I found more elephants!
From there, we went to Neak Pean Temple and Preah Khan. I'm not gonna lie. After the first temple and Angkor Wat, literally most other temples started to blend together. I mean, we saw all the ones listed here, but we also drove by - and walked by - countless others. We definitely enjoyed our time at each...but they really all kind of blend seamlessly into one memory... The only reason I remember Neak Pean is because Jon challenged himself to not step on the ground the whole time we were there and only step on rocks...don't worry, he succeeded :-p.
Our next stop was lunch at a Cambodian restaurant in the middle of the action where I ordered...chicken amok (the curry dish I wrote about yesterday). I basically had to order it because the description said it comes "in a coconut shell". Ummm sign me up.
Coconut shells are a LOT bigger than you think! There was SO MUCH AMOK inside. Despite all 4 of us sharing the amok (along with a few other dishes) we could not come close to finishing it!
Next, our taxi driver dropped us off at the beginning of a park for a mile hike to Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean, better known as the "Valley of 1,000 Lingas", is an archaeological site where rock relief carvings form a river bed, leading to a waterfall. Unfortunately, the river was sooooooo dry, that the water wasn't even running over the rocks in most areas, but rather trickling between them...and the waterfall was literally nonexistant. The stones were beautiful nonetheless, showing "Lingas" or raised bumps to represent the Hindu god, Shiva, as well as portraits of other Hindu gods.
Lingas in the "river"
While the hike was only a mile long, the heat was certainly getting to us. Good thing our taxi driver always kept us well equiped with LOTS of water waiting for us at our car :).
After Kbal Spean, we headed to Banteay Srei, a 10th century Hindu temple, also dedicated to Shiva. It stood out to us because it was one of the more complete and yet still original temples we had seen. This is because it is carved out of red sandstone, helping it to stand the test of time. It was also much smaller, so easier to explore. Overall one of my faves :)
Our last stop for the day was...a temple which I forgot the name of...oops! Anyway, we got there, climbed to the top, took lots of photos, and stayed to watch the sunset :).
After the sun set, we were off to town to grab some dinner. Pear said she was in the mood for pizza...to which Jon and I were QUITE skeptical. We went into town, to a place aptly named "Pub Street" and found a pizza place. We ordered two large pies, a salad, and some tortellini. We thought it was going to be WAAYYYY too much food...but we still ate it all!
From there we headed to a bar where everyone else ordered 50 cent beers...and I was the difficult one and ordered a $3.50 "Welcome to Cambodia" (which in theory was supposed to be close to a Long Island Iced Tea, but which was actually a watered down pineapple mixture).
Once we finished our drinks, we headed to the market to look for a magnet. Jon and I also stumbled upon a guy making ice cream on the side of the street. We ordered 2 Oreo ice creams and watched as he turned milk, sugar, and crushed Oreos into ice cream before our eyes!
(I have a video of it in case anyone is curious :))
Our last stop was back to our hotel. It is LATE and time for bed - sunrise over Angkor Wat in the morning!!
Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: Banteay Srei
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