Pearaing Biodiversity & Angkor Highlights - Siem Reap, Cambodia

March 30 

Our first stop was a longish bumpy ride to the Pearaing Biodiversity Conservation Center. It was a peaceful departure from seeing temples and it is home to hundreds of species of water birds. 

The wetlands were awesome, despite not seeing any birds that were new to us. It also wasn’t great for photos since the guide had gotten a boat for us (instead of the hike we expected). The boat went past things too quickly to get photos and it also had a lot of vibration. They have the largest pelicans we have ever seen. Not a new species to us, but much larger than the ones we had seen before. None-the-less it was an enjoyable morning. 

monkey across the road

Greg on the way to the boat

Tom & Cathy

On the ride back to Siem Reap we came across a ditch filled with water and ducks. The guide said they belonged to a local farmer. I wanted photos of the oxen in the fields and just didn’t want to bother getting out of the back seat. Sam grabs my camera and gets out to take photos of them and walked back to get better photos of the ducks. 

He & our driver Ty (pronounced Tee and goes by Mr. Ty) were fantastic. Sam rearranged some of the sites to fit better together, which we appreciated. They both greeted us with Ice cold wash cloths every time we returned to the van and bottles of water passed out. Ty had the A/C cold when we got in and with temps over 100* we really appreciated all they did. I went to open my own door on the first day and Sam ran to get it saying "it’s automatic by me". I started calling him Sam-O-Matic which always made him smile. 

We went back to the walled city of Angkor Thom to see the Pre Rup Temple, Phimeanakas Temple, Terrace of the Elephants & Terrace of the Leper King. I hope I have them labeled correctly as we were walking between them and back to where we started, so I could have lost track of where we were.

Pre Rup Temple

cool lizard at Ta Prohm Temple

Ta Prohm is located at the west point of the Angkor Wat Complex and the site was built with gigantic rocks and dug out from all the rocks and soaring trees. It was built by Khmer King Jayavarman VII. The movie Tomb Raider was shot here due to its mysterious atmosphere. 

musicians at Ta Prohm

Cathy & me at the bottom

we ran into Nin from the riverboat doing a tour with a lady that was on the Mekong Princess

Tom & Cathy

Yep, that's us

Tom & Cathy

We took a lunch break before finishing the Temples. 

Restaurant

Terrace of the Leper King

on the sign at the temple

Phimeanakas Temple

Terrace of the Elephants

Sam

Terrace of the Leper King

We returned to the hotel to cool off in the pool and have some cold drinks. 

The four of us went to Pub Street for dinner and then did a bit of shopping. I found a "better" magnet of Angkor Wat and bought a funky cat pillow. We saw the same pillows in Dubai last year, but they were really expensive, and we passed them up. They were really cheap, so I got my cats and Tom & Cathy found one for their house.

We did a quick tour of the Night Market and then went for some ice cream at the Gelato Lab.

Tom & Cathy

Tomorrow is our last touring day in Siem Reap.

For larger photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/c5p37Nr8UQ6pLrEK8