where in the world is matt

The final day in the iron man visit to Ankor was spent finally seeing the sunrise - a simple solution instead of missing the alarm was to just not go to sleep - so a chilly 5am start and possibly the whole of Japan camped out at the entrance to the main temple opposite the pond/lake. Have to say the sunset is far more impressive with the clouds, but its still pretty amazing seeing the sunrise over the largest religious site on earth.

A brief return to SR before heading out again, this time 60km to the furthest temple in the complex of Banteay Srei, with a combined stop off at Kbal Spean (national park). KS was first as it was furthest is a national park that houses Hindu sculptures in the river bed, a 2km walk up the mountain (hill) to the worlds smallest river, but some of the most ornate sculpture work ive seen for awhile given the conditions its under. There are only about 9 blocks along the river, no-one seemed to be able to say where they had come from - not aliens, just was it used as a temple..

The only way to get back down now is the same route as the entrances have changed since my guide had been as a youngster.

The return journey included a stop off at Banteay Srei which was anticlimactic as the last temple asuch, more ruin then brick work it didn’t seem to have much to it, and was a very quick look before moving on.

A return to Ankor to view the sunset from Bakheng was marred by a storm cycle, that although passed, left to much cloud cover for a sunset, and poor maintenance of the jungle line meant that you couldnt see much of Ankor itself. The temple was a pyramid style structure which in its hey day would have a magnificent entrance way of stone steps leading up the hill. Nowadays it instead has a winding path that can be taken one way by elephant, or foot another way.