Pics of Cambodia

Welcome to Siem Reap, most famous for the magnificent Angkor Wat.
Hopped on a flight from the LCCT straight to siem reap. First thing we did after arriving and checking in at the hotel was going straight to tonle sap lake. Took a boat ride to see the floating villages.
Saw these kids playing around the lake. They just use a basin and a paddle to get around and entertain themselves. They coordinate their paddle strokes with their body movement to propell the basin super quick.

Next day, headed to angkor. All this while, i thought siem reap was famous for the angkor wat temple, and that was it. Boy was i wrong. Angkor wat is just part of the whole angkor city. It's actually a humongous area, like a park, covering a couple hundred km and and throughout this area old angkor temples, royal residences, hospitals and any other building built during the angkor empire are scattered around. The place is beautiful, filled with giant ancient trees. The pic above shows the alley leading to angkor thom, which used to be the capital city(for which king's reign, i'm not sure, could be indravarman or suryavarman)
The west entrance, i think, to angkor thom. see the carving of Buddha's face? There's actually 4, one on each side. The carvings are beautiful. All the carved Buddhas smile serenly.

More Buddhas.
Thr Bayon temple. One of the more famous temples inside angkor thom.

We visited a bunch of other places within the angkor thom. One of them was this one shown above, the phineakas and the royal palace. It is said that an angkor king usually had around 250 concubines. Every night he would come and um,do it with one of his concubines in this monument.
Another temple we visited was this one, the ta promh kel. Saw a show on national geographic about this place once. It was built in 1186, and the place is crumbling apart, so foreign experts are working at restoring it. What stands out about this temple is the giant ancient trees that have grown into the temple. Bloody awesome, i tell you.

We saved the best for last. Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was the beautiful, the magnificent, the amazing angkor wat. Supposedly, the best time to see the angkor wat is at sunrise and late afternoon. Don't go visit it in the morning because the sun rises from behind the angkor wat, therefore it darkens the building.
There's actually the main entrance, then you have to walk along a causeway, then baru you reach the interior where the famous towers lie. The angkor wat has a few levels. The highest level is where the 5 temple domes, 4 arranged in a square, and one built in the centre, the highest one, are.

To actually climb up to the towers, you have to ascend a staircase. This pic shows one of the towers. Trust me, those stairs are STEEP! At each stairway they placed a 'climb at your own risk' sign. not exactly comforting.in fact, all the temples' stairs are steep. If you ever visit the angkor wat, and you're about to ascend the steps, here's a tip. Crawl up, using all hands and legs, and don't look down.
A pic of one of the hallways inside the highest level of the angkor wat

A view of the main entrance from one of the towers of the angkor wat.
When you're all done and you're heading back towards the entrance, you can't help but glance back at it. It's brilliant. it's amazing. It makes you wonder how it looked like when it was first built. It makes you wonder how the people during that period actully lived.

A pic of the sun going down on the tonle sap.

The next day, visited a couple other places like the cultural village and the old market, but none left an impression like the angkor wat. All in all, it was VERY good vacation. Cambodians are soft-spoken people, did you know? Quite friendly. in fact, our taxi driver cum tour guide took us to his house to see his wife and newly-born daughter.

I had fun on this trip. Next vacation destination i'm hoping for:Istanbul(me and my mom are trying to persuade dad it's a good place to visit)