The following morning, Abby and I awoke to the loudest and longest thunder I have ever heard in my life. We were convinced that either Bush had decided Cambodia was the newest target on the list de le axis de evil or that a monsoon was surely on its way. However, it was neither, this is just how Cambodia does rain.

It poured for a few hours and while we were at lunch it stopped. A tuk-tuk driver had been hovering over us the entire lunch, staring at us, watching every grain of rice that was consumed. We thought we’d ask someone else the price to Angkor Wat just on principal alone. But we ended up checking with him afterall, as no one else was around. The price was right, and he didn’t seem nearly as creepy as we anticipated once we talked to him, so off we went to the temples with “Mr. Ron”.

We were only out a half day, but saw three main temples and a bunch of others along the way. We had a good mix of temples. The first one we went to, Ankor Thom, was a vast, sprawling temple that seemed simply enormous to us. We couldn’t get over the sheer size of it. We walked around that for over an hour.

The second main temple we saw was the Bayon, and this one was extremely tall. I don’t even know how to guess how many stories up, but it seemed like well over 10. The stairs to climb it were far apart and straight up. Much closer to a ladder than stairs. It was fine going up, but I just about sh#% myself coming down. It was terrifying. There’s a picture of me hanging onto one of the ledges for dear life half way down. The other cool thing about this temple was that there were huge faces carved everywhere. There are ample pictures of this as well.

The final temple we went to was Ta Prohm. This is the temple that is typically portrayed of Angkor. Trees have taken over much of the ruins, and gigantic trunks shoot out over doorways and temple peaks. It’s really amazing to see. Nature taking over no matter how massive or seemingly indestructible man’s creations are. Though I have to say, early man did a good job on these temples. Somehow they’re still standing despite the crushing weight of the gargantuan trees.

The next morning, Abby and I sprang out of bed at a punchy 4:30am to watch the sunrise over the main temple, Angkor Wat. When we got there, hundreds of tourists perched along the temple walls, watching over a misty Tolkien-esque field toward the looming dark mass of the temple. The sunrise was beautiful, spraying pink and orange on the temple and clouds in the sky.

After exploring countless temples for the next few hours, we took the tuk tuk out to some other temples around mid-day that were 30 km away. The ride through the small rural villages alone was worth the drive out there. It was similar to our first bus ride in Cambodia (see “Water Buffalo, Brush Fires, and Naked Babies”), but since we were in open air in a tuk-tuk, it was a much more intimate look at the country side.

Shortly after noon, Abby and I quickly lost steam. Maybe I’m just not a temple person, but I can usually handle a day, day and a half of stone gazing before I tire. Everything started to look the same after a while, which we felt was beginning to cheapen the experience. There are a few quotes in the ‘quotes’ section of the blog, but as Abby said around 3pm, “I think I was at my wit’s end about 2 hours ago”. We headed back to base camp at 5pm, after completing the whole “Big Loop”.

One of the lasting memories of Angkor other than the incredible temples, was of the hundreds of children selling t-shirts, postcards, shawls and other nik-naks. They were so adorable, it was really heart breaking. If anyone is heading out to Angkor, I would suggest bringing a bunch of hard candy that you can give the kids when they come begging for money. I gave out a handful of dollars and kip, but as a lowly traveler, I couldn’t afford to be out $200 giving to every kid that asked. But I think candy would be a good compromise.