Angkor Wat has an interesting mix of Hinduism and Buddhism that I won’t go into right now… maybe in a later post I can talk more about it. As you can see here, you see a traditional Buddhist worshipper in front of a statue of Shiva.
Angkor Wat in Siem Riep (meaning, “The Defeat of the Siamese”) is one of the best ancient sites to visit in the world. There are hardly any tourists, which I, for some jaded reason, despise as a rule. Also, the extreme heat and weather patterns of the area seemed to make for the most unusual sky configurations. I did my best to capture one of them here.
Secondly, below the picture of the temple, I have put another one of my favorites from Angkor Wat, which is an old tree that has grown up and over the ruins, entombing them in roots.
Moving from courtyard to court hard within the temple, I came across these three monks in their bright orange robes.
This is the entryway to one of Angkor Wat’s grand gates in Cambodia. This is the most well-preserved area. Most heads from other areas have either been stolen by treasure hunters or removed by the communists during the period of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.
This was shot in the outer cloister of Angkor Wat at about 3 PM. When standing in the sunny part, it was about 102 degrees, and in the shady part, it was a much cooler 101 degrees.
This overgrown enclosure was found deep in the jungles of Cambodia, which is about 99% of Cambodia.
I found these two monkeys (male and female) by themselves preening one another in the late afternoon in the jungles of Cambodia.
Each of the 23 towers of Angkor Thom, one of the largest sub-cities inside Angkor Wat, is covered with these faces. Like many of the remaining ruins, this one was built by king Jayavarman VII, whose face has been combined with Buddha’s throughout the city to create a combined royal and religious imposing presence that permeates the city.
After the crowds of Angkor Wat, it was nice to go find a remote temple in the jungle and be alone. This temple laid under the jungle, completely undiscovered for centuries.
The hallway and mysterious chambers seemed to go on forever.
BTW, if you go to Angkor Wat and you want a good tour guide, contact “Eath Soratanak.” You can call him “Tak.” He can be reached at [email protected] or at (855) 92 725 552. He speaks English almost as well as Sir Anthony Hopkins and has an accent somewhere between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Larry Flynt.
I arrived at this remote Cambodian temple late in the afternoon and was immediately descended upon by about a dozen children, all offering me locally made goods for $1.
"One dollar sir! One dollar sir!" they all whined, offering me baskets full of beads.
"You are so handsome!" they all screamed. I asked them if I could pay them $1 to follow me around all day and yell that aloud. I thought that would be a real bargain to bring them into meetings with me and have them in the corner constantly commenting on how good-looking I am.
I happened to be sitting there for several minutes trying to swap out my lens, and these two girls were the most persistant and the best salespeople. I asked if I could give them each a dollar, pick out a few bracelets, and take their photograph. They (obviously) happily agreed!
