Well here’s how the day began. I never use the hotel shampoo, but I have been washing my hair so frequently, I decided that I better supplement my own. I liberally applied “conditioner” after shampooing, only to find it was actually body lotion. That slowed my progress a bit, but then we are off. A beautiful bountiful breakfast buffet and then Sam picks us up..
Today we are scheduled to go to 2 temples. The main Angkor Wat in the morning and Angkor Thom in the afternoon. We are also scheduled to ride bikes to Angkor Wat – but our tour guide Sam really knows what he is doing. He strongly advises against riding through the the hustle of Siem Reap on bikes (good idea given my propensity to fall)- and suggests we ride between the 2 temples in the shade of the trees. Sam is many things – a great tour guide, a master at avoiding some of the crowds, someone who can add 2 more requested temples to our itinerary, AND an awesome photographer- just wait.
So we arrive at the back entrance of Angkor Wat to avoid the thousands of Chinese tourists coming in the front entrance (already a brilliant move).
We get a quick history lesson. Angkor Wat was built between 1113-1150. It took 6000 elephants, 7000 artists and 300,000 workers. They moved stones from 14 miles away via bamboo to build the temples. The temples lay undiscovered until a French Nationalist, Henry Morhout, discovered them when he was pursuing insects and butterflies thru the jungle growth. Years later there were books discovered in China that made references to the beautiful colors of the temples. Few people believed this until 2010 when Lidar 3D was used to verify that deep in the ruins colors did exist. Sam was very amazed to learn that we were familiar with lidar- he said we were the first that had ever heard of it.
Learning our “lessons”
He explained the difference in the Hindu versus the Buddhist temples. The Hindu temples were taller and higher to reach for the gods while the Buddhists felt that we didn’t need to reach the gods because each of us possess the ability to know and do the right thing (that is certainly a simplified version).
We noticed the dark and very light areas on the ruins. It turns out some teams from India came in 1989 to help eradicate the moss growing on the temple stones. They used acid, which did get rid of some moss, but also ruined many of the carvings. They quickly packed up and left.
In 1992, UNESCO came in and declared it a historical site – and thus protecting it going forward.
And up we go.
Even Sam didn’t have enough patience for the crowds to disperse – so our group momentarily grew.
here is the line to wait to walk to the top of the temple. The wait was an hour or two and it was already over 90 degrees out.
So we missed walking up here – didn’t really have the energy to do this anyway.
And then Sam shows us another photo trick. He knows the spot where it is exactly centered …
And has us stand at the corners and all look down.
And then I see Yvonne giggling and she tells me to stop while she snaps a picture. She told me I looked like a peacock. And then she got the tree coming out of my head to top it off.
We started out today saying that today was not going to be about Ian, so he was quite subdued. But the rest of us just couldn’t quite step up to his antics – and frankly the day lacked a little humor – so he is off probation.
and now for our bike ride…but tour guide Sam has those pictures, so I will have to post later.
Now we are at the entrance to Angkor Thom.
Jim captured a wedding couple in one of the temples.
Now thanks to my friend Mary’s suggestion we add on Ta Prohm (Lara Croft Tomb Radar) and the Lady Temple otherwise known as Banteay Srei. Sam our man accommodated us!
First stop, Ta Prohm.
And now for my favorite picture – Sam style
That’s Sam below.
And a quick bite to eat and we are headed to the Lady Temples.
Remember how we learned that the Cambodian’s don’t waste things but use everything…this may be going a bit too far.
By now I am exhausted. And very hot. They say women don’t sweat they glisten…well I was glistening so much Ian said you could follow the drops on the pavement to find me.
So now it is 3 pm and we are back among the tourists, but once again Sam knows the back entrance so no tour busses!
Now we are definitely done in! Here is a picture of a bamboo plant with thorns….then check out my hair. Now that’s more than glistening!
Time to clean up and tryout a rooftop bar.
And time to call it a day. I head back to the room to create this update, and nothing would load! So I waited till morning to figure out the issue because it wasn’t obvious. Turns out I used up all the storage on my free plan I deleted older posts and it still didn’t work, so this morning I bought an upgraded plan. What a way to end a day.
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