Day 2 Part 2: Bayon, Angkor Tom, and Ta Nei

After you pass through the South Gate you enter what once was another city like Angkor Wat. The temple in Angkor Tom is called Bayon. The main drawing point for this temple is all the stone faces. All the towers or spires have 4 faces looking each direction. The temple is being restored in some parts but we were able to climb up to the top and take some fun pictures. Like most of the Temples they still are active and there is a small shrine usually somewhere in the building, it can be found by following the strong smell of incense that permeates the air. I should also mention that I have never been solicited as much as what I encountered while in Angkor Wat. Everywhere you go you can see people with bags, scarf’s, books, food, and other items. They are also smart sellers because they can offer you’re their goods in a couple different languages besides English such as French. Here are pictures of Bayon:





After Bayon we walked over to see the Elephant Terrace which has carvings of elephants on it and is a wall/walkway that surrounds the entrance to the royal palace. The palace is now gone as it would have been built from perishable material but there is a temple in the Royal court yard and we climbed the steep stairs to the top. As we left the Royal palace area we watched kids swimming in one of the ponds and bought banana’s from an adorable old woman.



After walking all over for a couple hours we were tired and very thirsty. So we went and found our Tuk Tuk driver and got rehydrated as we traveled to the next temple. We decide to see a temple one of my other friends here told me about. She said it was a ways back in the jungle but worth the walk. Our Tuk Tuk driver tried to drive us back but there was deep sand in parts of the road and it prevented him from going very far. So we got out and started walking. We laughed and talked about feeling like true explorers and hoping we wouldn’t get lost. It was amazing to turn a corner and see a temple caught in nature. Trees and other plants were slowly reclaiming Ta Nei.


It was also cool because no one else was there! We walked around and slowly kept hearing voices getting louder which was strange because we couldn’t see people. As we walked around the last side of the temple we encountered a HUGE group of guys from a type of Engineering School who were coming to tour the Temple. We seemed to have this kind of luck all day, we would see something and as we left a tour bus or large group would descend on the temple. We left and headed back down our sandy path back to our Tuk Tuk driver.