Cambodia and Ankor Wat

Cambodia! or Kambuja as the locals call it was beautiful. The people were so friendly and accommodating. We had breakfast every morning at our hotel called The Claremont. It had a beautiful terrace on the roof that looked out over the city and was a picture perfect spot for the delicious Khmer style breakfast they made to order as soon as we were awake. There was also an amazing pool that cooled us down after our days adventures at Angkor. I love me a good pool and this one was perfect! I've decided to model my own future pool after the one they had because it was seriously that awesome.

Christian hanging out on the rooftop restaurant at our hotel

Taking a rest in the cool garden/ patio area

Angkor Wat was on the top of Christian's "places to see before I die list". I had read about Angkor Wat in National Geographic but I must admit that I was not prepared for how big this place was. We spent two full days exploring and still only managed to see about a tenth of this magical place. Prepare yourself... There are a ton of pictures!

Man made canal flowing under the South Gate of Angkor Thom

Baksei Chamkrong

Khmer writing inside

Full view of Baksei Chamkrong

South gate of Angkor Thom
Many years ago looters came through Angkor and stole several of the Buddha heads. You can see where they've replaced them with new ones.

Christian thought it would be oh so funny to replace the missing Buddha head with my head

Walking across the bridge to the south gate

These geckos were everywhere, even inside buildings

It was so hot! I'd get super excited every time we'd get in the tuk-tuk because the 

breeze from moving felt incredible.

Hands that fell off their statue near Bayon

Bayon

Deciphering the pictures

Walking into one of the towers (insert Mr. Collins voice "for there are several") of Bayon
I think there were 13.

Carving of a devata

Inside the inner sanctum of Bayon

I love the faces coming out of the rock 

they are stone representation of the Buddha king Lokeshvara

More faces

More pretty devatas

Steep stairs going up into the "library"

Intricate stone carvings decorate the "libraries"

one of the hallways inside Bayon - I love the contrasting red and green colors here. Both colors are due to naturally occurring lichen

Stone creature engraving above one of the doorways

Christian is bubbling over with excitement! But wait there's more!

I'm posing on the "rainbow bridge" that leads to Baphuon. This used to be surrounded by water.

Hallway inside Baphoun

The walls of Bauphoun

terrace of the elephants

Our tuk-tuk driver Sao Kuhn would drop us off at the entrance of a ruin and then drive up ahead to hang out with the other drivers. Here they all are waiting for their tourists to emerge from the ruins.

The entrance to Ta Prohm
The locals all call this Tomb Raider because they shot a scene for the movie here.

These trees were so large and their root system would envelop entire walls.

Lichen covering Ta Prohm

Trees overtaking the ruins

Christian sitting on ruins

Me sitting on ruins

Exit of Ta Prohm

Inside Preah Khan

Guardian Lion creatures

This was the end of our fist day at Angkor. We got back to the hotel went for a swim to cool off and then went to an amazing Cambodian restaurant named Viroth's. This is a terrible picture but it's a picture of the most delicious restaurant and my favorite dish of anything I tried on our vacation. So it's going in anyway! My dish was called Fish Amok which is a fish curry of sorts and it was oh so amazing! Christian had the Laab which I can attest was also very delicious. I'm drinking a fresh lime smoothie which when combined with the dissipating evening heat created the perfect meal. 

Day 2.

Where we do it all again but start before sunrise and see even more and partway through the day start to loose track of what ruin we're in. It was still unbelievably awesome!

Angkor Wat entrance at sunrise

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Looking through the window of one of the "libraries" at the morning sun

It's up!

Walking through one of the galleries

sitting on the wall outside of one of the galleries

Devata with two well worn good luck "charms"

Stone engraving on one of the walls within the gallery

Inside the first level courtyard of Angkor Wat. Notice the stone colennettes on the windows.

I think they're pretty awesome

Buddha hands

Inside the cloister on the third level

On the causeway to Angkor Wat. Look it's the two of us in the same picture!

Elephant... a real one

Walkway to the entrance of Banteay Kdei 

Stone bird creature

Christian's favorite picture of a devata covered in green and pink lichen

Chedi inside Banteay Kdei

The detailed engravings were incredible and also everywhere

The dancing doorway carvings

Walking out of Banteay Kdei

Near Ta Som

The famous gate of Ta Som

This little girl could count to ten in several languages. She'd ask where you were from and then count to ten in that language. She was trying to sell postcards and she would flip through the cards counting each of the ten pictures in the hopes you would give her money. She was so cute!

Staring down an Elephant

Posing with my creatures

Little girl on a giant bike on her way home from school

The extremely hot but beautiful ruin of Pre Rup

Giving thanks for the plentiful heat

This was our amazing tuk-tuk driver Sao Khun. He spoke amazing English and was so excited to show us around Angkor Wat. He was born in Angkor city so he knew the ruins and how to get around really well, plus he always had a huge smile on his face.

Well that concludes our adventure at Angkor Wat. I highly recommend this place as a destination that everyone should visit. I am still in awe at the number of incredible things we saw while we were there and even more amazed that there is so much left to be seen. I hope we are able to make it back some day. There is so much more to explore!

Looking off one of the balconies at the Claremont wondering where our next adventure would take us...