Siem Reap Hotels
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Banyan Temple - Hide N Seek
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The wake up call comes very early and, surprisingly, we don't feel jet-lag. A Cambodian sunrise greets us as we board our early morning flight to Siem Reap (See-em Ree-yep).
From Lauren: We left Phnom Penh at 4:30 in the morning on that tiny jet. From the plane window the sunrise looked like a scoop of orange sherbet ice cream on fire. The stewardess served us a breakfast snack box of tuna stuffed croissants with chili sauce, which was surprisingly delicious!
Upon our arrival to Siem Reap, we stared down the streets at the thousands of motorcyclists and drivers (a license isn't needed to drive, so you can imagine the age range and skill of the traffic - lol..
For the next two days we journey through some of the temple ruins of Angkor, the #1 tourist attraction in Cambodia.
From the 9th-15th century, Angkor was the largest preindustrial city in the world.
Angkor eventually disappeared into the jungle until rediscovered in 1860 by a French naturalist.
A UNESCO World Heritage Sight, the temple ruins of Angkor number over 1,000!
The entry to Angkor is flanked by the stone gods of good on the left and gods of evil on the right.
This ensures the balance of power among the gods.
Once inside; however, the balance for power is up for grabs as vendors literally pounce on you with repetitive chants of 'buy please' - 'mademoiselle-mademoiselle' - '5 for dollar'
They're arms overflowing with silk scarves, postcards, books, DVD's, and bracelets made from bamboo.
They even sell bananas for tourists to feed the monkeys that run out of the jungle!
From Lauren: By the end of the trip, mom had gotten pretty good at shooing away the merchants!! Later on in Saigon, a little girl wouldn't stop following us, and after ten minutes of constant chattering mom effectively shooed her off...ha ha she has always had more guts than me!
Banyan Temple
This 3-tiered temple was built around 1190 AD and with 54 towers, a massive complex.
The temple is adorned with 4,000 feet of bas-relief carvings.
They call this the hide-and-seek temple as there are so many up-down-in-out places to explore.
Banyan has 54 towers at the top level.
Each side of each tower has an intricately carved giant face gracefully smiling downward.
In all - 216 gigantic faces watching every turn you make!
Lots of tourists on this hot 90 degree day; however, Mother and daughter ended the day in a 'divine state' - compliments of Banyan Temple!
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