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Published: July 21st 2007
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'tomb raider' temple
rad, dunno who the chick is though, like a bajillion japanes tourists in this very spot. okay the Angkor temple complex is totally amazing and awe inspiring and jaw dropping and humbling at times.its huge and everything is insanely rad.you need like 3 days to see it properly but we had 1 so i have to go back, but what we did see was incredible. the wole place is in a national park and is comprised of Angkor Wat, the main cool temple (massive, not 1 building), Angkor Thom (also amazing and big) plus loads of other big temples, many dozens, huge, scatered over what must be at least 100km sq area.this place is more thana national treasure, its a true wonder of the world and, like all things of great beauty and inspiration, some assholes had to spoil it.
For a start the khmer rouge didnt like history at all so they tried to mash it up in their 'year zero' thingy, which was lame.didnt really work tho. secondly, the whole place is owned by some petroleum company, which is nice, who charge everyone to see it, its not cheap but id pay it anyway. where the money goes is another thing.they keep 15%, 75% goes to the ministry of the interior and promptly
disappears into the pockets of the incredibly corrupt and shit Cambodian Peoples Party who suck in general (they lost the election fair and square to a rival party, FUNCTINPEC or something, but they threw grenades at people in the streets until they stopped pointing this out,which is also nice).This leaves a measly 10% for the upkeep of this great example of human ingenuity and engeneering and awesome architecture. alot is in bad shape and it all relies very heavily on donations to stop it all falling down (alot from AMEX funnily enough).
The first temple we saw was in pretty good shape and very big, many many rooms and buildings and alot of area to explore, i cant imagine a better playground for parkour free runner people.this is a monkeys heaven, if i have a kid, im rasing them here so they can learn how to be rad. andering around the ruins, collapsed temples next to standing ones, moss covered stones, trees averywhere and crazy bugs and lizards literally everywhere, this was as enchanted as it gets. i think they actually used magic to build this place, which makes it triple annoying that i cant rememer its name.huff.
next
Angkor Wat,inside, tower
I got to the top i swear! plus the hoardes of ninja fascist guards were just outside the shot. temple was Ta Phrom, here im obliged to mention it was used in the Tomb Raider film, because its ridiculously cool and 'ruined temple' like, strangely enough. there were the most kick ass trees growing over and on and through the ruins, and they were big, the roots would start maybe 10-15 feet up from the ground, or rooftop, wherever the tree felt like growing from, it might grow on a wall and down either side, like someone built a wall through a tree. so cool.
Angkor Thom and the Bayon were pretty neat, the bayon is a big pyramidy thing covered with massive carvings of this dudes face, the king who had it built, egomania at its best i feel.
Angkor Wat was insane though, the sun was setting as we got there and its huge and beautiful. the walk up the path to the front door bit is well long and over a lake, got there and the evil Wat nazi said it was shut and we had to go away!
shut.wed been there all day and told we could see it at sunset.livid.
not really satisfied we decided to sneak in round the back so we made
Ko Samui
Some waterfall we went swimming in our way down onto the grass and kinda ran/snuck across to some stairs where we had to do some more ninja running and ducking to get near the centre, alot of indiana jones style hiding behind pillars from fascist temple guards. made it to the centre with the main structure only to get busted by a nazi at the bottom of the steps, he wanted a silly bribe so we scattered, trying to find a way up to the top without getting stung, i found a way, some japanese tourists were distracting a guard so i crawled as fast as i could up the steps (sketchy scary steps) to the top! made it! the sun was setting and the sky was red and the view was really quite special, so serene and, dare i say it, exotic.i got a good 30 seconds of appreciation before i got spotted but they werent guna bother climbing the steps to get me so they just shouted at me constantly. i was happy with this so i climbed up a bit further to get a better picture, all that effort had paid off to show me one of the best views of my life.
a doorway in the first temple
this place was huge, i wana door like this,it pretty much goes on forever except my batteries had died.
.................
.
.
.
no picture.
nothing.
to say i was annoyed would not be quite right, it wouldnt be wrong but its just not enough.my vocabulary fails me now, probably for the best. i had to climb down, empty handed and sheepish whilst being shouted at and followed out of the complex. quite unhappy.
so yeah.i dont really have many pictures of angkor wat itself but plenty of the other temples.
buhu.
next day got on the bus from Siem Reap to bangkok, like 12 hours on a crap bus on a terrible road, mostly dirt and comprised of either gaping wounds in the road, small canyons, or large mounds which were a neat mix between mountains and ramps. so that was a pleasant journey.the seats at the back with luke and Kari on collapsed under the weight of the bags and they kinda had nowhere to sit so i got one laugh for my troubles. one night in bangkok then another 12 hour bus journey down the southern arm to get a ferry to ko samui, the island were on now.
its fairly idylic here, palm trees everywhere, sandy beaches and
some random wall somewhere
the whole thing was covered in this face, hundreds. calm waters, mountains to climb, waterfalls etc. got scooters out and rode around for some days, checkin stuff out. got jet skis out and played on them.ridiculously fun.quite fast and hard to crash so perfect for me.
note: i want a jetski now please.
did some mild snorkelling,saw some neat litrle fish and chased some hermit crabs around underwater.chasing crabs is becoming a hobby of mine. may just hire out a catamaran and sail about a bit and also do some kayaking. who knows.
actually stuck on this island as my bank is made out of spite and avarice and assumes that EVERY time i use my card it has been stolen by a dirty asian and so blocks it.every time.no matter what. effort for me.
still, worse places to be stuck.
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