Cambodia Day 2 - Elephant Terrace and Angkor Wat

Bayon (the previous temple) was within walking distance of both Elephant Terrace and Angkor Wat. However, a 10 minute walk quickly becomes exhausing when you're trying to avoid dozens of kids peddling books, scarves, bracelets, wood carvings and postcards, all of them shouting "Hello one dollar! Hello one dollar!" I'm pretty good at fending them off, but David and Libby were complete suckers and were swarmed constantly.

I try to make it a rule not to buy stuff from the kids, no matter how cute they are. (If you buy stuff from them, they won’t go to school because they make more money selling stuff to tourists, and then it’s a vicious cycle of no education - no job - no money - needing your kids to sell postcards to tourists instead of going to school). But this little girl was so persistent, and she got to me when she starting counting all the postcards, “One two, free, four, five, six, seben, eight, nine, ten!” She counted in English way better than I count in Mandarin, and I was impressed. I told her I'd buy them if I could take her picture.

Elephant Terrace is so named for, well, the carvings of elephants. It’s where the kings and queens sat to be entertained by tight rope walkers, elephant battles (they would drug them to get them to fight), and whatever else they thought might be entertaining before the advent of cable TV. Fantastic carvings wherever you go.

And finally, Angkor Wat, the main temple. The place was massive, and surrounded by a huge moat. Depending on where you’re standing, you can either see three, four or five of the towers. Here is a five-tower view:

Inside was a bit anticlimactic, we were already exhausted from the morning’s tour, and it was HOT out, even compared to Singapore. This used to be the bath area (I dreamed of it being full so I could jump in and cool off), you can see how big they were by how small that woman looks.

People still actively worship here:

Here’s a famous relief, but darn it if I can’t remember why, I didn't really take notes. Something about the four sisters, and they each represent something, etc.

As we were leaving the guide made us turn around and say goodbye, as we may never be back here in our lifetime. “Finally.” I heard Libby murmur. “Can I get a Pepsi now?”