Cambodia Day 2: Angkor Wat; Part 2

This next temple was really cool because it was sort of being taken back by the jungle. The trees just grew wherever they wanted to, and you could see how the roots grew through the broken rocks.

The color was interesting too. The trees were either white or silver.

This place was where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed, so many people were lining up to get their picture taken in front of this doorway.

This is the entranceway which had been repaired. You can tell because the railing is whole and all the extra rubble has been cleared away. Many other temples around had been repaired or were going to be. I kind of liked the feeling of the broken ones though :P






There were tons of other temples around, but we only got to a few others. The one on the left was falling apart, which is why the trees were cut in half so that they couldn't fall and break it any further. The one on the right was made of red rocks so it had a nice color, and there was another one just like it.

This one was a water temple. There was a very long bridge leading to it (with no railings!) and it was built in the middle of a square pool. It totally reminded me of the water temple in Ocarina of Time ahah

It was a long, hot day but it was so worth it! We were completely exhausted by around 6pm (mostly from the beating sun) so we headed home. My shoes were so sandy from walking!

Here is a picture of me with Mr. Chin, who drove us around all day in the tuk-tuk at Angkor Wat and also to and from the airport. Thank you~

Cambodia Day 2: Angkor Wat; Part 1

The next day we spent exploring the temples at Angkor Wat. We got up really early and went there in the dark so that we could see the sun rise over the temple.

Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple, but some other ones were Buddhist. They were all ruins, although a few were getting repaired to look like they originally did. I think the coolest part was that you could go anywhere as long as it wasn't unsafe. The stairs were very steep and some parts were worn off, so there was climbing involved. 

These were carvings on the inside walls. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to do all of this! The carvings were usually of dancers, Buddha or Hindu gods, or scenes from stories from (I'm assuming) the Ramayana and Mahabharata. 

These snake head statues were everywhere; I even saw some replicas in the capital Phnom Penh.

This is the reflecting pool out in front. It reminded me of the pool at Kinkakuji in Kyoto.

The next temple we went to was called Bayon. It was about 10 minutes down the road, and we passed some wild monkeys on the way! 

There were faces all over this temple, so it was really cool to look at and try to find them all.

You can see that many parts of the temples had fallen down. It reminded me of video games when you reach the end of the world so the way is blocked, but that actually exists! 

Opening the secret door, Indiana Jones-style.