Tuesday, July 5
Day three in Siem Reap. We are sitting at a cafe in the early evening air, doing a bit of reading and relaxing after another full day. But first we will rewind to our adventures from yesterday.

Marc rose early to go for a run at 5:30 and went back to the temple area, running on the soft ground next to the road and enjoying the slightly cooler morning air. Most importantly, the roads are less chaotic at that time.

We then left shortly after breakfast for the Tonle Sap lake, which supports the livelihoods of many rural Cambodians. We went to Chaong Kneas, the closest of the floating villages, and a bit of a tourist trap. There we took the obligatory boat ride that carried us past the the homes, schools, health centers, shops, basketball courts, etc. of the roughly 5000 inhabitants who live on the water, in houses supported by bamboo that is lashed together (for flotation). It was neat to see and imagine such a different way of life. During the dry season and early part of the rainy season, the water is low, and many of the floating village dwellers move out towards the middle of the lake. This particular village no longer really obeys that natural ebb and flow, however, because they also depend on income from tourists who want to see them in a particular place throughout the year. The more traditional floating villages are located farther away from Siem Reap.

On our return trip, we stopped to buy some tropical fruits to complete a picnic lunch we had assembled the night before, which we enjoyed in the gardens in front of the Royal Palace. There we also hear pleasant traditional Cambodian music coming from a Buddhist temple. From there, we walked through neighborhoods to the market area, and had cold coffee drinks at Blue Pumpkin. Marc spent much of the afternoon reading while Shuwen enjoyed a session at the spa.

We then closed the day with drinks and dinner on the Temple restaurant balcony, which offers complementary traditional Cambodian dance performances to its dinner guests.
Today was our second day of visiting (mostly) temples. We started with sunrise at 5 am at Chang Chas, a serene reservoir on the quieter side of the Angkor complex, and quickly took in two magnificent Angkorian temples - the jungle Ta Proehm where trees grown around, on top of and out of the sandstone rock, and Banteiy Kdei, a huge Buddhist monastery ruin that owes its delapidated state to the use of an inferior grade of sandstone. By 8:30 am, we were on the road for Banteiy Srei, a more distant 10th century temple some 40+ kilometers north of Siem Reap.

Banteiy Srei was truly magnificent. The temple is small and appears modest in comparison with most of the others we visited in the past few days, but the stone carvings are intricate and spectacular. The pinkish sandstone and finely preserved stonework are unlike anything either of us have ever seen before. We recommend a side journey to this temple to anyone who makes it to Angkor Wat.

From there we continued on to the trailhead for Kbal Spean with our trusty tuk-tuk driver Tee Tee, and went on a 1.5 km uphill hike to where a stone river bed is carved with fertility images - the linga - that also appear throughout the Angorian temples. A nearby waterfall also offered sights to numerous sweaty hikers. We returned to the bottom of the hill and enjoyed a fresh and refreshing young coconut.

On our return trip, we made two more stops, to a Butterfly Center (where we learned and saw about all stages of the butterfly lifespan) and to another temple that is on the edge of the Angkor Wat complex. By that time we were ready to relax and have lunch, which we finally enjoyed at 2:30 pm at Little India back near the old market in Siem Reap. This afternoon we are back to reading and relaxing, waiting for the air to cool and another day of adventures to come to a close.