Day 6:  Angkor Wat

Woke up early and rented a Tuk Tuk driver for the day ($15) to show us around Angkor Wat, a huge temple-city sprawling over some 40 square kilometers.

Built over a thousand years ago by a Hindu king, visiting their numerous temples and taking in the vastness of the city (which once had a population of a million, and may have been Asia's first metropolis) gives you a feeling of stepping back in time.

Even though the various temples are very large, it is amazing that virtually every inch of the surface is inlaid with intricate carvings or statues.

I would compare the experience to that of visiting the Taj Mahal.  I would say the Taj Mahal is more striking with its marble, but Angkor Wat leaves you in awe as well.

We first went to Angkor Thom and saw the temple grounds of Bayon, Baphuon, the Elephant Terraces, and Ta Phroem.  While I won't go into much details here (we did buy a useful historical guide book) we took many photos and enjoyed the feel of getting lost in the ruins.

One other remarkable thing is due to the age of the Temples, many are slowly being reclaimed by nature.  We took some stunning photos of trees growing in and around the Temple comples of Ta Phroem.

We ended the day at Angkor Wat itself (the main temple complex) which is like a giant ancient castle (some 1.5 x 1.2 km in area for the grounds, not including the giant moat which is probably 400m wide.   This temple is dedicated to Vishnu and was built by King Subramanyan II at the height of his civilizations power in the 12th century.  We read that the building of these temples was so vast and expensive a project that likely led to the empire's downfall.

Notably, we ran out of time this day to fully explore Angkor Wat, partly beause of its sheer size, and partly due to my getting a nasty case of TD.  Luckily, in this part of the world you can get a hold of strong antibiotics over the counter at any pharmacy.  After a day or two of suffering, I did buy some and recovered quickly.

There is also a great number of tourists everywhere and from all nationalities as this a world famous "Wonder of the World.". Predictably, there is also an army of vendors (locally called 'Touts') why try to sell you anything and everything, and follow you almost everywhere.

We had dinner at the hotel and I opted for enlish fare as my stomach was still weak. Club sandwich.  Simmi had shrimp fried rice.