Angkor Wat

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After a good night's sleep in yet another fabulous hotel, my guide picked me up at 8am and we headed off to see Angkor Wat - a world famous temple built in the 1100's, and dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. Many people come early to see sunrise, or stay late to see sunset...but as it was the rainy season, and cloud cover was pretty heavy, we (that is my guide and I) decided not to do either...I was probably a bit swayed by him, and my perpetual desire to avoid mosquitoes! In any case, this being the 'low' season it was really quite manageable in terms of crowds. They have an interesting system - before you go to the temples - there's a 'check point' sort of like a rest stop in the U.S., but with a ticket booth - tourists have to pay to get a one day, 3 day or 7 day pass - AND...they take your picture, then immediately print out a colorful paper ticket with your photo printed on it...no handing your pass off to a buddy in this neck of the woods!

We proceeded on to Angkor Wat...which is a huge temple, I think as a single building it's supposed to be the largest in southeast Asia. It also has the world's longest bas-relief...which is incredibly detailed, and tells a long story from Hindu culture. We walked around for probably an hour - I understand many people spend the whole day, or more than one day there...but that level of scrutiny isn't my cup of tea...so I was happy with one hour! I only posted selected pix as it didn't seem mine were going to translate that well, and there are literally thousands upon thousands of beautiful photos to see available on the internet (At least I assume so - haven't actually counted!)

Back in the air conditioned Toyota Camry, with the ice cold bottle of water, and cold cloth -and onto Angkor Thom - posted in a separate blog (for those of you with shorter attention spans, and due to my ability to upload photos on an inconsistent basis with internet speeds being what they are at times...)

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