The City of the Monastery

   
        
  

 

The Temples in Siem Reap 

We got up at 4:45am to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat “The City of the Monastery” the next day. There were a lot of Tourists doing the same thing so the grounds were filled with people. It was a little difficult to get a good picture, but it was quite beautiful even still. The temple itself is absolutely stunning. 
We then set off to see two other temples one of them being the location where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider, called Ta Prohm. I think I enjoyed this temple the most, it had a massive tree growing right in the middle of it. The tree was beautiful, it gave the temple some character and somehow made the temple look more stunning. The other temple we went to see was called Bayon.
The night before I had purchased a pair of light weight pants from the market down the street from our hotel. They were black and white with little elephants all over it that I managed to get for 3 American dollars. I decided they would be perfect to wear to see all the temples because my knees had to be covered and they were light weight enough that I wouldn’t get too hot, not so much the best idea. I managed to get a tiny tear in the crotch while climbing the temples which quickly turned into the most gigantic tear exposing my undies. One of the Aussie girls I’m travelling with gave me a black sarong to cover myself for the rest of the day. So much for one size fits all… At least I provided the some humour for the group. 
Exploring the temples took up most of the day, we arrived back at our hotel at about 3:15pm and had to quickly change because I opted to do an atv tour to see the sunset in the country side. It was my first time on an atv so I wasn’t very good, I had a guy helping me steer and use the right amount of speed. I don’t think they trusted me to drive alone. However, I was told at the end of the ride that I was a good driver and could ride alone next time. Woo Hoo. We got to drink beer while we watched the sun set in the country side of Siem Reap, it was an incredible day to say the least.