Temple City

Siem Reap, Cambodia has over 200 temples around the city, with Angkor Wat being the superstar of them all. Trinity and I had 3 days to explore as many temples as possible. Hopping on a Tuktuk, a couple of seats with a top pulled by a motorbike, we would head north to the temples, validating our 3 day ticket on the way (which helps fund the temple restoration). Most of the temples were being worked on, restoring them to gandeur which they used to have over 800 years ago.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious temples in the world, or something like that. It's the grandaddy of Cambodian temples and is on the flag, although it's not the oldest. It's got a moat that puts all European castles to shame. It takes about 5 minutes to walk across the walkway to get to teh outer wall and then another 5 minutes to get to the entrance of the temple itself. Intricate carvings are all over and there are some super cool bas reliefs on all sides. Many levels and great views all over, truly an impressive time.

My favorite temples of Preah Kahn, where Tomb Raider was filmed. All jungle like with trees taking over all the walls. Very cool looking and packed full of tourists. Others had Buddha faces all over the place, some had the Buddha faces removed when a new king came in and changed the religion.

There were lots of struggles between the demons and the gods, often pulling a long serpent around a stick stuck into the ground to "churn the milk" and release immortality. Got to learn more about Buddhism and Hinduism, and got a fair amount of photos taken with my main man Buddha.

All in all, a very cool place to visit, amazing architecture everywhere, although much of it run down. For example a 70m long reclining Buddha looks only like that in diagrams, as the real life is a work in progress putting it back together. Other sculptures are worn down or have heads missing. Lots have been ruined by pollution and are all black. But often the size and meaning is still there, causing people to stand back and just appreciate the Cambdodian temples.