Dream Come True & the Tomb Raider Temple!

I made sure I didn't miss my alarm the next morning. I was determined to ride an elephant! (Especially after mine and Ally's traumatizing experience and missed opportunity in India) Well to my horror, the other people I was with decided they didn't really want to spend the money to ride an elephant (It only cost $15. Really?!?) But luckily I convinced them all and the driver took us to find them. They weren't at their usual spot however. They were up in front of the Bayon temple. That's right--my favorite temple! How absolutely perfect to get to ride an elephant around that place! We had to wait in a line, but luckily it moved pretty quickly. We climbed up onto this platform to get onto the elephant from. When Blake and I were next in line and I saw my elephant walking up, I squealed, "THAT'S OUR ELEPHANT!!" I seriously couldn't contain my excitement. See the picture below of this moment caught on camera.

 I climbed onto the elephant and we were off on our trek around the temple. It was so so fun! A super bouncy ride & I just loved the views of the temple and knowing that I was actually on an elephant!! I was fascinated by the creature. He was massive, with the cutest ears and was super hairy (which I hadn't realized about elephants before and his skin was really rough.)

 Sadly, we had to sit in a basket on the elephant's back; no bareback riding here. Oh well, I am very satisfied for now, but I will still be on the hunt for an opportunity to really ride an elephant someday. After our ride sadly came to an end, we climbed down and then got to feed him a bunch of bananas! It was so awesome to be right up close and personal with such a magnificent animal. It was so funny to feed him! You put the banana into his his trunk and then he swings it into his mouth. When the bananas were gone, he still kept following us with his trunk trying to get more bananas haha. Well, the rest of my group decided that was the best $15 they'd ever spend. (I hate to say I told you so, but how could you go wrong riding an elephant?!)

After that exciting start to my day, we drove around and explored more ruins. It's amazing how different each temple was, each with its own unique beauty. There were so many cool old trees everywhere with crazy roots growing over the walls and such. Well, if you know me, I love to climb things. If you can't find me, you can usually look up and find me climbing a tree, ha. So naturally I loved this. And the trees had all these awesome vines hanging down which I had a blast swinging on.

Several kids ran up to us at lunchtime, each trying to convince us to come eat at their restaurant. One girl gave us an offer we couldn't refuse--we could order anything we wanted off the menu and a drink and fruit for $3. And she had hammocks we could rest in until our food was ready. Deal! On the way over, a little boy came and tracked me down and started talking to me. He was collecting coins from around the world, but sadly I didn't have any on me to give him. But he kept talking with me and was so smart and spoke very good English. He began quizzing me on the capitals of several countries around the world and was very impressed with my knowledge. It was so funny how impressed he was with me; I was impressed with HIS knowledge, ha. He proceeded to tell me his story of how his mother died a few years ago and his dad sent him out here to sell to live off his earnings. I ended up buying a flute from him and told him to be sure he stayed in school and that he would go very far in life.

Following lunch we went to a few more temples, then finally made it to the Ta Prohm temple. This is the temple that Tomb Raider was filmed at! Super cool ruins here with really really awesome old trees.

This is a very famous spot. Unfortunately it has been roped off now =(

We went exploring through the temple and climbed through tunnels and over huge piles of rocks. When we were walking around the back, some French ladies were telling us there was a snake. I went over to find a bright green snake lodged in the wall and took a picture. It took me a minute to realize that there was a FROG in the snake's mouth! Awesome! So Melissa and I got closer to take a picture. I don't know if the flash scared the snake or what, but at that very moment somehow the frog got away and jumped right at us. I freaked thinking the snake was gonna strike and Melissa ended up slipping in a huge pile of mud. So funny. Got an awesome picture and didn't get bitten.

That night we were all planning to go to dinner and a show. I was super excited for this! For some reason the 2 girls decided they just wanted to stay in the hotel, so Blake and I went to this really cool restaurant where they had a HUGE, elegant buffet and show of traditional Apsara dancing. All for only $12. I seriously ate SO MUCH. I kept going back to the buffet, ha. I had the most delicious fried noodles ever. It was a really fun show, and afterwards, all the dancers come back out on stage to take pictures with the audience. After the show Blake and I went back to the Night Market and got an hour foot and back massage for $3!!