I rented a bicycle this morning, and set out north along the river. I came across some very cool bridges.
First cool bridge
Second cool bridge
After 12 kilometers I arrived at this very nice wat.
The ceiling outside the wat was completely painted with stories of Buddha's life.
They also have a very large Buddha
Underneath the large Buddha is a prayer room with a lot of little Buddhas. I hung out in there for a while because it was cool (as in not hot) and I like Buddha images.
And right behind the wat was Aek Phnom, an Angkor temple - 100 years older than Angkor Wat.
This one was in pretty bad shape.
I didn't take this picture crooked - there are "danger" signs everywhere (though they still allowed you crawl all over it).
The rubble around the temple had some nicely carved stones.
And there was some beautiful stone work that survived in the temple.
After exploring the ruins, I went to a little food stall for fried noodles and vegetables. There I met a tuk-tuk driver. He is 28 years old, married and with a two year old child. I asked him about his income. for an all-day tour, he charges $15, but must pay $5 for petrol and $3 to rent the tuk-tuk, so his take-home pay is $7. Right now it is the low tourist season, so he is taking two tourists today for $10. "Maybe I keep $3 for my family today,"he told me. Being 28 years old, he was born 3 years after the end of the Khmer rouge reign. Being not very diplomatic and very curious, I asked about his parents during those years. He said they had to work very hard, had no food, and were only allowed to sleep 3-4 hours a night. He said is father was forced to be a guerrilla for the Khmer Rouge when he wasn't farming. "Very hard life," he said. Both his parents survived the Khmer Rouge, but no longer are together. His father lives with him now, so he must also care for him as well. The ruins at this location were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in their anti-religious fervor.
This was sitting on the table at the food stall.
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