Building up our expectations to Angkor Wat: The impressive Bayon Temple

After the Ta Prohm temple we visited the impressive Bayon Temple. Normally when visiting Angkor people head immediately to the Angkor Wat temple but we decided to visit all the surrounding temples and finish with a majestic sun rising in the Angkor Wat temple.

The most impressive feature of the Bayon temple are the massive stone faces,

 What really impressed us was the detail in the stone sculptures, 

Trying to take some artistic pictures :)

Traditional dancers,

 Antonio's nice t-shirt,

Walls and walls of sculptures depicting historical events and scenes from the everyday life of the Angkorian Khmer,

After Bayon we headed to the Terrace of the Elephants from where king Jayavarman VII viewed his victorious returning army,

Buddhist monks enjoying the temples,

 

 A legion of tuk-tuk drivers waiting for their tourists,

Time to bike back to the hotel and rest!!! :) there was still 4 more days of exploration to go :) 

Pulling a Lara Croft in the Ta Prohm temple!

The Ta Prohm temple is very known for being a set on a Lara Croft movie! This was one of the temples we were really looking forward to see! 

As this is the only temple in which the trees that mingle with the temple were not removed. In many of the other temples the trees were removed in order to preserve the temples structure. 

The  sculptures around the temple are just divine,

 The only sound that could come out of our mouth was WOWWWW!!! Magnificent! 

Of course Juana! couldn´t miss out on some Lara Croft impersonations! ehhehehe

The famous Tomb Raider  entrance, 

Mystical! 

It was a long day of exploration ! time for some rest and a little snack! one of our favorite fruits in Asia... the Dragon fruit! 

 Our super wheels!

Cambodia: Angkor Archaeological Park

After Saigon we travel by bus directly to Siem Riep! Just Seeing the dirt roads that took us from Saigon to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and after to Siem Riep we realized that Cambodia still has a long way to go! 

The landscape was really beautiful! 


At some point we had to take a little ferry to cross a river. Our neighbors, 

If you wonder what the kid is doing in the picture below... 

To our surprise he was playing in his IPhone!!!

We spent 9 amazing days! exploring this world wonder! We where some of the few tourist with a Angkor ticket for 7 days! But we loved every single day we biked 20km from our hotel to each one of the temples! 

We truly felt like explorers discovering for the first time these majestic temples. 

When we arrived to the entrance! BONUS!!!  :) a couple taking wedding pictures :D 

 Some snapshots of our first bike ride, 

Lost of groups of tourists specially from Korea and Japan,

The tuk-tuk drivers waiting for their tourist to finish the visit of the Bayon temple, 

 For next post!! The Tomb Rider Temple! or otherwise known as Ta Prohm!