Ta Prohm

My favorite temple of our trip.

And also the backdrop for Tomb Raider! Although that is not the basis for my favoritism. Ouch Morin took us here right when it opened, and we were, consequently, five of maybe eight people walking through the complex at that time.

The trees, which began as small saplings growing on the moss or dirt collected on the tops of the ruins, have obviously dominated the ruins, and in some cases even became a part of the infrastructure. The main tree growing on the buildings is called a "spung" tree, which is very light and hollow.

The arch above has one stone that is only held up by tree roots, and tourists like to joke about being the ones who get caught underneath when it falls. Naturally, Kenny made sure we were far enough away.

Above-right is Colton with our fantastic guide, Mr. Morin.

As I said before, there was hardly anyone else there.



Besides the eight-armed Vishnu, as Mr. Morin called his creation.

After Ta Prohm we drove to another outlying temple called Banteay Srei, which is considered to be the most beautiful temple because of its intricate carvings and pink sandstone color.

Many of the statues are not the original carvings from when the buildings were constructed, as they have been removed and put on display at the National Museum in Phnom Penh. One of these "fake" statues had been recently vandalized..

...i.e. BEHEADED...

...and the head stolen for someone's personal collection. Why you would want to steal a head made recently is beyond me, but apparently someone finds it valuable.

Anyway, more and more ruins...

and kids swimming naked in the moats.

Angkor Wat

Our hotel in Siem Reap was my favorite of the trip. The staff was fantastic, the hotel was one of those open-air types, and it was complete with a warm salt-water pool.

 

 

Our mid-days were spent lounging about the hotel to avoid the hottest part of the day and to avoid burning our crazy whiteness.

I mean, heaven forbid our bodies should actually produce pigment.

After some lovely rest and relaxation, we headed back to the ruins for the main event: Angkor Wat. It was first a Hindu, then a Buddhist complex, and was built by Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. It is also the only group of ancient ruins to be featured on a country's flag.

And well-deserved, I think.

The climb to the top afforded some fantastic views of the surrounding jungle and ruin complex.

Angkor Wat is also surrounded by some incredible galleries with beautiful bas reliefs. It took us at least an hour to walk through them all.

That's me on the bottom right. I had to muscle out some Korean ladies to get the shot.



Talk about a long, sweaty day. The next morning we woke up early to watch the sunrise over the top of Angkor Wat. After spraying myself in the eye with Deet and briefly freaking out wondering if I was going to go blind, we got to enjoy the moment with a few hundred people.

P.S. Still able to see--although Kenny regularly brings up that time that I managed to spray myself in the eye. I'm sure he'd be happy to give you a dramatic interpretation of the occasion.



Angkor Thom

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.

Soon to Come...