Thursday 13th October 2022
We bought a 1-day pass, which allowed us entry to see the sunset last night, and then 2 full days (they have temporarily extended the time you get on the pass from one to two days).
We decided to get a tuk tuk tour for the two full days, which I’d pre booked with Sopheap, a guy I’d found via the internet. He wasn’t available the first day, so said his brother would take us that day and pick us up at 8am. Our first temple stop was Pre Rup. Upon entering, the temple a French girl immediately came up to us and asked if we could take her photo at the top of the steps. She bounded up the steep flight of steps then posed with her hands out wide. Photo taken, we expected her to come back down. But no, she instead started bending over and sticking her leg out, which we were a bit confused about…. until she did a handstand / upside down splits. At which point a guard came rushing towards her, clearly to tell her off. Another guard came to tell Pete (who was the one taking the photos) to delete the pics, as we tried to explain we didn’t actually know the girl and the phone was now locked so they’d have to get the girl to delete them.
Our next stop was Banteay Srei, which was quite a big tuk tuk ride away. This temple was very intricate, and also had a very informative exhibition which told us a bit about the history and how the temple was constructed – fascinating.
Our next stop was Eastern Mebon, which to be honest didn’t really stand out all that much to me. It was kind of similar to the first temple we’d visited, but with elephants on each corner
Our tuk tuk driver had given us cold water out of an ice box when we’d started the tour (which seemed to be an endless supply, we later realised that each time we visited a temple he replenished it with bottles from the secret storage compartments under the seats), and now got out a huge Tupperware box filled with melon (and what we later figured out to be dragon fruit) for us. The purple dragonfruit was amazing (the white dragonfruit and watermelon were also pretty good – so juicy and refreshing!)
Our next stop was Ta Som. After visiting this temple, I could definitely understand how so many of the had see become lost in the jungle. This one had a cool tree growing through it. And also faces carved about the entry gate. I very much enjoyed this temple.
We then went a short way to Neak Poun, an island in the middle of the late, so we had to cross a long footbridge to reach it.
Our final temple of the day was Preah Khan which was huge – it just seemed to go on and on! You could definitely have an awesome game of hide and seek here. Our tuk tuk driver had said he’d meet us at the other side, so we didn’t need to double back. It still took us a while to walk through it though.
After our temple hopping, we got dropped off by pub street. We went in search of a money exchange to break down a $100 note (we’d withdrawn cash from an ATM, but it very unhelpfully only dispensed $100 notes, which obviously no shops or restaurants would accept). We managed to find somewhere, and as an added bonus we happened across the ever elusive banana ice cream (something we seek out in every place we visit) – result!
We strolled back to pub street for a couple of $0.50 Cambodian beers (how could we say no?!?) then got a tuk tuk to Changkran Khmer Restaurant. I was expecting great things – 4.8 rated on google, with a $20 (cheap for western standards, bit pricey in Cambodia) tasting menu. But we were sadly disappointed. It wasn’t bad food, just very underwhelming and most of the savoury dishes were lukewarm. At least we got a free tuk tuk back to the hotel though!
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 