Day Two started at 4.30 am, which meant bleary eyes all round (not helped by the $1 Angkor Beers the night before). We wanted to get up and watch the sunrise, which was really meant to be worth the early start. And it was. At the last minute we decided to steer clear of the popular spots in the park and go to Sra Srang, situated on an artificial lake that was perfectly still. As you can see from the photos it was not only beautiful to watch but it was a really good experience.

From there we went to Angkor Thom, a walled city that enclosed some of the more popular temples. Again, by going there early we missed most of the crowds and found ourselves exploring on our own. Some of the carvings on the Terrace of Elephants and The Terrace of the Leper King were really good. Another mountain temple, The Baphoun, was closed and undergoing restoration. Nearby, however, was the Bayon, a maze of corridors and stairways complete with bats! The Bayon is famous for its pillar faces, all in all there are about 100 of them. It was really easy to get lost just walking around, we really liked it there.

From there we went to Preah Khan, one of the largest walled temples in the park. It had a cruciform layout and each of the rooms was separated by a knee high wall, meaning walking around it was pretty hard work! Again, there were some really good carvings in the chamber of dancing ladies (a bit risqué in an ancient sort of way).

Preah Khan was at the start of the outer loop of Wats, so we followed it around taking in Neak Pean (would've been really good if it was full of water, sadly it was like looking at an empty pond) and East Mebon (another mountain temple but smaller and unfinished so the brick-work was all on show).

To finish our second day we went to Banteay Srei, which was kind of a cross between Ta Prohm (it was all overgrown) and Preah Khan (lots of small rooms and small walls!). By this time the heat was getting a bit too much so we called it a day there. Besides, we had seen just about all that we wanted to see for now and had taken in a really good mix of all that Angkor has to offer.

-B