The Temples of Angkor- Cambodia cont'd

Saturday afternoon my boss left to go back to Ha Noi from Phnom Penh and I made my big break. Hopped on a bus and 6 hours later was in Siem Reap, the gateway town to the temples of Angkor.

Angkor, meaning "city", served as the capital of the Khmer empire which lasted from about AD800 - 1431. Angkor was the largest preindustrial society in the world and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site with over 1000 temples. The most famous is Angkor Wat (literally meaning 'temple city'), which I tried to capture in the artsy photo below. Alas, the giant blue tarp while the temple is undergoing renovations, takes away from the godliness and intrigue of the place.

One of the 54 giant stone heads of the Bayon temple

It took me a full day to explore as much of the temples as I could (including Ta Prom, where parts of Lara Croft Tomb Raider were filmed- that's right, I took some awkward action shots of myself in front of ancient ruins).

The day concluded by watching the sunset from the highest temple in the area. Not an original idea, seeing as every tourist within a 50mile radius had flocked to the same perch, but still pretty magical.

When I got to my hotel the receptionist showed me to my room and told me to look out the window. This is what I saw. No chance of escape in the event of an emergency.