Someday I'll be good at blogging. As in will actually blog about something within the same month that it happens. Hopefully over the next six months I'll actually finish my blogging about Cambodia.
Where to begin? With over a thousand pictures taken in an eight-day time period, I could put nothing but pictures up and everyone would be bored before I was half-finished.
The first part of our first day was spent at the Angkor Thom complex with our fabulous guide, Ouch Morin. Angkor Thom was the last capital city of the Khmer empire, and didn't include Angkor Wat, which is a little farther south and was built by a different Khmer king. The first temple we visited was called Bayon, and is officially Kenny's favorite, made famous by the giant stone faces carved into it's towers. 
It was built in the late 12th or early 13th century by Jayavarman VII (Kenny's favorite Khmer ruler), and was his Buddhist state-temple (although Hindu elements were later added), where the ruling class would worship.
The greatest thing about these temples was the freedom to climb, explore, and generally put your life in danger whenever you felt so inclined.
(and sadly for some reason, in almost all of our pictures from this temple, someone has closed eyes)
Around the outside of the temple are these incredible bas-relief depictions of Khmer soldiers and their wars against the Cham (a Vietnamese group) and other depictions of everyday Khmer life.
Our guide also had some pretty decent photography skills, and every once in a while he'd lead us somewhere and then announce "time for picture." Above is one of his creations.
We also visited Baphuon, another temple built earlier but in much worse shape than Bayon. Most of the temples and buildings are undergoing or have undergone some sort of reconstruction paid for by other countries. A lot of the reconstruction work began before the Khmer Rouge came into power, with documentation of stones and where they were placed, and unfortunately a lot of the plans were destroyed during their tyranny. So it's unclear how much will be able to ever be completely restored.
Baphuon was a Hindu temple, and had a lot more steps than Bayon, which Kenny wasn't a huge fan of.
It also had a long elevated walkway leading to the temple from the main road...
and a large reclining Buddha face that was built into the side of the temple (after its initial Hindu construction).
We visisted the Terrace of the Leper King (self-explanatory)...
the Elephant Terrace...
and the South Gate.
Interspersed with some tree-naps along the way,
we made it through our first morning.
