Angkot Wat Sunrise

Peter the hotel manager had arranged an AC car for 5 am sunrise in Angkor Wat which was really lovely and I was able to cover more temples early in morning. The car for Angkor wat sunrise cost me $30 and I saw the other temples till 2 pm. The driver took me to supermarket and fruit market as well after the visit to temples.

                              Angkor Thom the "Great City" 

After the sunrise at Angkor Wat we entered Angkor Thom means "Great City" in Khmer.
Angkor Thom includes the 300 meter long Elephant Terrace, Bayon which is in centre of the city, Baphuon, 12 towers of Prasats Suor Prat and the victory gate leading to the ruins of Royal Palace area.
 
  Each gate is crowned with 4 giant faces. Many of these ancient "lost" temples are still being restored. My favourite temples were Bayon (smiling face) and Ta Prohm.
 
                             The Bayon

The Bayon is incredibly beautiful, very unique. It has 216 huge smiling faces of the King Jayavarman VII as the Buddha's reincarnation, faces one of the four directions. Fifty-one smaller towers surrounded the central tower. The faces are carved with lips, eyes, ears and nose. Each tower has four massive heads carved into its top. The layout of the temple is great and I was really was impressed with Bayon.
 
 
                             The Ta Prohm

Here the trees are like massive tentacles of the octopus taking over the temples and reducing it to rubble. I really loved this temple and there were many tourists here taking pictures with tree stranglers. An ideal place for photo shoot but it can get crowded with many tourists. It is easy to understand why this temple was chosen to film the "Tomb Rider" Few times, I met my hotel tuk tuk driver Thean, who was taking another couple, who were my friends in hotel and he would tell me good stories about the temples.

 

 
Later at the hotel, I requested a two hour massage with the same Kymer girl and again she gave me a hard through massage but this time I knew what I was in for :) No surprises.
My whole body felt relaxed and no more aches, later I ate at the hotel, I had bought lot of fruit from the market and some of the fruit, I had never tasted in my whole life which was definitely yum:) I also bought some rolls cheese, cakes from supermarket for the early flight to Kuala Lumpur next day. The hotel staff did my laundry at short notice and I was amazed how little they charged me, no point in taking dirty cloths back at home at those prices and the ironing was even a bigger bonus cos I hate ironing. The staff were friendly and went way beyond to help everyone and I felt at home at this hotel, I even made friends with other people staying there.

The next day Thien came to pick me up early in the morning to take me to the airport by the Tuk Tuk. I passed the lady from the Coconut stall and she waved good bye to me, the airport was only 20 mins drive from the hotel. Siem Reap airport is strict about only one hand luggage and checked for the liquids as well but I was fine as I kept within the regulations.