These are the elephant sculptures decorating the archway at the east exit from Angkor Tom – the long things are elephant trunks.

So vast is the temple complex that the “inner circuit” driving route that shows you some of the most important sites is more than 30km long and the “grand circuit” is more than 50. Neither covers Banteay Srei or Kbal Spean, the Roluos Group or other outlying complexes often quite grand themselves.

Angkor Tom, which was the largest unified construction, was a massive city many times as large as Angkor Wat, which sits south of it. These photos show some of the temples and gates in and around Angkor Tom, with a side trip for sunset at Phnom Bakheang in the middle.

This one is the Baphuon under restoration; we were sad not to see the inside of one of the “top five” main sites from an art-history and architectural standpoint.

Immediately south of Angkor Tom’s southern gate, complete( as are all of Angkor Tom’s five grand entrances) with a bridge depicting the churning of the ocean milk story (with which we’ve all become rather conversant), is Phnom Bakheang, a hilttop temple that affords the most visited sunset views in the complex. As you see, it was quite the scene. Felt almost like Key West, though no one clapped for the sunset. Mercifully, we found a more peaceful vibe a few evenings later.

Steve and I spent the sunset hours of the final day on our pass for the archeological site at Pre Rup, a brick-built temple ruin that we’d passed several times, en route to and from Banteay Srei, Ta Prohm and all the others. Each time, we’d said “oh, we must spend some time there.” With Mom resting up after an adventuresome (let us not forget, Mom, the taxi zum klo!) morning at the Bayon and general Angkor Tom area, Steve and I enjoyed a much more peaceful and atmospheric sunset than we’d experienced at Phnom Bakheang our first evening.

After four days being overwhelmed by the sites and sounds of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei et. al., we opted for a quieter day: it was mostly spent by the pool and taking a veerry leisurely lunch, but in the morning we motivated ourselves to check out the “floating village” at the edge of Tonle Sap lake. Since the lake level rises and falls so often, those who live closest to it basically have no choice but to live in floating villages; those who live just a bit further way, as you’ve seen, raise their houses on stilts whenever they can in order to avoid the seasonal floods.

In the areas closest to what’s now dry land, we could tell the water was pretty heavily used and that the village seemingly has no sewer system. Our noses told us this. None of us was too happy when we were splashed by water from this part of the river, and reached for our hand disinfectant with images of typhoid and other water-borne nasties racing in our heads.

Overall the trip – though quite touristic and only partly “real” seeming – opened our eyes to the life on the water, and how hard it must be for some people. There are lots of Vietnamese in the village – witness the Vietnamese on the restaurant sign above. Interesting to think of these people navigating all the way up the Mekong from the Delta, past Phnom Penh, and up to the northeast corner of Tonle Sap lake – but I guess that’s what they had to do, unless the trekked overland and bought their boats once they arrived.