We used the same driver as yesterday and he picked us up bright and early at 7:30. This was so we could make the 2 hour drive north to Koh Ker. Koh Ker is a series of temples built in the 10th century, and was the former capital of the Khmer empire. In short: more ruins and temples, Millie’s favorite.

I was a bit apprehensive before going because it was such a long drive and it is closer to the Thai border where there is an active war happening. It was still within the safe zone, so we decided to go. It seems that we may have been the only tourists to make this decision because we barely saw anyone all morning.

We arrived at the first temple and had it to ourselves. The sleepy guard sitting outside it said we were the first visitors of the day. The heat hadn’t broken through yet and the giant trees dropped leaves every time there was a light breeze. We got to explore around everything and imagine what it must have been like before it got taken over by trees.

Our driver took us between the temples, which were each about a 3 minute drive between each other. There were probably over 20, and eventually we started doing “drive-bys” instead of stopping for each one.

In between the temples was overgrown jungly land. Each area had signs saying that it had either been cleared of mines or had not yet been cleared. We stayed on the safety of the well worn paths, but I can’t imagine anything more terrifying than your homeland having the potential to explode at any moment.

Millie figured out a way to entertain herself by trying to find one “treasure” per temple. The universe delivered and she found a piece of pottery, a plastic jewel, a cool rock, a cheap broken piece of jewelry, and best of all, a croc jibbit.

Our final destination at Koh Ker was the big pyramid. It’s crazy to me how many ancient civilizations built similar pyramids without knowing it was happening elsewhere.

Nick entertained(?) Millie by telling her stories about when we visited Teotihuacan. The recounting started innocently and then somehow veered into telling her about how losers of their ball sport would have their hearts ripped out and offered on top of the pyramid to Quetzalcoatl. He went into way too much detail and every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. This is why we can’t homeschool long term.

We walked around the whole pyramid and then came to the stairs on the final side. I was hot and sweaty and not thrilled that we could climb to the top. Millie was even less so. But we did it. I imagined how crazy it must have been for people back in the day to see their land from this vantage point for the first time.

We headed back to the car and drove an hour back towards Siem Reap. We stopped for lunch where Nick and Millie each got coconuts the side of their heads.

Our second stop was Beng Melea, another large temple. This one hasn’t been as restored as many of the others, which was interesting in its own way. It was huge.

Millie was fully over it at this point, and if I’m being honest, I was almost fully over it too. My favorite part was that we could walk down into it and through a passageway. I loved how the light shined through the window and against the wall.

We didn’t last too long and got back in the car for the final drive back to the hotel. We relaxed in the AC and then walked out for an early dinner. We have loved all southeast Asian food, but Cambodian food has been a pleasant surprise. Our favorite is fish Amok, which is fish cooked in a thick yellow coconut curry with lots of herbs and lemongrass. Everything has tons of flavor but isn’t overly spicy, and has a good amount of vegetables. My stomach feels equalized for the first time in a while.

A very random note to end on… we started noticing today that many men had one long fingernail, often their pinky. We saw it on our driver, our hotel receptionist, the owner of the restaurant, and a guy near us on the flight in. This is what I would call a “coke nail” but these men didn’t seem like they used them for bumps of cocaine. I googled it and it turns out it’s a common Cambodian status symbol to say “I don’t do manual labor, and I will prove it by having one exquisitely cared for long nail”. I think I’d rather be a farmer than never cut my pinky nail.