Siem Reap Temples-Monday

Monday - Highlight temple tour with “Kiss and Kill (Keal, the driver.) An incredible day, best told in pictures.

Beginning with Angkor Wat. Angkor means city or capital city. Wat is temple. This is arguably the most famous temple in the world, or at least the region. This first picture is my lame attempt to get the reflection of the temple at the wrong time of day, with my poor skills and with a crack in my camera lense that causes that streak of light. You’re supposed to go at sunrise for this but the three of us were like, naw. But below this gallery I will put a picture stolen from the internet (with attribution) of how it looks at sunrise.

Angkor Wat at sunrise, picture by ACT Tours

These pictures where the trees are growing all through the temple are the real deal—not planted for tomb raider (although one of these temples was indeed used for the filming.) The different kings would be in favor of Buddhism or Hinduism and sometimes these temples would be abandoned for hundreds of years.

The second picture is “Kiss” demonstrating Apsara dancing. He was actually a monk for six years! He was a veritable font of information about religious and cultural history in Cambodia.

These carvings are of particular interest. Notice in the closer picture — clearly a stegosaurus. Now where did they get the idea for that 1000 years ago?