Cambodia - Day 2

Angkor Thom - Bayon

[Or, "The One With The Faces"]

Both David and Libby wanted to go on an elephant ride today. I had been on one in India, and was so completely underwhelmed by the experience (the ride was super short and they used these huge pokers to steer the elephants) that I wasn't too excited. But Libby had requested so few things on the trip, so I put on my enthusiastic face and the guide hooked us up. It turned out to be so much fun.

And they didn't use the big hook-prod things, they steered the elephants by rubbing their feel behind the elephant's ears, depending on which way they wanted them to go.

The ride was a good 1/2 mile or so, and was fairly smooth. And for $1, you could buy a bunch of bananas and feed your elephant after the ride is done. David didn't so much like his elephant, he though it was being "too grabby" with the bananas.

"Bayon" is part of Angkor Thom, which is a big complex of temples. With most of them being 1000 years old or more, any single temple alone would be worth a trip to Seim Reap, but with dozens of them in a single area, it's even more spectacular. Bayon itself is a maze of corridors and small sanctuaries, each with a different purpose. This was was where the ladies dances, as you can see by the carved reliefs.

Climbing up a couple of stories, you get to see what everyone comes here for - the huge faces. There were supposedly 54 of them (7, 28, 54 and 108 being sacred numbers), but only 39 remain.

This was only the first of three temples we saw that day, but Bayon was by far my favorite. I'll leave you with my favorite pic so far...