I recently took a bit of a whirlwind trip to Southeast Asia, stopping through Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines all in a span of six days. It was a very last-minute work trip, and was horribly timed as I flew out of Paris at the same time Ian and Neha flew in for a visit from DC. I had been to both Bangkok and Manila before, so my only ambition was to squeeze a few hours out of my stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia to take a tour of the Angkor Wat temple complex. Angkor is one of the places that Michael has told me about for years, having visited there about 10 years ago when he lived in Thailand. I landed in Siem Reap at 9am, immediately hired a guide at the hotel, and was at the temple complex by 11am. The temple that you generally think of as "Angkor Wat" is the largest and most famous - and is even incorporated into the design of Cambodia's national flag - but it is only one of many temples that was built almost 1,000 years ago in the area now part of the Angkor Archaeological Park. During my visit, I saw three temples: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Bayon. Temple #1: Angkor Wat Temple #2: Ta Prohm At this point in the day, the temperature was feeling like about 110 degrees - not awesome, but I continued on and survived with several huge bottles of water. Ta Prohm was the second temple on my itinerary, and is known as the "jungle temple" because it was left in much the same condition in which it was found after about 400 years of neglect. It was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and is perhaps best known to you as the location where the first Lara Croft Tomb Raider was shot. Temple #3: Bayon The third and final stop on my mini-tour was to Bayon temple, which ended up also being my favorite. Bayon was built at the same time as Ta Prohm by Jayavarman VII. The most distinctive features at Bayon are the 216 gigantic smiling stone faces built into the temple's towers, which some scholars believe are in the likeness to the king himself. The temple is magnificent, a bit haunting, and incredibly beautiful. More pics from my trip can be found here.
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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