Today was the day for the outer temples. The first temple of the day was Pre Rup, a name which literally means "turning the body" in reference to a cremation ritual. This is another temple mountain with lots of steep steps to climb and my legs, and especially my knees were absolutely aching after yesterday. I made it to the top though and was much less scared than yesterday -- probably because of the pain. There are some lovely views from the top and it was a lovely morning with nice blue skies.
After Pre Rup is was a short journey to East Mebon. This temple is on an artificial mound and would once have stood in the middle of the East Baray, a massive reservoir which is now completely dry. It's hard to imagine what it would have looked like in it's day, it's towers reflecting in the huge reservoir which was 7km long and 2km wide -- must have been stunning. Today Mebon is marooned in the rice fields. The remains of elephant statues are positioned on the four corners of the two levels facing outwards as guardians.
At this stage we started getting a bit templed out and seemed to be spending less and less time at each temple. We were both feeling pretty tired and were hoping for long distances between the temples so we could rest. The next temple as Ta Som -- this is a small buddhist temple, which is badly dilapidated. It's quite similar to Ta Prohm but much smaller and less busy. What made this temple memorable for me was a small boy sitting in the window when we arrived.
He was so cute and loved us taking photos of him. Further into the temple we had one of many encounters with begging children (presumably older brothers and sisters of the first child). These children are at every temple and constantly try to sell postcards and every memorabilia to tourists. They are extremely cute and use every trick in the book to try to get you to part with your money....they count the postcards in every language you can think of (yes, they did have a few words of Irish!), they ask you where you're from and then say 'Ireland: Capital City Dublin'. It's hard not to feel sorry for them, and be tempted to give them a dollar or two but there are hundreds of them and as soon as you buy something from one of the them loads of others surround them. What I don't understand is why they spend so much time trying to get me to buy stuff, while taking one look at Matt and staying away from him -- I must be a softer touch!Preah Neak Pean was next, about 2km along the road. This temple was once an island in the middle of the Jayatataka Baray reservoir and is different to any temple we have visited so far. The temple is smaller than any other the others we've seen and is located in the middle of the central pool, a square pool which is surrounded by four smaller square pools. To the east of the island in what would have been the main pool (this still sometimes fills with water in the rainy season) is a horse sculpture which appears to have human legs and seems to be swimming towards the shrine. This temple was an interesting change from the other temples we had visited this morning.
The last temple of the day was Preah Khan - the temple of the sacred sword. This is a big temple in good condition and we spent quite a while wandering around here. By the time we had finished in this temple it was early afternoon and definitely time for lunch. The driver dropped is off at cafe near Bayon where we had a breakfast yesterday morning. Once again, while waiting for our food, the local children decided to befriend me and try to sell me stuff. Matt was tried and grumpy and not saying much so I decided to chat to them, asking them their ages and if they go to school. They are older than I expected, they looked about 8 years old, but said they were 12. It really made me laugh when one of them answered my questions but when I asked the other one his age he said 'I tell you, you buy'....obviously he has been taught sales techniques from a young age!
After lunch we were feeling tired and templed out so we decided a change was in order. The driver recommended a visit to the Tonle Sap, and this was recommended in the guide books too. After a very long and bumpy tuk tuk journey, we finally arrived at the floating village of Chong Khneas. We were charged $20 for a cruise around the lake -- it seemed expensive for what we got. We rode out through the floating village out onto the lake -- it's not actually float, it's on stilts but there's a school, a police station and shops and the people move between them in boats.
Near the shore most of the people are Khmer, but further out on the lake the houseboats are occupied by Vietnamese people. We went a little bit out onto the lake where we stopped to watch the sunset, except it was at least an hour until sunset.
As soon as we stopped, we were joined by another boat selling us drinks, and somehow without being sure I how, I ended up buying drinks for the driver and the kid who was guiding us. After about half an hour just sitting there (I was feeling a bit sea-sick) we went to GECKO, the Greater Environment Chong Khneas Office where we saw a fish farm and a crocodile farm. Both of these were there solely to attract tourists and seemed very cruel -- there were loads of small crocodiles in a very small cage. We watched the sunset from here and it was really beautiful - made the overpriced boat trip worth it I think.When the sun was set we headed back to the tuk tuk and were a little annoyed that we were practically blackmailed into tipped the guide and the boat driver - they said if we gave them money they would stay in school. By the time we got back in the tuk tuk we were both really exhausted and the journey back to town seemed very long. All we wanted to do was go to sleep but it was a busy evening as we had to pack for the morning as tomorrow's our last day in Cambodia and we went for dinner on Bar street. And we've agreed to get up for sunrise again tomorrow -- another 5am start -- Argh!
