Day 7: Angkor Wat and flight to BKK.
We decided to sleep in as yesterday's time in the sun and the TD left us weary.  Our hotel was excellent and let us stay late, so we checked out at 2pm and went back to Angkor Wat to resume our exploration of the grounds.

This Temple-city, the main Angkor Wat, is the physical embodiment of Hinduism. The moat is said to represent the broad ocean universe.  The tallest centre peak represents Mount Meru, home of the gods.  On the exterior walls are the famous "bas-reliefs," over 600 hundred metres of intricate wall carvings depicting the Mahabarat, Ramayana, the 37 heavens, 32 hells, and several other Hindu mythologies and events.  There is also one large section of carvings showing the battle between Rama, Hanuman and Ravana in Lanka.

One of the unfortunate things is that theives had desecrated many of the Apsaras (statues) for profit, often paid by collectors abroad.  Many statues, including those of gods (Vishnu), Buddha, Lions and Snakes have their faces missing.

Also, there is a lot of restoration going on to rebuild and reinforce buildings that have collapsed or are in danger of collapsing.

We stayed as long as we could, and then left to go back to our hotel (via Tuk Tuk) and we took the scenic route through a quaint village where we saw the locals, including many kids in their uniforms coming home from school, usually on their bikes.

Much like in India, it is not uncommon to see a family of four on a bicycle, smiling and waving to you.  The people are most friendly here.

The airport at Siem Reap is small and boarding was painless.  We sent our postcard from here and the flight was a quick one back to Bangkok. We booked this flight at the last minute as we wanted to avoid the horrible bus experience again.  Plus it gave us an extra day to explore Angkor Wat.

We checked back into the Asia Hotel late that night and showered and passed out quickly.