Last day of Temples, Cambodia Day 90
Well today we did it…..we booked Kedi for 9am and we made it!!
We started our morning of temples at Preah Khan. We started walking in and one of the local guys hanging around out the front started walking with us and telling us about the temple. We looked at one another and decided to let him carry on. We are so glad we did, we would have missed so much. The temple was a Buddhist Uni and City built in the late 12th Century (1191). The temple has the Hall of Dancers, also a unique round-columned 2 story building, the central sanctuary wall are pierced with inch round holes – we were told by our guide that these were filled with rubies but upon further reading they were presumed to have been for attaching large bronze plates as a covering to the stone.
Next we stopped at Neak Pean which was a bit disappointing as all the photos have water in the pond but now it is bone dry.
Ta Som was our last temple in the main Angkor area. As we got to the rear (as with all temples) we encountered the kids selling their wares but these guys had a different tact than asking you where you were from and then when you said Australia they reeled off everything. They started with G’day Mate, Cobber, Pal etc then they recited the Capital, Population, Prime Minister, Melbourne’s Population etc and they did not say anything of this slowly it was actually difficult to pick up everything fact they said because it was so quick. As I said before these guys didn’t ask where we were from they had a stick in their hand and started scratching the lines for tic tac toe in the dirt saying ‘you know this game?’ I started playing with one of the girls and once she put her x in the first square she gave me the rules – I win I don’t have to buy, she wins I do!!! We ended up finishing the game and she won but we had discussed that I wouldn’t buy. Along a bit further a boy had the same ploy except when I said I didn’t want to play he said I had to buy anyway!! Real cheeky little devil!!
We decided to go for a bit of a drive and head out to the Roulous Group of Temples. 3 in total but we only visited 2 – Preak Ko and Bakong. This group dates back to the 9th century.
We got back to Rosy’s a bit after 1pm, we had some lunch with Kedi, got changed then asked him to take us to the Lotus Hotel where all Rosy guests can use the pool for $5US a day. One of Kedi’s brothers came for the ride (there are 3 in all working outside Rosy), his name was Chad and he ended up picking us up. It was beautiful to be in a pool!!
We walked into town later on and had Mexican for dinner then walked home.