Cambodia

New we went to Cambodia which has the most famous tourist attraction in Southeast Asia, the ruins of Angot Wat.

In Cambodia we mostly visited ruins of the powerful Kmer Empire.  This one temple complex, Ta Prohm, had been totally swallowed up by the jungle until discovered again.  The trees and roots grow all through the temple buildings.

Giant trees had totally overtaken these temple structures.

Look at the roots behind Jacquelyn covering the building.

This is our whole tour group.

 One evening we got to see a dance show, the Apsara Cambodian dancing.  It was amazing how much they bent their hands and feet backwards, couldn't really capture it on camera.

 One day we went on a boat ride down a narrow arm of the Tonie Sap Lake to a floating village where the houses were right on the river.

They lived there and the houses had fish pens.  We also saw turtles and crocodiles in the pens.  We also saw a floating school for the little children as we went by that was in session.

We visited the famous Angkor Wat, magnificent monuments built by the Khmer or Angkor Civilization, one of the biggest in all that part of Asia at the time.

Jacquelyn got to see her wild monkeys.  Although these were pretty used to people and came out begging for handouts.

Guarding the temple was this Hindu God, that our guide said was so powerful his statue made it's way back to Angor Wat after being stolen.  Unfortunately his mate goddess was not powerful enough to make it back.

Lots of amazing bas-reliefs carved into the walls.

It would be amazing to see what this looked like when it was all new.

It only took 40 years to build but took 350,000 slave workers, 60,000 stone cutters, and 6,000 elephants.  A tremendous undertaking.  But it seems a shame that a great empire would squander their wealth on building shrines and monuments for their kings.

While touring the Angor Wat temple complex I was saddened by a feeling or sense of the intense pain and suffering that went into building of this temple complex monument.

It was some thing  to see though.    Now it's all slowly crumbling into ruin.  A testament to the fleeting glory of kingdoms and empires.

Angor Wat, one of the great wonders of the world.

I'm actually glad I wasn't there back in the past to see it in all it's glory.  I might have been a slave toiling away my life helping build it.