Cambodia -- Temples anyone?

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I was very focused when I went to Cambodia--I wanted to see the Temples of Angkor--period. I planned this short jaunt (only 2 days) well so that upon arriving in Siem Reap, I went straight to the temples with a car & a guide. I wanted to make the most of my 2 days: I landed, straight to the temples, hotel, next day--temples then back to the airport!
They are gorgeous! I kept thinking about what the guidebooks had said about the temples of Angkor being the 8th Wonder of the World while touring. They combine both Buddhism & Hindusim & are a delight to explore. It was extremely refreshing to have a driver with an air conditioned car to jump into between temples though as it was a bit sticky. There are so many temples there that I did not visit all of them -- yet got to see some of the biggest & most popular. Angkor Wat was gorgeous even while monsoon rains hit & drenched me & my guide! It is being restored so the scaffolding was there.
My favorite temple by far was Ta Prohm -- the forest has been taking over this temple over the last hundreds of years & it is an incredible mix of nature & human. I think that parts of Tomb Raider were filmed here.
They use American dollars in Cambodia which is just strange to me. After spending 2 weeks in Thailand where everything was so cheap -- it was definitely sticker shock to arrive in Cambodia & pay 4 x the amount for water than I just paid earlier that day in Thailand. Plus paying in American dollars was a double whammy--I felt as if I was being hurt with my own weapon -- ouch!
I met this cool businessman from Texas on my second day there & we had lunch together. I got some business tips from him & it was nice to have lunch with another human being =)
I headed off to Vietnam on Sunday to meet up with the group & was really excited (& a little nervous) to meet my new travel companions for the next two weeks!

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Photos

Ta Prohm -- my favorite temple!
these huge trees have grown over this gorgeous temple!

Angkor Wat (with scaffolding)
it has this huge cool moat around it!

huge face carving on a temple
this temple had over a hundred face carvings-- awesome!