March 12, 2014
And the fun continues! We hired another tour guide for day two of temple touring. And thank goodness we did as without him, we would have just been looking at a big pile of rocks most of the time. He wasn’t as informative as our first guide, but by the end of our second 10 hour day and extreme heat - we didn’t care.
We splurged on a Mexican dinner one night for Omar. He was thrilled for refried beans and rice - it’s the little things in life sometimes.
Another interesting foreign product - clearly not vegan friendly.
A bridge over a moat to Phnom Bakheng Temple.
A well preserved relief on Angkor Thom the only city with any remains. Temples were built with stone and the cities with wood, henceforth no town remains. Angkor Thom was the King’s city so there are areas with stone remnants still. The city is 3km by 3km square with 5 entrances and exits, over moats, to visit the royal grounds.
Bayon Temple, or smiling face temple, there are 216 smiling faces, 4 faces on each tower representing the 4 Buddhist ideals of love, kindness, compassion, and neutralities.
Baphuon Temple, built in 1066 AD at the height of Cambodian power, with an estimated 2 million people living in the vicinity (outside Angkor Thom's walls.)
The view from Baphuon Temple. Hope you’re not afraid of heights!
The three headed elephant on the elephant terrace - all still inside the town of Angkor Thom!
The kings use to watch elephants with riders battle it out for sport. Look closely.
My favorite temple as it was being reclaimed by trees - Ta Prohm.
Look familiar? Tomb Raider was filmed here!
Group love.
Ta Prohm had several buildings where trees had either taken over or completely collapsed the temple.
The main temple of Angkor Wat - it was spectacular!
We were all templed out by day 3 so we decided to rent bikes and bicycle all morning around the temple complex. It was great - mountain biking on beach cruisers, past completely run down temples, off the beaten path, and getting back on a bike!
No idea where this temple was - we were just biking by and stopped for a look.
We had lunch at the Siem Reap Butterfly Garden - a nonprofit that supports various local and community projects. This one is for you Laura V.!
No comments:
Post a Comment