Last Day in Siem Reap pt 3

The ruins of Preah KhanOne of many Apsara dancer carvings on the various temples. No wonder theses guys fought so hard.

These guys worked at the hotel we stayed at in Siem Reap, they were ridiculously friendly.

Wow the Buddha looks a lot like me...

Our tuk tuk driver, T.

A random cute little kid roaming around the temples.

The Apsara dancers performing their traditional dances.

Preah Khan... roots.

Back corner view of Angkor Wat.

The last day in Siem Reap. Cramer and I grab our normal breakfast of 2 eggs, toast, and coffee at the restaurant in our hotel. Our tuk tuk driver is picking us up at 8am to check out a few more temples. We're planning on seeing Angkor Wat in a little more depth and maybe one or two more. When we pull up to the place where they check your tickets I realize I left mine in my backpack from yesterday. So back to the hotel again and we make it to Angkor Wat at about 9am. We get some nice pics on the back side of Angkor Wat, again due to the suns position. Angkor is just ridiculous and is by far the most impressive of all the temples. Constructed sometime around 1100-1200 it features an enormous man made moat. Impressive outer walls, a grand walk way, a huge inter temple with 5 giant lotus towers. The temple was constructed during a time when the area was Hindu and was originally dedicated to Vishnu. All throught this period the various rulers switched back and forth between Hinduism and Buddhims and it is apparent in the statues and carvings. At some point it switched to Buddhism and stayed. Angkor Wat's design is suppose to symbolize Mt. Meru where the gods of Hindu mythology dwell, kind of like Mt. Olympus to the Greeks. Next we went to Preah Khan, another temple similar to Ta Phrom, the temple with the trees growing out if it. Preah Khan was built around the same time and had many of the same influences. It also had gone through a period of both Hindu and Buddhist rule. This temple including many cool shots of trees and roots growing out of the ruins. Feeling a little "templed out" we tell our driver to head back to town. We stop at a Korean restaurant and Cramer orders some good food for us. Korean food is definitely one of the better versions of Asian food in my opinion. Back at the room we relax and plan on hitting up a buffet with traditional Aspara dancing. The buffet is good, all kinds of asian foods and many Khymer (Cambodian) foods as well. The show lasts for about an hour and is mildly entertaining. They present 4 or 5 different dances, some are traditional and some tell stories. When we get back to the room Cramer is starting to feel hot and his stomach isn't quite right. He's going to stay in he says. Well I guess that leaves only one thing for me to do.... one last 4 hand massage before I go.