Cambodia Day 6, Part 3: Prasat Krahom, Prasat Thom Ziggurat, and New Year's Eve

My day's temple tour finished with Prasat Krahom. At first it seemed to be another typical small temple, until I noticed that the brick tower was an entryway with two real doors instead of one actual door and one ornamental symbolic stone door. 

The tower looked much the same on the other side except for the scattered carvings at its feet.

Rows of fallen columns guided me through the temple. 

Some archways looked like they had been part of a giant game of Jenga. 

Fragments of statues were tantalizing glimpses into how the temple once would have appeared.

A golden ratio nautilus spiral was particularly fascinating: 

My excitement rose as I caught a glimpse of the enormous ziggurat, Prasat Thom, rising at the temple's end. Prasat Thom looks more Mayan or Aztec than Khmer, so it was a surreal sight rising over the rest of the temple. It took effort to take in the rest of the temple instead of rushing straight to the magnificent sight at the far end.  

The stairs up were closed - with good reason - and I decided not to insult the nearby monks or injure myself by testing my luck. 

I soaked in the massive pyramid, then wrenched myself away to explore the side wings of the temple that had reservoirs build into pleasant ponds surrounding the sub-temple grounds. 

Even there I kept staring at the ziggurat over the wall. 

I backtracked past the fallen pillars to eat late breakfast just outside the temple grounds. I went to admire the pyramid again as I ate and as I sat on a log and wrote afterward.

The motorcycle ride back was long enough to make me saddle sore sitting behind my guide. We stopped and got a pineapple at one point. I didn't realize I'd commissioned a work of art when I asked the woman at the small stand to cut it. She expertly removed all of the pips from the spines in a spiral pattern that maximized the edible fruit while removing everything one wouldn't want to eat.

Back at the guesthouse I took a nap and a shower. Part of why my room was so cheap was that the water was unheated, but in the extreme heat of the day cold showers were always welcome. At the Paper Tiger I ate fresh coconut, chicken curry cannoli, with a desert of mint and bluberry gelato in waffle cup with walnuts on top.

I didn't go to any of the New Year's Eve celebrations because they mostly seemed to be foreign tourists getting drunk. I did wake at midnight to fireworks, and I had a shockingly good view of them out my ground floor window. I somehow slept through most of the partying and music , but I did notice Radiohead's Karma Police playing at five in the morning.