This is the first post of my 3 part Indiana Jones Trilogy with a special directors cut 4th installation (in other words, this is the first of 3 posts, with a fourth post of black and white pictures). These posts are going to be predominately just pictures… not a whole lot of captions… because I took a lot of pictures over 3 days.
A few of the Singapore kids came in this weekend, so we went up to Siem Reap with them, and some of Rocky’s coworkers from DCCam (Document center of Cambodia). The car ride was interesting… as we hired cabs…
There was an awesome sunset, and we got to see millions of what appeared to be black lights throughout the countryside (we left on Friday after work, so it was night time for most of the trip)… apparently they are bug zappers to help collect the grasshoppers… a big delicacy here. We had to do a bit of juggling looking for a place to stay that night b/c we had not booked ahead of time… but things worked out. Siem Reap is the main city you stay in when you are running around Angkor. Literally translated, it means the place where the Siamese were stopped. (Siam being Thailand).
Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world… Angkor means capital… its big… its beautiful, its old… we first went out at the ass crack of dawn… literally, b/c we were trying to catch sunrise.
So yes…. Lots of pictures of a not so great sunrise… oh well
Here’s me being goofy due to lack of sleep… This happens a few times, especially today.
These are some of the Apsaras that Angkor is known for. The are part of the incredible bas-reliefs that run along the walls. Apsaras are said to be teptresses born during the churning of the Sea of milk… and they are an Khmer creation… they supposedly represent the ideal of feminine beauty living in heaven competing w/ each other to please Khmer heroes and holy men.
These pictures here are from inside the complex… please note the people at the top of the towers… I’m not one of those people… in fact you may notice the picture of me where I’m about halfway up the steps… in the close up of that picture you will notice that I’m basically hugging the wall behind me… its not that I don’t like heights… which is quite obvious later on… its that I get stuck once I get up things b/c I don’t handle getting down well… and this was 90 degree angles with steps that go up to my knees.
That there is the Singapore group again… Yvanna, Me, Arie, Marie, Rocky, and Matt.
And then more pics of Angkor Wat
The Angkor complex is built on the story of the
Now Angkor Thom is pretty big, with lots of cool stuff inside it….
The first thing you are looking at is the Bayon... yes those are giant smiling faces staring at you.
Lots and lots of smiling faces… some eyes open, some eyes shut… all facing the cardinal directions… look parents, I even got that picture you wanted me to take… though it’s a tad bit blurry.
And that’s my first view of a Cambodian dressed like an Apsara.
The South Kleang
Lion and Big Buddha.... also to the side, what i didn't take a picture of was a woman being washed by the monks by having water dumped over her.... it was pretty cool........
A few of the Singapore kids came in this weekend, so we went up to Siem Reap with them, and some of Rocky’s coworkers from DCCam (Document center of Cambodia). The car ride was interesting… as we hired cabs…
There was an awesome sunset, and we got to see millions of what appeared to be black lights throughout the countryside (we left on Friday after work, so it was night time for most of the trip)… apparently they are bug zappers to help collect the grasshoppers… a big delicacy here. We had to do a bit of juggling looking for a place to stay that night b/c we had not booked ahead of time… but things worked out. Siem Reap is the main city you stay in when you are running around Angkor. Literally translated, it means the place where the Siamese were stopped. (Siam being Thailand).
Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world… Angkor means capital… its big… its beautiful, its old… we first went out at the ass crack of dawn… literally, b/c we were trying to catch sunrise.
So yes…. Lots of pictures of a not so great sunrise… oh well
Here’s me being goofy due to lack of sleep… This happens a few times, especially today.
These are some of the Apsaras that Angkor is known for. The are part of the incredible bas-reliefs that run along the walls. Apsaras are said to be teptresses born during the churning of the Sea of milk… and they are an Khmer creation… they supposedly represent the ideal of feminine beauty living in heaven competing w/ each other to please Khmer heroes and holy men.
These pictures here are from inside the complex… please note the people at the top of the towers… I’m not one of those people… in fact you may notice the picture of me where I’m about halfway up the steps… in the close up of that picture you will notice that I’m basically hugging the wall behind me… its not that I don’t like heights… which is quite obvious later on… its that I get stuck once I get up things b/c I don’t handle getting down well… and this was 90 degree angles with steps that go up to my knees.
That there is the Singapore group again… Yvanna, Me, Arie, Marie, Rocky, and Matt.
And then more pics of Angkor Wat
The Angkor complex is built on the story of the
Now Angkor Thom is pretty big, with lots of cool stuff inside it….
The first thing you are looking at is the Bayon... yes those are giant smiling faces staring at you.
Lots and lots of smiling faces… some eyes open, some eyes shut… all facing the cardinal directions… look parents, I even got that picture you wanted me to take… though it’s a tad bit blurry.
And that’s my first view of a Cambodian dressed like an Apsara.
Followed by some stone ones...
The rest of Angkor Thom
First you have a big Buddha...
First you have a big Buddha...
Then the Bapuon
Then some awesome ruins... this is what i consider my first little adventure cause i was more or less on my own climbing around a bunch of downed rocks... it was a good babystep for later...
Then some awesome ruins... this is what i consider my first little adventure cause i was more or less on my own climbing around a bunch of downed rocks... it was a good babystep for later...
This is the Phimeanbakas Staircase... Unfortunetly, the top didn't even have a decent view... which was sad...
After being completely lost for a while, I came to this gateway which led back to the main road...
When you walk out you see the North Kleang,
followed by the elephant Terrace
There were all these scenes of deamons and naked women... the French felt prudish about this so the built walls so no one could see them.
This here is not a buddha, but rather the Lepar King... a good king, who had leparacy
The South Kleang
Lion and Big Buddha.... also to the side, what i didn't take a picture of was a woman being washed by the monks by having water dumped over her.... it was pretty cool........
And these are the Garudas.... winged creatures holding up the terrace....
And so we leave Ankor Thom---
Ta Keo
Chillin in the tuk tuk's
Ok... so next we have Ta Prohm.... I can't even begin to express to you the initial awesomeness of this experience.... This is where Tomb Raider was filmed.... it was just.... rediculouls....
Then we stopped for lunch... then back tracked which royally pissed off our drivers.... but hey, we had a mission... to see everything in the temple complexes as possible.... And so after some hard core bargaining... it was off to Preah Khan...
This place we were speeding through... and it totally freaked me out b/c it still had a roof... after seeing tons and tons of stuff caved in... a place with a roof becomes scary.... But as you can see, it also made for a good place for some fun pictures.
So we halled it through there b/c we wanted to see the sunset... but as we left... we saw this here storm rolling in...
And we got absolutely drenched...
And this here was our very rained out unfortunate sunset
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