Cambodia Continuted... The Temples of Angkor

We went to Siem Reap primarily to check out the temples of Angkor – one of the 10 wonders of the world. These temples were constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries, during the mighty Khmer empire which ruled over most of Cambodia, Lao, Vietnam, and the Malay peninsula.
Early morning sweeping at Angkor Wat

The massive stone structures have been been amazingly preserved. How many American skyscrapers will be around in 1,000 years?!? The temples were kind of “lost” (to the western world, I think) until 1850’s – left to be reclaimed by the jungle - when a French guy rediscovered them.
Angkor Wat

Mom, Spencer, and I spent sun up to sun down driving around in a tuk tuk exploring the temples. There were, it seemed, hundreds of temples all spread out around the countryside and hidden in the jungle. Here are a few...


This is the "cousin" of the guy we hired to drive us for the day. He mysterious had to "take exam at University"...on a Sunday.

Angkor Wat is the most famous temple - thought to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is 213 meters tall and 900 years old! It has spectacular bas reliefs along the exterior walls.
Angkor Wat
Bas reliefs which went on for hundreds of meters.

Temple monkeys having fun...

Banteay Srei, another temple, was thought to be constructed by women.
Bateay Srei
..Bas relief, carved out of stone, hundreds of years ago...left to the elements.



Spencer makes friends with the locals.

Waterbuffalo having a munch by the temple.

Unlike many of the temples which have been restored, Ta Prohm was left to the jungle. Tomb Raider was filmed here (we promptly went home and watched it but couldn’t make it through the whole cheesy thing).
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple

Giant carved faces above the gateway into The Bayon Temple.

"you know you are in Cambodia when..." a couple of cute Cambodian elephants

We also visited a silk farm and watched how they harvest silkworm cocoons, spin the thread, weave the thread, and die the fabric. We even got to sample a few silkworms ourselves!

We were only able to spend a few days in Cambodia, but it was such an incredible place – amazing people, a rich (and horrific) history. How can an empire as huge and mighty as the Khmers crumble into something as pathetic as the Khmer Rouge just a few hundred years down the road? Power and freedom should not be taken for granite.