Country Hopping

Tuesday morning we were back in Angkor Thom. This time we’d come to see some of the other temples and structures in the walled city. Angkor Thom also has a moat and the bridges over the moat have decorative balustrades on either side. Each balustrade is the body of a Naga, a mythical 7 headed snake, which is common through out the temples. The bridges are a bit different because they have sculptures of large men holding the body of the Naga. There is a huge man with many arms holding the head of the Naga at the entrance to the bridge. Over the years, most of the men have lost their heads and a few have lost more than that. The bridge to the south gate is the most complete and many of the heads have been replaced. This picture shows the original head of one of these men and the gate to Angkor Thom in the background.

Once inside Angkor Thom we stopped at the Terrace of the Elephants, which faces the main road of Angkor Thom. In the middle of this long terrace is a wide viewing stand where the king would sit to watch military processions. The walls of the terrace mirrored what the king would have seen with carvings of soldiers, chariots and elephants. The carvings are almost life-size so as you approach the terrace it is the images of elephants that stand out.

Our next stop was an out of the way temple called Preah Palilay. It was back behind most of the Angkor Thom attractions and to get to it we had to walk through what looked like the ruins of expansive ancient patios. We passed a group of wooden homes that housed some of the vendors who worked in Angkor Thom and finally arrived at Preah Palilay. This temple definitely looked like it had seen better days. Only about half of what had been a vaulted sanctuary still stood and it now shared space with several large trees which had taken root in the temple base. This temple had a nice atmosphere as there were few tourists and the trees provided some relief from the sun. We even found another lion that still had its face.

Before heading back to our hotel to escape the heat of the day, we stopped at Preah Khan which is outside of Angkor Thom to the north. We were lured to this temple by a picture in our guidebook of a grand building with cylindrical columns. It looked more like it would belong in Rome than in Cambodia. When we first entered the temple area, we crossed a bridge over a nearly dry moat and were delighted by dozens of dragonflies lazily drifting a few feet above the ground. The trip to this temple went downhill from there. We were hot and tired and once inside the inner wall we didn’t see this grand structure that we came for. After consulting our guidebook, we found that it was a smaller building on the far side of the temple grounds. We headed through the temple and there were no worries about getting lost in this temple because there were very few passages which were actually passable. For the fun of it, I took a picture of one of the many signs warning tourists. When we made it to the building we were disappointed. It didn’t look as grand as it did in the picture. On our way back through the temple we grumbled about photographers and their wide-angle lenses. Never mind that Karl is one of them.

Tuesday evening, we ventured out for another evening at Bayon. It has turned out to be Karl’s favorite place for photo opportunities. If he isn’t taking pictures of the well-known stone faces, he’s taking pictures of the Cambodian dancers. This evening, there were two girls dressed in the “fish” costumes. This picture is the one that Karl says is the best and it is the last one he took before we left for the day. We've added more pictures of the dancers and temples to our Cambodia photo album here Cambodia



There are a lot of very poor people in Cambodia and a tourist attraction like Angkor Wat also attracts the poor who hope to make a better life for themselves. They usually don’t have any skills so start by selling trinkets to the tourists. Their children would either join them in selling or play nearby. Each time we visited a site there would be several people (including children) trying to sell us an assortment of things. The children have also learned that letting foreigners take pictures of you is another way to earn a little money. We didn’t mind giving these girls a little money, but it was a stark reminder that there are a lot of children in this world who struggle just to survive.

Since our return from Cambodia, we did some searching on the internet to find some charities that operate in Siem Reap. To our surprise there are a few that you can support while in Siem Reap by volunteering your time and they don’t need a lot of advance notice. Now, I wish I’d done the search before we went. If you ever consider traveling to Siem Reap, take a look at www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/cambodia/siem-reap/tips/charity for some ideas on things that you can do while you are there. For those who want to help from afar or for someone who foolishly didn’t do her homework before visiting Cambodia the following are some charities that help children in Siem Reap and Poi Pet:

Schools for Children of Cambodia

KANTHA BOPHA Children's Hospital

Friends Without a Border

Wednesday, we made the journey from Siem Reap to Poi Pet at the Cambodia/Thailand border. Before we left, we said goodbye to the staff at the Apsara Palace Hotel. It’s a small hotel and they were very nice and helpful. The trip back was another long, bumpy, dusty ride. The picture below shows one stretch of the highway between Siem Reap and Poi Pet. I had mentioned the creative contraptions designed for motorcycles. The baskets you see on the back of the motorcycles hold either 5 too 6 piglets or one large pig. Can you imagine trying to maintain your balance with that on the back of your motorcycle!?


We returned to Nang Rong for a few days while my travel agent (Karl) made reservations for a trip into Laos. He’s been an excellent travel agent! We also took the time to take care of a few things but mostly we rested and relaxed. Karl got to ride around on a motorcycle and take pictures and I got to play with Wick’s website a bit more. He now has a domain name: nangronghomestay.com.

Sunday, we took a bus to Nong Khai on the Thailand/Laos border and today we crossed over the border into Laos. So, now we can say that we visited three countries in a week! Tomorrow, we will be flying to Luang Prabang where there are more ancient temples for us to see.