Time for Cambodia

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Next stop after Hoi An was Siem Reap. Our flight was bright and early so we could get started touring the ancient Angkor temples. After our 6th flight (of 13!!!) we arrived safe and sound in Siem Reap. The weather was perfect although I came down with a bit of a cold. We powered through though and saw some pretty spectacular stuff. We even met a wonderful family from New Dehli who invited us to join their tour for a full day. Many of the inscriptions at the temples were Hindu so they had a lot of insight and filled us in on the stories behind all of the stone carvings.

The town of Siem Reap is lovely with a great night market and AMAZING Khmer food for so cheap! We enjoyed our first dinner out for $7 total! Seriously.

Thanks to John, Col, Lilly and Connor, who generously financed the Siem Reap part of our trip, we were able to take as many tuk tuk rides as we wanted and stayed at a beautiful resort where we could unwind after a long day of trekking around the temples.

The pictures at Angkor speak for themselves, so enjoy!

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Photos

Our Little Plane to Siem Reap
I was pretty scared to get on this little sucker. Even Jeff was a little nervous. We were up and down though as the flight was only 45 minutes. Phew

Gate to Angkor Thom
Built in the late 12th century and is one of the largest Khmer cities. There were 4 gates into the city and each gate has these four gazing Buddhas to protect any opponent from the North, South, East or West

Another View of Angkor Thom Gate
Here's another view...

The Bayon
Built in the 12th century as the State Temple of King Jayavarman VII who the Cambodians feel was a very gracious and wonderful king.This temple passed through different religious phases from Hindu to Buddhism so you see inscriptions from both backgrounds which is pretty cool

Our New Friends
Here's the family that we toured around with. They have 3 girls, who were all so smart and interesting to talk to.

Buddhas Without Heads
There were a ton of headless Buddhas around. We were told that people stole the heads and then sold them. Now, many of them are on display in various museums.

Jeff and Chris at Bantey Srei
This temple was a bit removed from the others about 12 miles north of Angkor at the foot of the Kulen mountains. The detail is unbelievable. It was built in pink sandstone which I guess is very durable so the details remain despite years of errosive rains, etc.

Climbing Phnom Bakheng for Sunset
After a long day of touring (10 hours!) we climbed up to the top of Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset

Chris Trying to Work the Big Camera
I harnessed a little bit of Jeff and gave the big lens a shot

Day 2 ANGKOR WAT!!!
Jeff and I toured around by ourselves the next day. First stop, Angkor Wat, the most spectacular of all of the Angkor temples.

Steep Stairs
Those stairs were pretty steap to get up to that top level.

Jeff the Photographer
Jeff took 500 pictures at the temples. No exaggeration. You're lucky that I only chose 20 or so to show you guys.

Next stop Ta Keo
After Angkor Wat, we checked out Ta Keo whcih is very large and tough to climb but there are little to no inscriptions b/c it was struck by lightning during its construction. The king, believing that this was a bad omen, halted construction so it was never finished.