Today was day number 2 of our temple experience! It was a hotter day than yesterday, but hotter. We started a little bit later, and towards the end of the day, we were really regretting it!
We started at two temples, Thommanon and Chau Soy Teroda, on opposite sides of the road. It was easy to picture a whole civilisation living, dotted around these huge monuments with two of them so close to each other.
The next temple was Ta Keo. It involved a hell of a lot of climbing, and really wrecked me for the next few hours!! It wasnt so much that there were a lot of stairs, more that the stairs were about half a meter high each, and only half a foot deep, so it was a precarious climb.
At one stage, I almost fell, and that made me sweat more than the stairs had already acheived!! The view was pretty amazing though, so I guess the near-death experience was almost worth it...
This temple is almost believed to be the first sandstone temple built, way back in just the 900s.
Next was Ta Prohm, also known as the Tomb Raider Temple. Left pretty much alone, it shows how time and nature can really overtake anything humans make.
This was probably one of my favourite temples, but the other tourists were actually horrific. From the Chinese tourist taking close up photos of a blind landmine survivor playing the symbols in a band despite having no hands or legs, to the parents forcing their kids to climb over a sign that said "no climbing" I ended up finally yelling at one group. About 8 American girls doing a full hour-long photoshoot, sitting on delicate balustrades that had been cordoned off, and literally climbing onto the roof of a thousand year old historical and religious site. I just couldn't help myself.
Banteay Kdei was the next temple, with theSras Srang lake next to it.
The temple was a nice retreat from the horrible crowds at the Tomb Raider temple, with throngs of bats living in the high ceilings of the towers.
The lake was also beautiful, with local children playing catch in the cool waters under the incredible heat. I was almost temted to jusmp in myself, if it weren't for the murkey water and naked kids.
The last temple for the day was Prasat Kraven. It was entirely brick, with intricate carvings in the walls. It was fairly simple, and looked amazingly modern for something built in the 800s.
Tomorrow, the sunrise over Ankor Wat xx