Today was going to be an intense, temple-filled day. We woke up very very early, I think around 5 AM. We showered and jumped on the bus and drove to Angkor Wat. There were a LOT of people there for the sunrise. I headed over to the reflecting pool and started shooting pictures. The sun slowly came up, and we headed to the entrance to catch a very cool phenomenon. Angkor Wat was
built such that, on the 2 equinoxes, the sun rises directly behind the central spire of the temple. Yea…pretty amazing, right? Well, it was true. As we walked to the entrance, ready to leave to go back to the hotel, I turned around and saw a phenomenal sight of the temple glowing, as the sun rose directly behind it.
We returned to the hotel to get ready, shower, and eat breakfast. I was ultra tired, and needed a semi-cold shower to wake myself up. We all got into the bus and headed back to Angkor Wat for a guided tour of the temple complex. We learned a lot about the temple, which was built during the Hindu era in Cambodia, which directly preceded the Buddhist era. The temple was very old, and Hindu art was everywhere. I recognized a lot of scenes from the Gita and Mahabharata. It 
was exciting to see art that I knew about! Near the end of the tour, we were walking by some locals who were living in the temple area, and a few kids ran up to me and a couple of the other girls in the group. The little boy wanted me to hold him…he held up both his hands in the international symbol for "Carry me!" :) So, I picked him up, and he was fascinated with my goatee…lol. He was adorable and so was the little girl, who looked like his sister. We took several photos with them. Cambodian children have the most wonderful smiles…you get happy just by looking at them.
Next, we went to the Bayon Temple, and let me tell you, this one is so cool. I nicknamed it the "Faces Temple" Check out the pics on my site, and you will see why. We entered the temple through a large gate, on which there were 4 faces, one for each direction. The gate itself was pretty impressive, but then we saw the actual temple. There were t
ons of tall towers, and each one had 4 faces on it. Our guide explained that this was a Buddhist temple, and thus there were 4 faces guarding each direction. We explored the Bayon Temple, walking into narrow corridors, large courtyards, ruins, you name it. This temple had a bit of everything, and I loved it. The faces were so eerie but cool at the same time. After about an hour, we left and walked to the Elephant terrace and the terrace of the Leper King. The Elephant Terrace was basically a huge rampart-looking thing with elephants carved ALL over it. The terrace of the Leper King was a little more difficult to describe, but the pictures should do it more justice. It was a huge wall with carvings all over it…can't quite remember what they were of, but it was probably something important to those old Cambodians ;)
We eventually finished our tour of the temple and the terraces, and the buses took us back to the hotel for lunch and some free time. The lunch was delicious, and after lunch, we had a tour of 4 of the smaller temples in the Angkor complex. A lot of kids were "too tired" and didn
't want to go, so they cut down the group, and our bus went with only 6 people and 2 faculty members. It was lame, we had paid soo much for this trip, and these temples were so amazing. Whatever, I went on the 2nd round of temples. And it was so worth it.
We saw a total of 4 small temples, and they were all unique. The first one was a small jungle temple that was half ruins, half temple with trees growing everywhere. It was SO COOL! The 2nd temple was a reflecting pool temple. In the
center was a dome in a reflecting pool (there was no water), and it was surrounded by 4 small pools with 4 faces. We didn't spend too much time here, and were soon off to the 3rd temple, which was nice. There was a steep staircase that took us to the top of the temple, where the main temple dome was located. We took lots of pics, since we had a pretty nice view and got back in the bus for the 4th temple, which I loved. As soon as we entered, we saw another unique phenomenon…the sun was setting behind the middle spire of 
the temple, so this one was probably also built for the equinoxes. There was a very steep staircase that took us to the top, and the view from the top was awesome. There were 3 temple towers, and we could see the complex from the top. We took lots of silly pictures, including some classic jumping ones. Don't worry, I'll share those fun times with you later using only pictures. ;)
After the intense temple-visiting the 8 of us, 9 including the guide were pretty tired but I'm SO happy I went to see the 2nd round of temples. I feel sad for everyone who ditched, not just cuz it was expensive, but these temples were truly amazing and should not have been missed. Anyways, we returned to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before we headed out to dinner. We ate at a fancy French/Cambodian restaurant, but… the food was Cambodian…lol. It was good, and we sat at a table with several other faculty members. I swear, sometimes it is more fun sitting with the faculty than with other students. These faculty members were AWESOME and we had a great dinner conversation. All but 1 were vegetarian as well, so we enjoyed our vegetarian meal together. :) After dinner, we decided to head to the night market, so we jumped into a rickshaw with a few other SASers, and headed to the market. As soon as we got out, the first shop I saw…WAIT, I can't really describe this in the blog, it's supposed to be a surprise for my parents. I bought something from this store eventually, but I won't tell you what. Sorry…if ur REALLY dying to know, send me an email, and maybe I will relate the full story to you ;) hehe. Anyways, from that shop we walked to the entrance of the night market, and it clearly stated "Night market" …lol. So, you probably shouldn't get lost…until you get inside that is. You see, inside was a maze of shops and stalls, selling everything from incense to silk scarves to …. WAIT. Almost did it again. Can't give it away ;) So, I had FUN bargaining as usual, and as usual, I kicked butt and got some great deals. One of the shopkeepers refused to give me some t-shirts for cheap, so I had to resort to some dirty bargaining tactics (hehehe) that involved me complimenting her on how beautiful she looked in her oversized shirt, and ripped jeans. It was fun, and she gave me the t-shirts for a dollar each eventually…I win. :) hehehe. Anyways, at the end we returned to "the first shop" and I bargained for about an hour before I finally got what I wanted at a VERY VERY good price. Oh man, wait till you see what I bought..it's pretty amazing if I may say so myself. ;)
So, that was the end of spending money at the market, and I headed to a local internet café for an hour to make some calls, check email, catch up on life (aka update my Fbook status haha) and the universe. Afterwards, we rickshawed (is that even a verb? Oh well, it is now! If we can say we "cabbed it" in Boston then this works by the same logic) it back to the hotel. By this point, I think it was around 11 PM, I was about to die since we had been up since 5 AM, and had traveled pretty much the whole day. So, I changed and hit the bed. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow, that's right…if someone had removed this pillow from under my head as I was "falling" asleep I would have landed on the mattress and fallen asleep anyways. ZZZZ…ZZZZ…What a day!
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