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Our day started with a nice relaxed sunny morning by the pool :). Couple of lengths, finished off a good book and started a new one. Got a good couple of hours in, moving around the pool as the sun moved, before we headed off in our Tuk-Tuk to see the ancient temples of the Rulous group- the earliest temples constructed in the 9th century!
They were very impressive and worth clambering about in the hot sun for, the Tuk-Tuk made it easier today as we had a ride and welcomed breeze between the 3 temples. The markets and constant pressuring to buy their products was becoming a bit much though, as soon as they see you they basically run at you, 'hello laaady, you buy, 1 dollar, you buy?' They don't quit either, a lot of young children also do this with bracelets and postcards as that's what their family's have told them to do.
My favourite of the Rulous group was the first, 6 towers, beautifully carved and decorated.
At the end of our tour our driver suggested the floating village for sunset, we thought this sounded quite good so we decided to go with his recommendation. We had no idea really what to expect but it certainly wasn't what we had imagined at all. We got there and really weren't too sure if it was such a good idea as all of a sudden we had to pay $20 each and it involved sitting on a boat for about 2.5 hours! We um'd and ah'd for a while and decided to go for it, I was very hungry at this point though so sitting on a boat for over 2 hours didn't drastically appeal to me! I quickly grabbed a can of fanta to tide me over and we scrambled onto this long boat. We were both so glad we did this! It was one of those out of the blue snap decisions that turned out to be brilliant! I forgot all about my rumbly tummy and enjoyed the beauty and calmness of kaphrong on the lake. We drove for about 15/20 minutes before catching sight of some houses on stilts in the distance. As we got closer a different world and way of life opened up! This was a massive village all floating or on stilts in the lake, their main industry is fishing, family homes with boats outside stretched along the mandrake forests. Kids were bathing in the water with make-shift life jackets made from plastic bottles, young boys were driving boats, families sat at the front of there houses watching the world go by. To go anywhere they get in a boat, even to visit neighbours, there was a secondary school, a medical clinic, restaurants, guest house and temple all spread out in this floating community! We headed right through and caught the sunset in the vastest point of the lake before heading back as the sky changed between orange and pink. Lovely evening! And tomorrow we will be up at 4.30am to compliment this and watch the sunrise again at Angkor Wat!
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