Angkor Wat

We were able to spend 3 days exploring fantastic Angkor. The entrance to the park was about 4 kilometers from our guesthouse, and the guesthouse had bikes we could use for free. The first two days we left the hotel just after dawn to try and beat the crowds. We would leave around mid-day, when the heat was getting bad, ride into town for lunch then back to our hotel until dinnertime. 

Nic's in Cambodia!

Rambutan vendor near the Old Market.

Nic rides like a pro through one of the gates leading to Angkor Thom. It's hard to distinguish, but there is a massive stone face on the gate. 

Warriors holding the long body of Naga, the 7 headed serpent line the bridge over the moat. 

The following pictures are all from Bayon, the temple with over 200 stone faces smugly smiling. 

One of the entrances to Bayon. 

There are probably around 50 ruins in the Angkor Wat Archeological Park, and we certainly didn't see all of them. This one was off the main route, down a path into the jungle. 

Sanskrit writing covering the inside doorframe at the top of a temple. 

The raised platform to the entrance of this temple must have made quite an impression in it's time. The courtyard below also would've had a raised platform across it. 

These chess-like pieces would've supported yet another raised platform. The wall is in the rough shape of the reclining Buddha. His head is at the left side. 

Another one not on the main route, but with amazing carvings inside the small rooms. 

About a kilometer down a side dirt road was another small temple that looked interesting. It led us into the countryside, and through one of the few villages that exist inside the park. 

A man tends to his field. I should mention that just previous to this photo, we stopped along the sandy path so I could take care of some business. I crawled through some brush to be decent, only to realize that I was under attack by a hundred fire ants. I crawled back out of the bush, pants down, smacking biting ants off my bare skin and yelling for Nic to help, just in time for a teenage girl to ride by on her bike.

 

This is where the path spit us out, right in the middle of a small cluster of stilted houses. 

Rural life. 

A canoe in a reservoir built by the ancient Khmer. 

Another stone-face entrance gate. 

This temple (can't remember the name) was my favorite one. It had endless corridors and courtyards. 

A buddhist shrine at the entrance. 

This is Pra Thom. Along with Angkor Temple, this temple is probably the most iconic with serpentine trees roots that have taken over ruins. 

More raised platforms at another small structure. 

We gave into the hype and decided to see sunrise at Angkor. We hadn't been into the temple yet because it is always swamped with people. We thought if we go for sunrise we might be able to dodge some crowds. Were we wrong. We arrived an hour before sunrise and joined the great stream of people entering the temple. People continued to stream in, hundreds and hundreds of them, until sunrise approached. As it became more light we snapped this photo, ditched our spot and headed into the temple, again in attempts to avoid the crowds. 

This time it worked. There were only a few dozen people inside the temple. 

We were also fortunate to find these monks meditating around the back side of Angkor. 

Around the perimeter of the temple were these wonderful columned corridors. 

We soon discovered that all of these corridors have fantastic floor to ceiling carved murals. 

That's an elephant in the middle of a battle. 

I love the way the artist did the trees in this one. 

Back out front, as the crowds begin to break up, we spy this man collecting water lilies from the moat in front of Angkor.