made no plans for the next day and slept in. We did a little prezzie shopping and generally took it easy all day until the evening when we met up with a bloke called Matt we had met in Railay a month or so ago and had a few social jars but nothing too serious as we were still knackered from the day before…

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