Cambodia, Day 3 – Terrace of the Leper King and Chau Say Thevoda

Leaving Phimeanakas we found ourselves approaching the main car park where our tuk tuk driver was supposed to be waiting for us.

On the way though we passed through the maze-like corridors of the Terrace of the Leper King. Legend says that there WAS actually a Cambodian king that had leprosy, but whether he had anything to do with the construction of this ‘terrace’ is up for debate.

Personally, I found it absolutely fascinating, stopping every few paces to have a closer look at the rock carvings and the local insect population, but this was obviously at odds to the group of half a dozen or so other tourists behind us who had this bizarre urge to get to the other end as quickly as humanly possible…??! I’ll be generous and assume they all suffered from extreme claustrophobia.

After successfully finding our driver amongst the crowds, we took off at high speed to our next temple, Chau Say Thevoda.

While this was one of the smallest temples we visited, I found it to be one of the most beautiful. Only consisting of a few rooms, interconnected with short corridors, this was a much more intimate temple experience, as there were hardly any other tourists. The grounds were gorgeous, and the layout of the temple complex exuded a sense of harmony. Weird, but true.

While there weren’t many other tourists, one of them was an absolute tool! This couple had arrived a few minutes before us, so we had the pleasure of waiting for the bloke to pose in every single doorway and window, casually draping an arm over the window sill, or perhaps giving a nonchalant toss of his scarf, while his poor wife took photos of ‘his magnificence’…!!

We had a good chuckle, waited for them to move on, and then enjoyed the tranquillity.

Exhibit A: Tool