Wat hopping!

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Temples of Angkor
Forty years. Forty-nine wats.
Can't see all of them!

First day of checking out the temples of Angkor. We have a three day pass which should be good. First thing we had to do was take our picture for our passes. Angkor Wat will be saved for day two of temple hopping since seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise is supposed to be spectacular.

We met up with our tour guide Mr. Yous Sa at our hotel and then our bus arrived...a bus that could easily accommodate 24 (if not more people!) Too funny since there are only 8 of us. lol

It is interesting that Mr. Yous Sa has a South London accent especially since he has never left Cambodia in his life. We were also told that Mr. Yous Sa may be called away at any moment since his pregnant wife is about 3 days overdue...ooh! Some potential excitement!.

I won't go on and on about the temples because it probably won't mean all that much especially without any pictures. Perhaps when I get some photos downloaded the next time I'll add in more written descriptions...

Our first temple of the morning was to the "Jungle" Temple where Angelina Jolie filmed Tom Raider. Okay, so the name of the temple is actually Ta Prohm. It is amazing how the trees are helping to keep the temple together. Before lunch we also stopped off at Banteay Kdei. This temple looks so fragile since there were a lot of wooden supports and scaffolding structures throughout the temple...don't touch!

In the afternoon we went to Angkor Thom, the Terrace of the Elephants and Bayon. Bayon would have to be my favourite temple of the day. There are many huge faces carved into the stone. The four faces of compassion, equality, sympathy and kindness were depicted everywhere in the Bayon Temple. It is amazing after many wars and looting etc. that there's still something left for us to see. It is such a shame that so many of these temples have been destroyed and defaced over the years.

I just wanted to note that today is International Woman's Day here in Cambodia. I think that we need International Woman's Day to be recognized all over the World!

We ended our first day of temple hopping by going to Bakoei Chamkrong for sunset. The sun turned a really brilliant orangey/red but the sky did not change color at all. It was really a bit disappointing and I felt like saying, "That's it?" Thinking about it...I probably did say that. LOL

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Photos

At the temples of Angkor
Rohan, Maria, Rich, Bonnie, Penny, Ann, Rob