Banteay Srei (6th February 2006)

The day starts with the sunrise at Sras Srang. According to locals, this is the swimming pool for the king at the ancient time. Not many tourists at Sras Srang for the sunrise, made it a good place for photos. However, the children will follow and try to sell the things like postcard, hand-made bracelet, flute , hot coffee etc. Even though we refused them, they keep on bugging us. But they stopped when we give them the sweet candy and chocolate biscuits. :D
After sunrise, we went to visit Banteay Srei. On the way to Banteay Srei, we stopped at Pre Rup. This temple is used for cremations. Thus, it didn't have much decoration on wall. As usual, when tourists reached the temple, the children will approach to sell their things. When we are at Pre Rup, these 2 little girls followed us to climb up and down, showed us the carving on the wall but didn't bug us for buying. When I left, I bought the postcard from them.

Banteay Srei is located far from main angkor's temple area. However, it was famous for its beautiful carving which was still remain intact. It was build with red sandstone, which is covered with elaborate and deeply carved decoration.

Banteay Srei is a small but unusual temple. There are many groups of tourist that came in buses. We didn't hire any guides. So, we follow the group (especially those speaking mandarin) when their guide brief them on the story of the temple.
There are shops selling souvenier and handicraft in front of the temple. We walked around but didn't buy anything.

We spent about 1.5 hours at Banteay Srei before we moved to Banteay Samre, a temple that is dedicated for Visnu.

Picture above is the central part of Banteay Samre.

It's nearly noon after we came out from Banteay Samre. Next, we are eading to Eastern Mebon. We took the lunch in front of the shops at Eastern Mebon. Again....I am complaining the food. It's expensive and the taste is very bad.

After lunch, we crossed the road and visited Eastern Mebon. Fion was boring with the temple. So, she decided to rest under the tree while we touring Eastern Mebon.

Elephant statue can be found at 4 cardinal point at each tier of the building. Once upon a time, this is an island. The visitors need to take the boat to come to this temple.

Then, we visit Neak Pean. Neak Pean is different from what we seen these 2 days. Without the guidance from the book, we can clearly see that the place is built for storing water. Of course it's dried up now.

Next, we visited Ta Som. Ta Som is great place for visit in the afternoon. The trees and the structure of the temple provides shade to the tourists. I like this temple :P

We continues to Preah Khan. If Bayon gave me the impression of towers, then Preah Khan gave me the impression of doors. We need to pass through many doors to go to the central temple. The doors are getting smaller when near the central temple.

Our itinerary for today end with the sunset at Angkor Wat. After Preah Khan, we went back to Angkor Wat to wait for the sunset.