Koh Kong

From Koh Rong island we headed back to Bangkok as it was the end of the trip. It took us two entire days : half a day of boat, and one day and a half of car. Awful. 

At the end of the first day we slept at the border between Cambodia and Thailand, Koh Kong, which is on the side of a huge river. This swan boat seemed a bit out of place.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia was our next stop after Siem Reap, and also our first day of "holiday" in the country (we went to Siem Reap to study full time.) I was so exhausted that I almost didn't take any pictures, these are from the olympic stadium.
We headed next to Koh Rong, a cambodian paradisiac island which was exactly what we needed to rest and where we got to spend christmas. Unfortunately I have no pictures from this place ... relaxing is hard work ;)

Landscapes

Landscapes along the road, going from temple to temple in the Angkor area.

Angkor VII

Banteay Srei with its beautiful red stones and extremely precise carving (first 3 pictures), and other temples, including the Bayon temple with its famous faces, the elephant terrace (last two pictures) and temples which I do not know -or remember- the names of. 

These are finally the last pictures of the Angkor temples. I still have a few Cambodia pictures to share though.

Angkor VI

This cat was sleeping so peacefully.

Angkor V

Exploring endlessly.

Angkor IV

Angkor III

Angkor being a Unesco world heritage site, a huge number of tourists come specially to Siem Reap everyday to see the temples, and it sometimes makes the experience of visiting them a little less enjoyable than it should be.

But the times we found ourselves alone in those places were really magical moments. You can find small temples which are not as famous as the big ones but are as beautiful and have almost no visitors (like Ta Nei in the first picture.) We also managed by chance to visit one of the most famous temple, Ta Prohm, (which was restored leaving the giant trees as a reminder of the state the temples were found) at the end of the day. It was dusk when we were there, which gave the place a special atmosphere. We somehow ended up being all alone in this huge temple. It was completely quiet, you could hear the noise of the jungle and see the moon. Perfect.

Angkor II

Thousand-year old stones + jungle makes for beautiful and colorful textures.