Life Of Two In Asia. Day 7. Ta Prohm.

As said, we came back to the temples. And we saw it. Ta Prohm. Besides Angkor Wat, when you google these places, you unmistakably come across those pictures with trees grown on temples. Something that has been haunting my traveling phantasies for a reaaaaaally long time.

Ta Prohm is that irrevocable thing, when nature conquers man’s work, without destroying it, but gracefully intertwining with it.

That is what we saw today and, again, it’s little I can say to convey the true beauty of this place. So I won’t even try. If you ever make it here, just prepare to be blown away.

Something you should prepare for.

The inexorable heat. It wasn’t just us, people here said it hasn’t been so hot here since ages. It’s supposed to be the beginning of the rainy season and we still face over 35 degrees during the day and just a few under 30 at night time.

Even without this heat wave, I still think it’s warm when you walk walk walk among the stones stones stones. So dress appropriately and, most importantly, don’t forget the water and some sugar shots in case you drop dead.

We left our room at 5 am, under a lot of protests from my side, armed with sun lotion and long airy clothes. The first hours or so was bearable. Later, not so much. We chose to walk between some of the temples. We were the only ones. Everybody uses tuk-tuks. I didn’t want to because I had the feeling I have to earn seeing these wonderful places. And I guess it’s not really weird, is it? Correct me if I am wrong, but one tends to appreciate something a little bit more if they worked for it.

We worked alright. We were finally home by 10 am, completely and utterly exhausted. Had some breakfast and off we went. Alin to sleep and I hanged by the pool with a book.

A final note about the temples

If you ever make it here, take at least two days to visit the temples. If you are not some narcissistic selfist (Selfist is a person who is in the business of taking pictures of himself. Btw, today we saw an idiot who was taking pictures of himself smoking a cigar in front of these temples and, what is even worse, he also took a picture of the cigar burning, the temple in the background. Yes, that happened!) who just wants to have a shot of himself with the temple and that is that you will need more than just one day to truly appreciate this place.

Today was the last day in Siem Reap.

Tomorrow we go to Phnom Penh by bus. We didn’t get to see the floating villages or that one village that completely exists without any money. A night before, we ate at an Italian restaurant in town, something we will probably come back to, and Marzio, the guy who ran the place, told us such thing exists here. People there exchange things, they don’t buy them. Interesting concept, right? Alin and I have been asking ourselves if such utopian thing would still be feasible today. And there is our answer.

Good night, friends, wherever you are!

PS — For more pictures, check out our Instagram.