The Wonder of the World that is Angkor Cambodia

This weekend, we were lucky enough to visit a World Heritage official Wonder of the World- Angkor. This site includes Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and the Bayon Temple (links below). In short, it was amazing! It is the "down" season- so less tourists!  Our friends and fellow professors over here, Robert and Jen, recommended an excellent hotel, the Sojourn. It is in the luxury class of hotels in Siem Reap. We could have gotten a hotel for around $20-30 USD a night, but I think the extra money we spent for the Sojourn was well worth it. The thing is, it included aircon airport transfer to and from the airport, a personal driver for two days, an English speaking guided tour of the temples, as well as breakfasts, one wine picnic at sunset at the temples, one dinner at the hotel, and one picnic lunch. The driver and guide were amazing. The guide knew lots of stuff about the temples and where to go to get the perfect pictures!

Overall, not only were the sights stunning, but the people were friendly and gracious. I think this may be one of my favorite places in Southeast Asia. I would definitely go back, and I would encourage everyone who can to visit.

I took over 300 pictures...so it is going to be hard to narrow it down. I will try not to overwhelm you all. I am not sure the pictures do it justice, but here we go...

There are multiple temples in this area, some are Hindu, some Buddhist. Our guide told us that each King might have built a new one. They were built around 900 years ago!!! They were lost for around 500 years, and they keep finding new ones even today.  Literally - the article in that link was written on June 15th 2013!

These pictures are of Angkor Wat

 This is one of the entrances to the Angkor Wat Temple Complex and the first ruins we saw.

 Side view - this was the less crowded side (our tour guide knew the spots)

The stairs in this temple were incredibly steep! They put wooden stairs over the ones tourists could climb, still steep as all get out- see below :)

Not sure, this does it justice. I was holding on with both hands at the top of this climb. Also, those pants are from Cambodia. It turns out that you are not allowed to show your knees or shoulders as a female (somewhat less enforced for males) in order to be respectful of the religious ruins. The only pants I brought to Singapore were work pants, and it was incredibly hot and humid in Cambodia. Lots of Temple visitors wear these types of pants. By the way, these pants are super comfortable and cost around $2 USD. I am thinking of bringing this style back to the USA.

 Somewhere in this huge temple - this is the view...

This is a Hindu God- Shiva.  I am hoping I got that right (we saw a lot of Gods...). Angkor Wat is a Hindu Temple.

 Me and M. Our guide knew that this was the place to get the temple with the reflection in the water. He even took our picture , super cool!

 Vickie and Kevin...


This is the Bayon Temple - probably my favorite. This is a Buddhist Temple, and it was a happy temple. All the Buddhas are smiling, and the carvings are dancing. I loved it.

 There were two huge Buddha statues outside the temple. They were stunning.

 The gang in front of the Bayon Temple.

Our guide is wowing the boys with the engineering feats for moving large stone blocks from back in the day. I swear they spent 20 minutes at this (okay -that might be an exaggeration)...

One of the many smiling Buddhas. M and I actually bought a framed professional photograph in a gallery in Seim Reap from this Temple. So Amazing.

 Our guide pointed out this amazing shot too- three faces in one. I am having difficulty putting in to words how awe-inspiring this temple was...

 This is actually the gateway out of this temple area. We literally drove underneath this...see below...

Yes, we drove through that opening under the head - in a minivan....

The last temple we visited was the lost temple, Ta Prohm that is overgrown by the jungle. Also, it's interesting because different countries are helping with restoration of each temple area. Cambodia does not have the funds to preserve these amazing sites, so Germany, India, and other countries are stepping in to help. The next temple is being restored by India. This was the temple that was in the movie Tomb Raider - starring Angelia Jolie. She went on to adopt her son, Maddox from Cambodia, and donated lots of time and money to clearing land minds (which were and are a huge problem in Cambodia).  They really love her here, at least our guide did!

They've have actually cut down a lot of the jungle entombing this temple since it was discovered. You can still some big trees that are entrenched though.

 I am clearly holding the whole structure up....hahah!

These trees are hollow in the middle, and they grow around the walls- it is really something to see in real life. They are either the Silk Cotton Tree or the Strangler Fig Tree.

 Diddo!

 General view of the scene....

 Amazing, isn't it!?!

 They had to prop this tree's root up...

This temple was (and is) in pretty bad shape - although all the temples have fields of disheveled bricks and what not.

At all the sites, there are fields of numbered/letter stones...as they try to rebuild, they remove them but this code will allow them to try and place them back where they are supposed to go - seems very daunting!!

Below are some close up details from all the temples of the beautiful carvings!

 Angkor Wat probably had some of the most detailed carvings. This Temple/Palace - was huge!

 This is from the "Smiling Buddha" Temple.

 Vickie and the happy, dancing ladies...

 Smiling Buddha temple again...all the carvings are really happy...

 I'm not even sure where I saw this carving at but amazing none-the-less!

 Diddo!

This was the last jungle temple...just amazing!

Okay, that is probably too much for one post.  Whew, blogging is hard (let me know if you like it)! I will most likely have another blog or two about Cambodia. There are so many great pictures I couldn't show here - including the hotel and monkeys!!! Monkeys with baby monkeys!!!  Stay tuned....