Temples day 2

We visited the major temples today in what is known as the "inner circuit." These are the main temples of Angkor.

Please note, if Chris were blogging today, there would be more historical detail & reasoning as to significance. Unfortunately his phone is full & he cannot take photos, so you've got me. 

ANGKOR WAT

This is the World's largest religious building. It's also Cambodia's most popular temple & is on Cambodia's flag. This is where we could've come for sunrise-and we're thankful we didn't. 

We climbed some really steep steps.

For some good views. The upside of rainy season is that everything is green & lush. 

We saw some wild monkeys where I had the unfortunate experience of being near a fight between a bird & a monkey. How you ask? The monkey sat on the ledge above me & the bird drive bombed him. The monkey swatted at the bird & squawked. The bird flapped his wings at the monkey-and repeatedly dive bombed the monkey. 

(Another traveler told us of a city in Thailand where the main attraction was to have the monkeys crawl all over you-this experience sealed the deal for me-pass.)

Of note in Angor Wat had extensive bas-reliefs telling a story. 

ANGKOR THOM-SOUTH GATE

We passed through this site yesterday & I was so pleased to return today with time for photos. There are 54 figures that line each side of the road-one side demons, the other side gods. This depicts their creation story. You can also see the restoration work being done on the heads. 

ANGKOR THOM-BAYON

This site was my favorite of the day-mostly for all the faces. It also was the busiest and the only place we had to fight tourists for "the shot" (which we often missed as our selfie stick broke).

We again climbed up some very steep steps (the steepest by far) to which I said "this is why my family worried about me when I travel."

To get these beautiful photos. We're not in any photos as the lighting was bad & our face were dark. But you can see other faces in this photo-some of the 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara. 

We made it safely down this town & over to the main tower to be up close & personal with the faces. (We used our digital camera today & this may have better shots on it.)

I had to leave due to the sun pouring down & the hoards of tourists. One thing I did see, that warned my heart was this elderly couple touring together in their old age. That's going to be us!!

ANGKOR THOM-BAPHUON

This temple was in the midst of being restored when Khmer Rouge, once again ruined everything & destroyed the records. It looked a bit like a graveyard. 

Baphuon had the typical outer gate, walkway to inner temples. CHECK WIRH GUIDE BOOK. 

We climbed up more stairs-this time they were tourist friendly as we climbed steep wooden steps over the existing stone steps. It started to rain & I was afraid they'd make us come down. I should've known better-these were pretty much unregulated "walk wherever" temples. There were some pillars-which is how we remember this temple. 

ANGKOR THOM-TERRACE OF THE ELEPHANTS

ANGKOR THOM-PIMEANAKAS

We walked to this temple from Baphuon. We did a "pass by" as we were not to enter it. 

ANGKOR THOM-TERRACE OF LEPER KING

Again we walked through nature to get to this part of Angkor Thom. I quite liked the natural progression of the Thoms. This temple had been restored & you can tell from the puzzle-like blocks. The theory is that this was the Royal crematorium. The good photos are on the camera. 

CHAU SAY THEVODA/THOMMANOM

We climbed some steps & wrestled with the selfie stick. There was again, some good restorative work. 

TA KEO

This was a tall temple-and we of course ventured up the steep, small stairs. I can't tell if the Khmer people had really small feet or if they were more adept at rock climbing. 

We made our way up two sets of stairs (the second set was more steep) to those windows in the back. 

We're up so high!!

TA PROHM

Also known as the "Tomb Raider" temple. We haven't seen the movie, so we couldn't capture "the shot." This is a temple with permissive overgrowth of nature. 

This was a good reminder of how strong nature's desire to grow. These were trees that started to grow on top of the stone. 

And they have been there for 1000s of years. 

This was our last temple-perfectly on time as it has started to rain. 

We returned to the hotel, showered, and went back to our laundry lady to inquire about some missing clothing. I lost another pair of underware. That means I'm down to 4 pairs!!!! Chris, being the optimist, said we should stop by & ask her if she has them. And she did-which made me the happiest tourist in Siem Reap. (TMI-maybe, but I mainly write this blog for myself to remember the details.) I hugged the laundry lady-not sure if that was a cultural taboo, but the difference between 4 & 5 pairs of underware is huge when moving around this much in backpacking!!

Lunch was at the Red Piano. I had pork & Ginger (for $3.75) & Chris had chicken stir fry & his first beer of the trip-Angor. 

We returned to the market and I again saw the silver frog. I had to have it-but not necessarily from her. She said 8, I said 4, she said 7, I said 4. She weighed it and thought. She said 6, I began to walk away (it was early afternoon, we had all night). She agreed to $4!!!!

We have artwork from most of our trips. There were beautiful oil paintings for $5. Some of the temples in grey and black and then the monks in bright orange. However, we both were conflicted on having these images I our home. There was a woodcarving on the wall in our hotel and although it was of a religious symbol, I liked the style and thought it was "different" to go with out artwork from around the world. Chris agreed and we started looking for a circular carving of an elephant. But we didn't see any elephants in Cambodia-so we began to look for one of a flower. We proved them our, looked at sizes. That's the key to bargaining-be able to walk away, which we did, back to our hotel because it was raining, again. 

We needed to figure out our travel plans-mainly how to get to Bangkok to then travel up to Chiang Mai. We're heading to Malaysia for a weekend to catch up with a former co-worker, so that prompted me to check flights. Flights were $126 each-so we decided to fly! That gave us a better framework for what the next few days will look like and we needed to book hostels, etc. Traveling is busy-let along the blogging aspect!!

Chris was hungry after our 4pm lunch (I was not) so we headed out to the night market. He had fried rice and a Cambodia beer. 

The night market was disappointing and so we headed to pub street for smoothies. Chris and I must be growing alike because our of 30 options, we both picked the same one. That's no good, so we agreed on a second. 

Dragon fruit & mango

Passion fruit & pineapple

Fresh fruit drinks for $1!!! 

We meandered around the market a bit more. Elephant pants, Buddhas, paintings, t-shirts, and wooden bead bracelets along with thetraditional souvenir items. For all the stalls at the art market, night market, and market market, we didn't find a wood carving that was the right size and of a flower. We are backpacking-it has to fit in our packs. It was hard to walk by the $1 t-shirts, but I know shopping while backpacking is a dangerous slope. 

Tomorrow should be a relaxing morning before an afternoon flight! I'm excited to fly. My regret is that we didn't have time to hit the Cambodian beaches. I wish I'd known the hospitality of the Cambodian people-we would have stayed longer if we could have. I'm wise enough to know we won't be back-there's still a whole world to explore. 

Temples Day 1

You can't beat a breakfast buffet, which is what we woke up to today. We then sorted out our tuk-tuk driver, explained our ideal itinerary, got water ready, and then we were off. 

Now this is the most temple rich area in the world as successive Khmer dynasties sought to outbuild their devotion to their Buddhist/Hindu reverence (and national security) of the previous god-king. My guidebook suggested starting with the earlier temples to see the progression of Khmer architecture and art. So our first day started with the Grand Tour. Our driver (whom I heard him say his name was Juan, but I'm sure it was more like Won) took us out to first buy our tickets. 

We call these our 'thug shots.' They didn't tell us at all when the picture was being taken, so we just stood there smugly until they told us to move. Great pictoral evidence of zero directions. 

Finally, we were off to our first stop, Preah Khan. This temple had amazing symmetry in a plus shape facing the four cardinal directions. Three were equal (representing Hinduism) and the western entrance was unequal (representing Buddhism). 

(Notice how the passageway perfectly leads out.)

This was our first site at the consistent framing design around widows and doors. 

And also meeting our first aspara, the celestial dancers awaiting Khmerian heroes on the afterlife.  

Meredith found a headless Hindu diety and kindly substituted what was missing. 

This being an older temple of the Khmer Empire, nature too took back its claim on the territory. 

After one of our pictures, we were stopped by a guard to point out a better shot. In fact, he posed us and took the picture for us. He's good!

He then followed the professional shot with a hands together short bow saying, "Thank you, lady, sir. Good luck to you. Please, sir, tip for picture. Safe travels to you. Thank you. Please, sir, just small tip. Enjoy your travel. Please, sir." 

It was a good shot, so I followed with whatever riel I had. 

"Please, sir. This is 2,000 riel. Only 50¢. Please, sir. (Hands still together.) Have good travels. Thank you."

This guy was a pro. 

So I dug out a $1 bill and he was more content. 

We wandered around a bit more of the ruins. 

Then we made our way out to our tuk tuk and onto the next temple. 

Next up was Preah Neak Poan. This was a royal bathing area. 

Some of it had (obviously) dried up which Mer took a little too seriously. 

It was a fast stop, so we were quickly onto Ta Som. It was here we got caught in another round of Cambodian rain. Someone in this group is quite averse to being wet. 

But we would not be deterred. Ta Som had our first bas-relief of a face to greet current visitors and scare ancient Khmerians into submission. 

This temple, too, faced forest reclamation   

Luckily, the rain subsided for our next stop, East Mebon. This site had a steady climb up three levels. Most of the roofs had fallen, but it was spectacularly level at each rise. 

You can also see the spectacular towers behind us (and the newly blue sky). There were some good doorway photos here too. 

It was also about this time our selfie stick started to malfunction. First, it wouldn't work when pressing the button. Then it would take 17 successive shots of the ground, or catch me making an angry, annoyed face as I pulled it in to fix it. 

Arg!

We made it to our next temple that we didn't quite catch the name of. We tried to take a picture of the name to remember, but this one was unmarked and I could understand the name from Won (maybe Ish Won Preadeau). This one had quite the climb of stairs. 

The rain also started once again. We took some more pictures and then headed for the tuk tuk. 

At this point, we were hungry around midday and thought a downpour would be a great time to feed ourselves. So our driver, Won, took us to a restaurant. Unfortunately, restaurants in the temple area has a rather captive audience and their prices reflected it. Regardless, we enjoyed the chicken fried rice and beef and noodles. 

I did take note of a funny menu quirk at this restaurant. All dishes were listed in Khmer, English, and Mandarin, but why was dish #67 lacking an English name? 

Our rain luck did not continue after lunch. So, we got our ponchos on and continued to Banteay Kdei. 

Mer enjoyed the framed doorways. 

I tried shaking my fist at the rain. 

Sometimes the temples responded in kind. 

Our last stop was just across the way, Sras Sarang. This was another royal pool for doing what royalty do in pools. 

At this point, our Grand Circuit ended just as we were running out of steam. Won took us back in the tuk-tuk to Siem Reap and our Boutique Hotel. 

We showered. I napped. And then we got ready for our show. We had earlier noticed a dinner and Aspara dance show advertised in our hotel lobby, so we signed up and got another tuk-tuk there. 

Dinner was a buffet of many Khmer dishes (appetizers, salad, mains, and desserts) with some Western plates available too. 

Mer got her dragonfruit. 

We sat next to a Welsh girl and her grandmother who kindly took our photo. 

Mer tried to convince them to try the Asian desserts. You put shaved ice at the bottom of a bowl and then put this on top. 

Maybe it was sweet. Maybe it was coconut milk. Maybe the floaters were small animals' former eyes. Who could say?

Then the show started. We were quite far back, but we got the idea. They danced much like depicted in the temples bas-reliefs. 

And then a dance with many aspara concluded the hour long show. 

The conclusion featured a chance to go on stage for a photo with them, but we were too busy talking to our Welsh table neighbors. 

We made our way back to the street and hailed another tuk-tuk. They brought us back to our hotel and we promptly headed to bed. We wanted an early start to the Small Circuit, but heavy hitters. Although we eventually decided against the 4:30 am sunrise start, we wanted to beat the crowds in the early morning to Angkor Wat.