Berk’s Blog

Day three of our temple tour started with a 7:30am departure for… guess what?  More temples.  As stated earlier, after having seen Angkor Wat, nearly everything else was kinda like “hmmm…big old stones, statues, hallways, carvings… eh.”

We visited Pre Rup, East Mebon, Neak Pean, and Preah Khan, two vanity temples, an ancient hospital, and a university, respectively.  The last two were slightly more interesting, driving us to imagine seeking health care or education in such a setting, but the vanity temples pre-dated Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, and were thus less impressive – back in the day, the kings would one-up each other by building taller, more sprawling temples than their predecessor.

Nell had an afternoon spa treatment while I had an in-depth look at some of the establishments on Pub Street (exactly what it sounds like it is), then we were off for a floating viliage tour, sunset cruise, and dinner on the Tara Boat, where we were the guest of the owner, an Aussie expat, and got the inside scoop on doing business in Cambodia.  We retired with a nitecap at the hotel bar, then to sleep for another travel day tomorrow – Phuket via Bangkok.

All in all, Cambodia is great for a vacation spot, and will continue to get better, especially Siem Reap, where the 250 hotels is not enough to meet current demand.