Angkor

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I apologize for the tardiness of this post but I haven't had much free time this week. So this past weekend I took a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia so I could visit Angkor Wat. It was expensive, but definitely worth the trip. I got to fly into Cambodia on a small prop plane, which was pretty cool and I spend 2 days exploring the temples. Well, it was supposed to be 2 days but I had a really crappy tour guide so it was really only like 1 full day spread out over 2 days. I've already taken care of that with the tour company and I won't bore you with it here. Needless to say, I don't think that tour guide will be conducting more tours anytime soon.

But I was pretty amazed by the temples. The Khmer (pronounced kuh mare) people, which is the civilization that lived in Cambodia and built the temples at Angkor as well as being the cultural origins for most of what is now Thai, were amazing architects and builders. The stuff they could do with simple stone, in my opinion, rivals what the Egyptians did with the pyramids. The carvings and impeccible stone work was really amazing to see. Even though many of the temples there had been destroyed or deteriorated so much that much of what is there has been reassembled by modern architects, it was still incredible to see what they could do. I consider myself extremely grateful to have gotten to see Angkor and I think it was also a wonderful cultural experience to see a Cambodian town. Siem Reap is a booming tourist town, but it's not the kind of place that comes to mind when you might think of a typical booming tourist town. It was still very small, just with a lot of hotels. It was very different from anywhere I have been in Thailand but I enjoyed seeing it. So I'll save you from the boredom of my words and start uploading photos and let those do the talking.

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Photos

The first temple I visited
I only remember names for one or two of the temples I was at, so forgive me for not having these properly labeled

Look familiar?
If you've seen the movie Tombraider, this may look familiar. This is the Ta Phrom temple where they filmed part of Tombraider. It's the one temple that they restored as little as possible to leave it the way it was when the French rediscovered it in the early 20th century.

Bayon
By far my favorite temple while I was there. Look closely and see if you can find all the faces.

Touching noses
I didn't know what the guide was having me do until I saw this photo

Face at Bayon
I've heard a number of explanations for all the faces. I think there were 54 total. One is that they were all carvings of the King. Another is that they tell the story of when Buddha achieved enlightenment, his brother was jealous and tried to kill him. The Buddha mdae multiple images of himself and his brother did not know which one was the real Buddha so he gave up. So in that story the multiple faces at Bayon represent the multiple images of Buddha. I know there was a third but I can't remember. Wikipedia for more info.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat
The largest and most famous temple, Angkor Wat. Also the largest religious structure in the world. I don't know if that's just the one temple that's the largest, or if it's the entire Angkor complex as a whole. Either way, Angkor Wat is enormous. Each side is over 1km long

Monkey at Angkor Wat
This was about a foot away from me

Reliefs at Angkor Wat
All four sides had long reliefs like this

Damage at another temple
This photo gives you an idea of how much is left unrestored and how much damage has been done over the centuries