Short trip across Cambodia Part III Third day in Angkor

JetCrocodile

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My last day in Siem Reap, or to be more precise in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Angkor</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Archeological</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>. One can ask here much time it is necessary to reserve for this place. And this is a tough question to answer. It is recommended to spent no less than 3 days there, if you in a hurry you can see major temples in a day. Now after visiting this place I would reserve a week. Siem Reap has some other attractions especially form photography point of view. Like life on the lake, which I briefley saw from the departing hydrofoil



.And it is center with its fantastic atmosphere is a nice place just stay there and take a break. But I had 3.5 days for this place, and last day I spent mostly in <st1:place w:st="on">Angkor</st1:place>. Logically I should split my story in to two parts. First I visited some temples which I felt I need to visit again. Yes namely felt, I find that I like some places more than the others with no constructive explanation why. Some times I had slight problems with orientation which occurs quite rear to me also some places simply attracts.
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Looks like those statues of Gods were simply smiling on me.
<o:p></o:p>Between this I made a short ride to Banteay Srey (according to my map 37km from main site). On the way I was able to see some local life which also was extremely interesting.
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So first I went again to Bayon temple.
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I took a walk around just to see back entrance. Three kids were playing in a puddle or it what remained from the ditch surrounding the temple.
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I took a few shoots of the temple from inside.
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<o:p> </o:p>And went to see small <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Prasat</st1:placename></st1:place> Banteay Thom.
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Just wanted to see some place which is not in the program of main tours and which considered so small that there was no guard near by.





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<o:p> </o:p>Then Tuk-tuk drove me to the Banteay Srey


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The temple itself was not very interesting but Road there and back was really interesting. It was much more easy to observe local life from tuk-tuk.
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Local petrol station,


unfortunately our tuk-tuk was refueled from a common 1.5 liter plastic bouttle :cry







We made a stop to see landmines museum.
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I have to admit that after seeing mines and photographs in this museum I lost any desire to go for wild life tours and felt myself a bit depressed.<o:p>
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<o:p></o:p>Back to the Preah Khan I saw a trail of a snake, quite big I suppose.
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Again I crossed stone bridge across the ditch.




The place felt so calmed and relaxed, it was really nice to meditate there for a while.




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I took a hard way and explored a few parts which were not easily accessible.
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Then I returned for a final walk in Angkor Wat.
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This concludes my exploration of this <st1:place w:st="on">Angkor</st1:place>.
In the evening I went to the center, to eat and have a beer.



Next Morning I took a hydrofoil (like a smaller one on photo below) to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Phnom Penh</st1:place></st1:city>.


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<o:p> The journey took something about 6-7 h. First I slept about 2 h. inside
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<o:p>And then spent some on the "roof" of the hydrofoil as many other toursits did.
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<o:p>Also it was much more easy to take some pictures:D</o:p>

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I spent less than a day in Cambodian capital and took a bus to Vietnam, but this is another story.

Regards,

Sven
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angevin1

Awesome!

JetCrocodile

Thanks for viewing and posting feed back. While walking around the temples I was thinking if in a couple of hundreds years tourist will walk in ruins of modern big cities.
Recently I posted a gallery with some pictures from around Siem Reap
http://jetcrocodile.smugmug.com/gallery/7437542_d2qM8#479572842_DsvdY

Regards,

Sven