After the sun had rise, we made it back to our hotel for breakfast; however after breakfast we returned to the temples of Angkor to enjoy a guided tour of the most impressive and important temples.

We started with the Ta Phrom temple – often also referred to as the Tomb Raider temple. This temple – which somewhat reminded me of Palenque in Mexico – is covered in and by the jungle – giving it a special atmosphere. The temple dates back to the late 12th century.

From Ta Phrom we drove over to the pyramid-like temple of Ta Keo; construction for this one started in the late 10th century, however was never finished. The steep steps to the top once more made a rather Mayan impression.

After another short drive we arrived at the Bayon temple. From outside Bayon looks like yet another, generic temple, however once entered this changes completely. 54 towers around the temple are decorated with a total of 216 smiling faces; it feels as if these faces see all and everything in the temple – thus emanating power and to a certain extent domination.

After lunch we went over to Angkor Wat once more – this time in full daylight. We spent time here, covering the main bits, before – in the late afternoon – we made it back to Siem Reap – but not without a stop at the Siem Reap Killing Fields. This memorial is filled with the bones and skulls of the victims’ bodies found in the killing fields, killed during the regime of the Khmer Rouge; see the Phnom Penh section for more information on this part of Cambodian history.