Day 688 - Are we being watched?

This morning we decided to get up and amongst the ancient stones well before the heat of the day began its life-sapping attacks. We were on our bikes by 6.30am and punishing the peddles in pursuit of Angkor Wat, purportedly the biggest religious structure in the world. When we arrived we were awed by the size - the sheer man power needed to to build this temple is monumental. The temple itself wasn't the most beautiful that we've seen, but it was full of carvings and huge Buddha statues hidden in dark corners as well as prime positions. The vivid colours of sunset orange robes floated amongst the tourists who are drawn to this magnificent creation.As we made our way around the temple Adam got sicker and sicker until he was fast asleep using a rock step as a pillow. Since Angkor Wat and its neighbouring temples are the reason you come to Cambodia he decided to push his limits and battle through the day.From Angkor we were pulled towards Bayon, a gorgeous masterpiece full of larger-than-life stone faces gazing down upon us mere humans with penetrating stares that dare us to claim greatness over their almost heavenly position.It was a case of love at first sight, we had no idea which face to communicate with or which pillar of intricate carving to devote a minute of gazing time to. We made our way in and out of shadowy towers that reached for the sky, totally defying gravity with their stone mass.After so much amazement it would have been easy to go home right then and sit around reflecting on the images forever burned into our memory, but, there was more!We continued to cycle along the path and promptly arrived at the terrace of the elephants, which was an enormous wall that stretched beyond our view. The wall was adorned with a three dimensional mural of elephants and unusual creatures telling a king's story.

We continued rolling on towards yet another hidden beauty but were unable to actually find it at all, though in the search we came across a lone tower camoflaged in the shady forest with a covering of moss.

While Sam, Nicole and Rita slowly made their way towards our guesthouse, Adam left Liv in his wake by managing to grab a hold of a passing tuk tuk and zooming on ahead. Liv left the temple 20 seconds after Adam and anticipated catching him (who at last site looked about to collapse) quickly but was shocked he was no where in sight!!

Back at our guesthouse Adam lay in an exhausted heap on the bed unable to even eat or drink, while the rest of our fabulous five team made our way to the night markets for excellent cheap food and plenty of people watching.

Adlibing Angkor Wat.