The temples were crowded with tourists. Sort of took the edge off the grandeur, in my opinion, but the weather was nice for shooting; overcast with soft light. A nice couple from Newcastle-via-Kuala Lumpur explained that the morning moistures on the stones was fantastic for pulling the details out of the temples facades. They were on their third day at the complex.
The stone walkway to the Angkor Wat complex.
This was the main course, and fortunately there was a Japanese tour group posing for a photo as I took this. Thank you.
I'm fairly certain we saw this guy at the hotel bar last night...
Norm, my dad wanted to know if you wanted a few of these for your driveway.
The reliefs along the outer walkway of the Angkor Wat temple were once covered in gold, apparently, accoridng to my Newcastle0cum-Kuala Lumpur transplant friends. We didn't see those two again, but I hope they stayed hydrated, he was sweating like a spigot.
Mom I know you and Dad have a charcoal relief of part of this relief somewhere, but they were very extensive and impossible to photograph them all.
Within the temple there's a central terrace/courtyard that rises to a higher level...
Up another steep staircase, the uppermost temple was accessible. It was quite a climb and was the part of the temple that required no hat, long pants, and shoulders covered out of respect. So needless to say, I had to throw a few layers on over my European-style bikini to be allowed access up.
Our driver asked if we wanted to go to the next temple complex, and not to be perceived as makeweights, we agreed. Initially we reached this decision with a degree of skepticism. We'd spent nearly two hours in the heat around one temple; to have several more complete complexes to visit seemed daunting. But does the man above look like a quitter? Onwards!
Our tuk tuk driver took us ten minutes to the next complex, Angkor Tom, to the northwest, through this lovely stone gate. Achtung: beware of school children on bikes, they have very little fear of cars or tuk tuks.
They were almost as bold as these fellows we passed...
Angkor Tom is sprawling, indeed it was where the king took his residence, so we decided to focus just on the first temple, Bayon.
BAYON
Although rebuilding was underway, and elements of a previous ceremony were still being removed, it was much quieter and very beautiful.
TOMB RAIDER
Experts on Angelina Jolie would recognize the last Angkor temple we visited, Ta Prohm. famous for not just for Tomb Raider shooting there, but it's also famous for the 400 hundred and 700 hundred year old spung trees that have grown over the walls...
After that, it was back to the Villa Siem Reap Hotel for lunch; an Angkor Beer and some Pho Bo soup.
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