We had a 40-minute turboprop flight in the morning from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. There's a road but I think it's still mined. After checking into the Freedom Hotel we drove out to Angkor with our local guide. First temple we visited was Ta Prohm.
Entrance with faces.
The next 7 photos have no captions. They're just various Kodak Moments inside Ta Prohm.
Group photo: Carmel, me, Emma, Leanne, Rachel, Kate, Gwen, Amy, Wendy, Katie, Kristen, Marina and Henrik. This is where Tomb Raider was filmed and I think the guide said Angelina Jolie ran past here in one scene. I have to rent it.
Spooky face!
This is the guy on the cover of the Lonely Planet guide. He's famous.
He sells various stuff and junk, including cool wooden cowbells. Does famed producer Bruce Dickinson get a percentage? (As I type this on the 30th I'm suffering no ill effects from my trip. No malaria, diarrhea, etc. But I do have a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell!)
One more from Ta Prohm.
Last one from Ta Prohm. These roots looked familiar--I wondered if they were the inspiration for those rootlike things in American McGee's Alice (a computer game I played off and on for 2 years and then cheated to finish).
We ate lunch nearby. A lot of us had fried rice. While we were eating a random woman came to our table asking for money. When she got to me she started giving me a massage. I never made eye contact with her so I had no obligation to give her money. But she kept doing it to the delight of the rest of the group. Not to my delight though (it didn't move). I finally waved her off.
Next Angkor site was Angkor Thom. Everything else on this page is contained with Angkor Thom.
Entrance to Angkor Thom.
Figures guarding the entrance.
Inside the entrance.
Farther inside.
Next we hit the Bayon in the center of Angkor Thom.
Bayon.
Bayon relief.
Bayon relief.
Bayon reflected. There were crabs in this marsh.
Bayon face through a doorway.
Bayon faces.
The next three photos are outside the Bayon.
Terrace of the Elephants.
Prasat Suor Prat, a row of 12 prisons that were used to decide civil cases. The two parties were placed in a tower and whoever emerged ill after 3 days was deemed the loser by divine decree.
Next to the Terrace of the Elephants, the guide pointed out this "centipede". I thought it was a millipede. I asked him how many legs a centipede has and he said a thousand. So there. (I later confirmed that this indeed was a millipede.)
Before dinner I showered, and it was cold. I Do Not Like Cold Showers. It's not just the coldness, but the entire mechanics of the shower change. Like rinsing my hair out while taking care not to let the icy water go below my neck.
We had dinner at the hotel. I had some weird fruit that looked like a hairy strawberry but had a grape-like core that popped out and had a big seed inside. There were two other Intrepid groups at the hotel and they weren't as young and cool as our group. Still mostly female though.
I was in bed before 9pm. We were leaving at 5am for sunrise at Angkor Wat. Everyone was looking forward to the party night the following night since Friday was a free day.