Monday 25 July 2016.  Photos and Videos
Highlights: Preah Khan Temple, East Mabon Temple, Pre Rup Temple, Shoulder massage, Phare Cambodian Circus

The last full day of the G Adventure – National Geographic tour turned out to be action packed.  The morning was all about the Cambodian Temples, the afternoon relaxing at the hotel and the evening experiencing an amazing live circus show.

The Preah Kan Temple was the major temple visit for the day.  Our local guide got us to undertake a short hike to this temple to avoid the crowds at the venue and approach from the back of the temple.  This gave me a good feel for how overgrown this area must have been when the French rediscovered these temples.

Lady holding a mirro, Preah Khan Temple

This tree is growng through and slowly destroying Preah Khan Temple

This temple highlighted how in the end nature will always win, it might take a thousand years but eventually even stone gives way to trees.

Next up was the East Mabon Temple which I’m going to call the Temple of the Elephants.  Each temple has a major feature whether it be trees growing inside the walls, faces in the stone or in these cases elephants.

Elephant (not me!) at the East Mabon Temple

The last temple for this tour was Pre Rup Temple which was probably the most disappointing compared to the rest.  The major challenge of this one is climbing the stairs to the top.  Some adventurous spirits used the old stone stairs (Sarah and Graham) while the rest used the new easier, but still difficult, wooden stairs.  Maybe we were ‘templed’ out at this stage, or the heat was getting to us.

In the afternoon back at the Royal Angkor Resort I enjoy a fabulous included shoulder massage, one of the best I’ve ever received.  Very glad I did this, found myself very relaxed.

In the evening after a dinner near Pub Street at “The Corner” restuarant we headed off to the last activity of the tour, the Phare Cambodian Circus.  However before I got to the Circus an ATM kept me travel MasterCard 😦

This circus was established by an NGO and is used to support street kids and to give them an education and a possible future in the performing arts.  The performances were amazing and many times I was worried for the performers and the risk to their lives. The performance was full of energy and the crowd really got into the show, there was even some small crowd participation when a performer would hide in the audience.  You can watch one act here.

Finally we had to start bidding each other farewell.  The group is going in many different ways.  I’ll miss them all.