Angkor Wat, for those who are unfamiliar, is a massive temple complex constructed at the height of the Khmer empires power in the 12th century. They controlled most of what is now Laos, Thailand, and central Vietnam (and of course Cambodia). The size of the temple complex is impressive, but what is much more impressive is the detail of every bit of the stone. All of it, and I mean damn near ALL of it, is etched with reliefs of scenes from the Rama Yana, historical battles, devas (gods), nagas(river serpent spirit guardians), ghandarvas(angels), heros, asuras(demon/giants), women with gravity defying breasts, and other hindu or buddhist images. It must have taken a lot of manpower. Here is just a sample:
There are also numerous other temple and structure sites around Angkor Wat, many people taking as much as three days to check them all out. We did it in an afternoon because we have powers of perception greater than those people.
Other than Angkor Wat, Siem Reap is just an awesome town to hang out in. GREAT restaurants and bars here. Everything is cheap, there's great variety, and of high quality. We went to a silk-farm one day and got to see the whole process of how silk is made and the woven, which was a good afternoon trip. I had a very pleasant foot massage the next day, and we ate at a restaurant that has live crocodiles and ducks inside of it, its called the "Dead Fish" restaurant. I ate ostrich, snake, and crocodile meat here. I could have had kangaroo, but was full. It was all pretty good, but I'm a bovine meat kind of guy in the end.
After Siem Reap, we were back to Thailand, to the beaches of Hua Hin.
1 comment:
That's pretty cool. I'm not sure I've ever heard of it, but now I would like to see it.
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