On the way some of the local kids were chatting to us, and one of them warned us not to go as the sun hadn't actually come up yet. She said she's there every morning and she pointed to a corner of the lake where she said the sun would appear. We weren't in any hurry so we decided to hang around from another while -- and wow was it worth it. A few minutes later a burning red sun appeared from behind the trees and rose slowly -- it was really spectular and well worth staying for. Once we were sure that the sun had definitely risen and we had seen everything there was to see, we took the 30km journey to Banteay Srei, which means 'citadel of women'. This is a stunningly beautful temple and I think it was my favourite of the whole trip.
It is a small temple surrounded by a moat which still has a little water in it, and is one of the most elaborately decorated of all the temples. We were lucky to have beaten the crowds at this temple, we seemed to be about 10 minutes ahead of about 4 busloads of Japanese tourists and it was very crowded when we left. We had some breakfast outside the temple and then headed back to the hotel for a rest and to finish packing up. We asked for a late check out last night but the hotel didn't agree to it, so the plan was to go back, get organised, then take a taxi back to the temples for a few hours in the afternoon.After a power nap, we packed up, checked out of the hotel, had lunch in town and wandered around the market. Bizarrely when I was asleep I had a dream that we should go back to Ta Prohm as we didn't see it very well the first time, and after I woke Matt said that he was thinking we should go back to Ta Prohm. So the plan was Ta Phrom and then Angkor Wat for one last time. Ta Phrom the second time round was much more enjoyable as it was less packed and we managed to stay together. The weather was very changeable, one minute it was sunny, then hot and humid and cloudy and then the heavens opened. But soon it was back to blue skies again.
We then headed back to Angkor Wat -- the weather was much nicer today than the first day and the temple looked truly stunning with blue skies behind and the blue water in front of it. We had a drink in the markets nearby and I picked up some souveniers. For the second time that day some of the local girls complemented me on my 'beautiful' white skin -- even when I showed them my red and blistered shoulders they didn't see white skin as much of a problem. The cosmetic industry really has it made - the shops here are full of skin whitening cream, where you would see fake tan at home. We wandered around Angkor Wat for about an hour but unfortunately the sky clouded over before sunset and there was nothing left to see.In our three days in Siem Reap we have kept extremely busy and seen a lot but there is still a lot more I would like to see, and even seeing the temples in different light at different times of the day is a different experience. There are other temples further away from Siem Reap which are reputedly worth a trip -- I definitely want to come back some day.
We headed to the airport and arrived there very early but were lucky enough to be put on an earlier flight to Bangkok. It was still very late when we got to the hotel, and we were both shattered. The hotel - the Davis - is very nice though and it will be nice to have a couple of days here. We had a late dinner and went to bed. I was looking forward to going to bed without setting the alarm, until we discovered the Liverpool Barcelona champions league match was being shown on the TV so we had to wake up in the middle of the night for that. They won though, so it was definitely worth it!
