Indochina Day 13: All day Wat. Dance all night. Wat! Wat!

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We got up early for our 0800 meeting with Mr Chandra for our tour of the Ankor area. Our first stop was Ta Prohm, also known as the "Tomb Raider" temple, before heading to the gates of Angkor Thom, then Bayon in and then to Ankor Wat.


Next to one of the trees that was slowly taking over Ta Prohm.

The temples were very impressive, the structure and architecture was magnificent and the fact that all of this was done basically by hand is a little mind blowing.

Standing in front of Bayon (temple of the smiling buddas) inside Angkor Thom.

I recall seeing the pyramids and temples of the ancient Mayan civilizations in the Yucatan peninsula, but some of the structures here seem to be much larger and more elaborate than those in the new world.

Looking into the outer courtyard of Bayon from the east.

Exiting Bayon from the western entrance.

It was also sad to see how willful and wanton destruction had caused so much damage to these priceless monuments.

The moat in front of Angkor Wat.

My favorite temple however, was the air conditioned temple that we had hired to drive us around to the various Wats.


Looking up at the main temple in Angkor Wat.

We finished the night at Koulen II where we had a dinner buffet and watched some traditional Khmer dances and the Apsara dance.

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