Angkor Wat - panoramic from rear entrance
Inside Angkor Wat
My guide was showing me some tricks on doing panoramic shots
First views of Angkor Wat from the rear entrance
That's the shot - Angkor Wat
Me - in "the shot"
More early morning photos before going inside
My guide was persistent on getting me in most every photo
Calm and quiet in the early morning
Walking into the Temple
Really interesting walkways
Every carving has a story
Unbelievable detail on the walls of Level #1 - the teaching level
I like this shot
My guide was amazing - she knew the story on just about every carving in Angkor Wat
View looking at the main entrance from inside Angkor Wat
A holding building - used after someone would pass away
Buddha - still an active prayer site
More details
Ancient history at its best
Some areas are so steep - they have closed them to the public (people getting hurt in past)
I was able to climb these stairs to Level #3 - the worship area of Angkor Wat
A view of the busy entrance - taken from the Worship Level
Corn-shaped - shows how Angkor Wat was initially built as Hindu Temple
Walking the external grounds
A view from the entrance -- you can see the 5 towers
A view from the entrance - a moat surrounds the Temple
Heards of folks coming in - as we are leaving
One last shot - Angkor Wat -- one of the most unique tour sites in the world
Angkor Thom
Bridge going into Angkor Thom
Monkeys everywhere leading to Angkor Thom
The Bayon - one of the Temples of Angkor Thom
A lot of tourists took a ride on the elephants
Bayon - the walls tell a story about the king
Bayon - the Face Temple
Chlling from an upstairs window of Angkor Thom
Look at the incredible details
2 different colored stones with separate faces
One of my favorite
Tons of detail
Baphuon Temple
Baphuon - my guide let me climb to the top - wasn't even one of the temples on our list
A view from the top of Baphuon Temple
Terrace of Elephants
Terrece of Elephants - look at the detailed carvings
Cambodia Flag - it has symbol of Angkor Wat in the middle
Ta Prohm - the Temple of Huge Trees - picture of my guide
Supposedly David Beckham took this same shot
Amazing, unique visuals
All kinds of detail
Ta Prohm - more incredible trees
Another shot
1 more
My guide was awesome - she was all about getting the best photo at every location
Ta Prohm - overview
My guide - inside a tree
Kraven - the last Temple of the day
One final parting shot - Kraven Temple
What a fantastic day in Cambodia! One of my favorite days of the trip so far! Angkor Wat and associated Temples ---- A+
I started the day early - met my guide in the hotel lobby at 7am. Her name was Oum. I learned that in Cambodia - you would never call anyone by their first name if you thought they were older than you. (sign of disrespect) You would call them "Brother" or "Sister". Interesting stuff. We had this thing going all day -- she would continue to say: "Hey Brotha - you ready?" I would say: "Sista - let's roll" - even though she was obviously not older than me. I'm really glad I took a private tour versus the big bus tours today. I think it was a good call. I firmly believe my experience would not have been nearly as positive if not for the expertise of Oum.
First off , Angkor is a complex of temples that encompasses an area of about 40 square miles. There are roughly 300 temples in the area. It could take you months to visit them all. We focused on 4-5 today. It was only a 10-15 minute ride from my hotel in Siem Reap to the first temple we visited.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is the must-see temple and the largest religious monument in the world. Just to point out its significance to the people of Cambodia - it's image is on the country flag. Angkor Wat was originally constructed as a Hindu temple for the Khmer Empire and was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century. Side note -- when temples would go from Hindu to Buddhist - they would just add Buddhas within the existing complex. In situations where Buddhist temples were transformed to Hindu - they would destroy and rebuild.
I learned so much today that I actually found myself typing in a few notes on my phone as we went along on the tour. Angkor Wat has 3 stories. The 3 levels of Angkor Wat represent (a) First Level - teaching (b) Second Level - Meditation (c) Third Level - Worship. On the First Level - there were elaborate detailed carvings in the walls. There were 3 sections for the carvings. Top - represents Heaven. Middle - represents man-world (current time). Bottom - represents Hell. There was a story behind every carving. My guide was amazing and knew everything about the back stories of each one.
We walked around for 2-3 hours taking in the huge complex. This is still an active Buddhist worship site -- we ran into several folks in worship as we made our way throughout the Temple.
Angkor Thom
After the incredible tour at Angkor Wat, the rest of the day was gravy for me. And - there was so much more neat sites we came across. Our second temple - Angkor Thom. Another fascinating temple area - made of 3 temples shown below
(1) Bayon -- the "Face temple". I found this site to be really interesting. Unique carvings of different faces littered the stone-walls making up this temple. We climbed to the top and "Sister" pointed me to all the great photo areas.
(2) Baphuon - the representation of the reclining Buddha. We really were not intending to stop at this location. I was telling the guide I had read about this particular temple and how some people talked about the great visuals at the top. We stopped and I got some nice photos after a few hundred steep steps up. On the back side of the temple - there was a reclining Buddha etched into the stones. It was tough to see the outline - it took me a while to make out the shape.
(3) Terrace of Elephant - elephants carved into the stone. This was a short walk from Baphuon. Detailed elephant shapes were carved into the rock walls. This area was supposedly created to celebrate the festivals and events held on the grounds below the terrace.
After the 3 temples at Angkor Thom, we stopped and had a really nice lunch. I had some chicken curry ordered by my guide. After lunch, we had a little siesta on some hammocks outside the restaurant. After lunch siestas are a big thing in Cambodia.
Ta Prohm
The next temple was a quick 5 minute drive from our lunch location. I'll call the Ta Prohm Temple - "the Temple of Big Trees". This one was impressive. It was also the location where the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed. (Angelina Jolie). This temple has gone through some impressive restoration with the co-operation help of India. Little coves, interesting carvings -- all throughout the temple.
Kraven
Our last stop of the day was another temple not included in the itinerary - Kraven. This is a smaller temple. There were interesting writings on the inner walls. Symmetrical - we walked around the grounds and took some overview shots.
Other notes from today:
(1) Schools in Cambodia basically go year around. However, they only go for 4 hours a day (7am-11am). School is not mandatory and my guide stated that a heavy percentage do not go to school at all
(2) You can recognize a Hindu temple by the corn-shaped cones. A Buddhist temple has 4 faces -- squared pillars.
(3) Most items in the temples are set in odd numbers. The only time they would use even numbers is during a wedding ceremony -- unity between 2 parties.
(4) Cambodia - Really no place for the locals to cool off unless they go to the mall with A/C. Generally, no A/C in homes, creeks/rivers too polluted, and hotel pools are too expensive.
Although a short visit to Cambodia, it was one filled with unique sites - something I will always remember. I was dropped off at the airport after my tour. "Sister" gave me a big hug - we bonded during the day. I had a 2-flight schedule ahead of me -- making my way to Phuket, Thailand by connecting through Bangkok. The first flight out of Cambodia was delayed. Getting into Bangkok, my flight was already boarding for Phuket. I sprinted through the airport and made the flight. BUT - what does a quick connection mean -- when I arrived into Phuket -- no bag for me. Actually, I was expecting it. They handled it pretty well - although I was bummed at the time -- as it was about 11:30pm when we landed and I was one tired puppy. They had an airline representative at baggage claim with a sign that had my name. They directed me to the baggage claim service and I filled out a form. I hailed a cab into the main town of Phuket - and was told my bag would be placed on the 8am flight tomorrow morning.
A long, fulfilling, rewarding, and draining day in Cambodia/Thailand!
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