Two days of wats is a wat of wats! But they are very interesting and unique, so no complaints here.
Today we ventured out a little past Angkor Wat to Angkor Thom. The word "Angkor" means city or capital and the word "Thom" means large. Put the two together and you have a large city. It was established in the 12th century.
We explored three more temples. First up was the Bayon Temple. Although it is smaller than Angkor Wat, it turned out to be our favorite. When it was originally built there were 54 spires. Each spire represented one of the provinces of Cambodia. Each spire has a large smiling Buddha carved on all four sides. Although many of the spires have fallen since the construction there are 26 that remain standing. Some are in better shape than others but you can still see Buddha smiling down on many of them.
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| Bayon Temple |
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| Each spire had the face of Buddha carved on all four sides |
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| Unlike Angkor Wat, the walls of Bayon Temple depicted "real life" scenes instead of mythology. Note in this carving the man is carrying one sword. The woman has a sword, a bag over her shoulder, she's balancing something on her head and has a child under her arms. Our guide said "just like today, the women can multitask". |
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| The ladies turtle is biting the man on the butt |
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| Smiling since the 12th century |
Our final two temples were the Preah Khan Temple and the Ta Prohm Temple. We enjoyed spending time at both of them. The Ta Prohm Temple was really different with the huge trees growing all over the walls, floors and spires. This temple may also look a little to familiar to some of you. It was where the movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie was filmed in 2001.
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| Preah Kahn Temple |
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| Entrance to the Preah Khan Temple |
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| You can't just look at wats all day! Top-Fish Amok-It's served in a coconut shell. Contains fish (of course), veggies, spices and coconut milk. Bottom- Beef Curry Both were very tasty! |
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| Ta Prohm Temple |
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| Downtown Siem Reap comes to life at night. Pub Street, as the name implies is full of restaurants and bars. There is also a night market a few steps away. Our hotel (Pavilion d' Orient) is located in a quieter section of town. Getting to downtown was by tuk-tuk ($3). |
No more wats are on the itinerary! No more wat jokes, but we did amuse ourselves coming up with them. If you enjoyed them...…...thanks a wat!
