Tuesday by Ellie

Today begun with a fabulous alfresco hotel breakfast of sunny side up eggs and pancakes. We then drove and hour or so through the Cambodian countryside to an area of recently discovered cave paintings and shrines. Unfortunately, our trusted guide book, being five years old, failed us, and we arrived only to find that entry was impossible without a photo pass. Although this was disappointing we weren't too disheartened as the drive had been lovely. After some more confusion and negotiation at the busy pass office we were sorted, and changed plans again to visit some ancient temples within the Ankor complex.

We visited three fascinating temples, which somewhat resembled crumbling abbeys and castles back home. We all agreed it was difficult to imagine the work that had gone into the construction and design 1,300 years ago, and each stone was meticulously carved to form, in all, a real piece of art. 

Although similar, each of the three temples were distinct in focus. The first was centred around a high sanctuary which was inhabited by a decapitated stone Buddha with burning incense and candles, here we left an offering. The second had undergone intense restoration works sponsored by Indian government. It had a huge tree rooted right through it meaning roots and branches were intwined with the stone, really proving nature wins in the end. There was a great deal of forestry around the second temple, which differed to the last temple which was surrounded by flat water buffalo and rice fields and had huge volcanic rock steps and long former corridors with picture frame doorways.

By this point we were hot and very much ready for lunch, where Katherine and I shared a Khmer classic of Somoyon Gi soup with rice. From here we wet back to the hotel for a swim and a lounge.

Once we were rested we took another tuc tuc into town and had supper, with much excitement in the form of banana leaf plates. 

Tomorrow we are planning a 6.30 breakfast so we get out early to visit the big one - Ankor Wat before it gets too busy or hot then on to Kbal Spean for a walk up a valley (the one that we failed to get into this morning)