Today was our only full day in Cambodia. Initially, I was quite unsure if I would like Cambodia but I wound up really loving it! Today was all temples so it was a lot of walking outside in the heat but I still loved it.
To start, we woke up at 4:30 am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We were all very tired but 26 out of 27 students made it. We watched it over a reflecting pond and it was so beautiful, pictures below. Afterwards we got the chance to walk around for a little bit before going back to the hotel for breakfast. Everything was beautiful and there were SO many people there for it being 6 am.
After breakfast we got to go back to Angkor Wat to have a tour. We learned that Angkor means city and Wat means temple. The temple was beautiful and there were lots of carvings on the wall that were very intricate and detailed. My favorite part was either climbing to the top (scary stairs pictured below) and looking down or walking through the galleries and looking through all the carvings in the wall.
After that we had a quick picnic lunch near Angkor Wat. It wasn’t anything super special but it was alright. The mango ice cream was phenomenal.
From there we headed to Bayon Temple (pronounced bye-on). On the way there we passed by the Baksei Chamkrong temple. It was very tall so we were able to climb steep stairs to the top and look out. There was also a tomb up there. It was kind of scary but still a good time and we all made it down. From there we walked to the Bayon Temple. We passed by lots of statues of warriors that I thought were really cool. Bayon Temple was beautiful as well and had really pretty carvings in the wall. They’re currently cleaning it so part of it was obscured by scaffolding but it was gorgeous nonetheless. Our guide, Mr. Sam, showed us how to tell the difference between the Khmer (Cambodian) and Chinese soldiers. The Khmer soldiers all had long ears and the Chinese soldiers looked like the Terra Cotta warriors. The first two pictures below are from Baksei Chamkrong and the third is from Bayon.
Finally, the last thing we did with the program today was the Ta Prohm temple. By this time we were all pretty gassed so we followed along the tour without much participation and left a little early. At this temple I spent 5 minutes reading something written in Russian and trying to figure out what it said and then realized when we walked away that they had it in English. This temple was also beautiful and had lots of trees with roots that were growing around structures. I love stuff like that so I enjoyed this temple a lot. On the way back we saw monkeys in their natural habitats which was crazy!
After we returned to the hotel, we rested for an hour before heading to the night market. Before we went in, Arnav and I paid $3 to have these strange Turkish fish eat all of the dead skin off our feet. It felt super strange and I was really glad I did it. I had a lot of fun at the night market as well and Lauren and Ruku are really strong bargainers so we got everything really cheap. It was fun to look at everything and I even talked to some little kids who were playing in the street.
Finally, we went to dinner at a place on Pub Street called Yellow Mango. We had traditional Khmer food and mine actually tasted like the dish I order when I have Ethiopian food, which is Yebeg Alecha Wat. It was delicious and a really fun time overall.
Tomorrow we will leave Cambodia. I have totally fallen in love with Cambodia in the couple of days we’ve been here and am sad to leave but excited to see Thailand. Cambodia is a beautiful country with wonderful people and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone.
Allison Around the World 