Pic, pic, ducks, more pics

I was looking at the emails Karl sent me this week and the subject lines read ... "Pic", "pic", "ducks", "more pics". For some reason, that seemed like an appropriate title for this post.

First, we have the pics Karl has been taking at the temples in the Angkor Wat complex with the traditional dancers.




These guys obviously aren't dancers but they were at the temple and Karl caught this quick shot.


Karl says that this little girl was trying to sell him a refrigerator magnet and she was successful. Karl wrote: "its hard to refuse such beautiful eyes"


This is a bas relief on the temple walls.


Karl also went to a shadow puppet show and even got to go behind the scenes.



Karl has also been spending some time just hanging out with the locals. Here are some pictures that he got at the market.




Now for the ducks ... Karl got this picture showing the creative method for transporting ducks to market on a motorcycle. Look closely, the ducks are alive and holding their heads up so they can get a better view of the scenery. Nothing looks quiet right when you are hanging upside down.

Living the Dream

So Karl is off living his dream (for a few weeks) of taking pictures in exoctic places. Here are some of the pictures that he has sent me.

Dancers at Erawan Shrine, Bangkok Thailand.


Worshipper at Erawan Shrine, Bangkok Thailand.


Royal Barges in front of the Grand Palace, Bangkok Thailand


Grand Palace at night with a passing boat, Bangkok Thailand


Aspara Dancer at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap Cambodia



Aspara Dancer at Bayon, Siem Reap Cambodia


Dancer in Peacock Costume, Siem Reap Cambodia

Country Hopping

Tuesday morning we were back in Angkor Thom. This time we’d come to see some of the other temples and structures in the walled city. Angkor Thom also has a moat and the bridges over the moat have decorative balustrades on either side. Each balustrade is the body of a Naga, a mythical 7 headed snake, which is common through out the temples. The bridges are a bit different because they have sculptures of large men holding the body of the Naga. There is a huge man with many arms holding the head of the Naga at the entrance to the bridge. Over the years, most of the men have lost their heads and a few have lost more than that. The bridge to the south gate is the most complete and many of the heads have been replaced. This picture shows the original head of one of these men and the gate to Angkor Thom in the background.

Once inside Angkor Thom we stopped at the Terrace of the Elephants, which faces the main road of Angkor Thom. In the middle of this long terrace is a wide viewing stand where the king would sit to watch military processions. The walls of the terrace mirrored what the king would have seen with carvings of soldiers, chariots and elephants. The carvings are almost life-size so as you approach the terrace it is the images of elephants that stand out.

Our next stop was an out of the way temple called Preah Palilay. It was back behind most of the Angkor Thom attractions and to get to it we had to walk through what looked like the ruins of expansive ancient patios. We passed a group of wooden homes that housed some of the vendors who worked in Angkor Thom and finally arrived at Preah Palilay. This temple definitely looked like it had seen better days. Only about half of what had been a vaulted sanctuary still stood and it now shared space with several large trees which had taken root in the temple base. This temple had a nice atmosphere as there were few tourists and the trees provided some relief from the sun. We even found another lion that still had its face.

Before heading back to our hotel to escape the heat of the day, we stopped at Preah Khan which is outside of Angkor Thom to the north. We were lured to this temple by a picture in our guidebook of a grand building with cylindrical columns. It looked more like it would belong in Rome than in Cambodia. When we first entered the temple area, we crossed a bridge over a nearly dry moat and were delighted by dozens of dragonflies lazily drifting a few feet above the ground. The trip to this temple went downhill from there. We were hot and tired and once inside the inner wall we didn’t see this grand structure that we came for. After consulting our guidebook, we found that it was a smaller building on the far side of the temple grounds. We headed through the temple and there were no worries about getting lost in this temple because there were very few passages which were actually passable. For the fun of it, I took a picture of one of the many signs warning tourists. When we made it to the building we were disappointed. It didn’t look as grand as it did in the picture. On our way back through the temple we grumbled about photographers and their wide-angle lenses. Never mind that Karl is one of them.

Tuesday evening, we ventured out for another evening at Bayon. It has turned out to be Karl’s favorite place for photo opportunities. If he isn’t taking pictures of the well-known stone faces, he’s taking pictures of the Cambodian dancers. This evening, there were two girls dressed in the “fish” costumes. This picture is the one that Karl says is the best and it is the last one he took before we left for the day. We've added more pictures of the dancers and temples to our Cambodia photo album here Cambodia



There are a lot of very poor people in Cambodia and a tourist attraction like Angkor Wat also attracts the poor who hope to make a better life for themselves. They usually don’t have any skills so start by selling trinkets to the tourists. Their children would either join them in selling or play nearby. Each time we visited a site there would be several people (including children) trying to sell us an assortment of things. The children have also learned that letting foreigners take pictures of you is another way to earn a little money. We didn’t mind giving these girls a little money, but it was a stark reminder that there are a lot of children in this world who struggle just to survive.

Since our return from Cambodia, we did some searching on the internet to find some charities that operate in Siem Reap. To our surprise there are a few that you can support while in Siem Reap by volunteering your time and they don’t need a lot of advance notice. Now, I wish I’d done the search before we went. If you ever consider traveling to Siem Reap, take a look at www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/cambodia/siem-reap/tips/charity for some ideas on things that you can do while you are there. For those who want to help from afar or for someone who foolishly didn’t do her homework before visiting Cambodia the following are some charities that help children in Siem Reap and Poi Pet:

Schools for Children of Cambodia

KANTHA BOPHA Children's Hospital

Friends Without a Border

Wednesday, we made the journey from Siem Reap to Poi Pet at the Cambodia/Thailand border. Before we left, we said goodbye to the staff at the Apsara Palace Hotel. It’s a small hotel and they were very nice and helpful. The trip back was another long, bumpy, dusty ride. The picture below shows one stretch of the highway between Siem Reap and Poi Pet. I had mentioned the creative contraptions designed for motorcycles. The baskets you see on the back of the motorcycles hold either 5 too 6 piglets or one large pig. Can you imagine trying to maintain your balance with that on the back of your motorcycle!?


We returned to Nang Rong for a few days while my travel agent (Karl) made reservations for a trip into Laos. He’s been an excellent travel agent! We also took the time to take care of a few things but mostly we rested and relaxed. Karl got to ride around on a motorcycle and take pictures and I got to play with Wick’s website a bit more. He now has a domain name: nangronghomestay.com.

Sunday, we took a bus to Nong Khai on the Thailand/Laos border and today we crossed over the border into Laos. So, now we can say that we visited three countries in a week! Tomorrow, we will be flying to Luang Prabang where there are more ancient temples for us to see.

More Temples!!!

Saturday was another temple-filled day. We started this day by traveling about an hour outside of Siem Reap to a small temple called Banteay Srei. The interesting thing about this temple is the delicacy of the carvings. This has lead to some people saying that the carving must have been done by a woman because a man can’t carve so delicately. I’m sure that there are some men who would disagree with that reasoning but I liked the idea that there may be a great woman artisan who was part of this amazing place. The doorways in this temple got progressively smaller as you moved towards the center of the temple. In the picture of me at Banteay Srei, the doorway on my right is only tall enough for a small child. Because of the reduced dimensions, this temple made me think of a doll house. The other picture shows some of the carvings at Banteay Srei.

On the way to and from Banteay Srei, we stopped a few times to get pictures of the people in the communities along the way. In Thailand, tractors have almost entirely replaced oxen but as you can see from the picture, oxen are still used in Cambodia. In the other picture, you can see one method of catching a fish. This woman waded through the shallow pond, sunk the cage into the mud when she saw a fish and then reaches through the hole in the top to pull out the fish. She had caught a few fish and proudly showed them to Karl.

Our next stop was the temple Pre Rup which has a temple-mountain with a view over the rice fields and neighboring villages. We climbed to the top and enjoyed the view. Here is a picture from the top of the temple. Many of the temples have lion statues over looking the stairs. We’ve noticed that all the lions are missing their faces. We aren’t sure if it is just coincidence or on purpose. With Cambodia’s tumultuous past the damage is just as likely to have been caused by humans rather than natural events.

After getting some lunch we returned to Angkor Thom the walled city where the Bayon temple is located. Karl wanted to get some pictures of the Bayon faces as the sun was setting. It was still early afternoon so we walked around the nearby Baphuon temple. This temple is in the middle of reconstruction and wasn’t open to tourists. However you could walk around the grounds and look at the rows and rows of blocks that would make up the temple. The restoration work had started on this temple before the Cambodian civil war shut it down. 25 years later, the records were destroyed and it is a big jigsaw puzzle!

As the afternoon progressed, we made our way to Bayon and climbed to the upper terrace. By this time, I was a bit sunburnt and my arms were bright red. As we walked through a group of Thai tourists at Bayon, one woman reached out, touched my arm, laughed and said something to her friends. So, with my bright red skin I became a tourist attraction! We saw the Cambodian dancers again and Karl got a few more pictures of them. He also got some nice pictures of the Bayon faces. We have posted additional pictures at: Cambodia And there are more that we haven't uploaded yet!

After 3 long days, we were ready for a break so Sunday we just hung out at our hotel room and watched a few movies. It has actually been quite hot here and so the AC in our hotel room was very much appreciated. Karl attempted to go out and take a few pictures around the hotel, but he didn’t last long!

After our day of rest in Cambodia, Karl was anxious to get out and take some pictures. We decided however that it was too hot to be outside in the middle of the afternoon. So, we begana routine of going out in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. It was still hot but at least we got a break from the heat in the middle of the day when we returned to our air conditioned hotel room.

Monday morning, Karl got up really early and went to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. I opted to stay in bed. The sunrise at Angkor Wat attracts a lot of photographers and I suspected that there would be a bunch of photographers there fighting for the best position to get a picture of the temple. From what Karl describes my suspicions were correct. Apparently, some of the photographers would get pretty annoyed if anyone got in front of their camera even if just for a second. And this was when they were just waiting for the sun to come up. As you can see, Karl managed to get some good pictures and didn’t get into trouble with any of his fellow photographers.

Back at the hotel, Karl took advantage of the hotel balcony that overlooked the street. From this vantage point, Karl was able to take several pictures of people as they went past. He was able to capture this picture showing one of the many ways that people use motorcycles. Some of the things they do to enable them to carry various things on a motorcycle are quite amazing. As we drove around in Cambodia we often found ourselves doing double-takes as we passed by these unusual devices.

For our late afternoon outing, we returned to Phnom Bakheng. When we went to this temple on our first day, the lighting for taking pictures of Angkor Wat wasn’t the best. So, this time we went a bit earlier in the afternoon. Without the crowds of tourists causing distractions for us, we noticed that the lions at the base of the hill had faces. So, I have to recant my earlier statement that all the lions are missing their faces. In the picture, you can also see what remains of the ancient stairway up the hill. The path that wound around the hill is a much safer option and the walk up the hill is also very nice with trees creating a shady canopy and crickets singing. Since we were early, we actually had the path to ourselves some of the time and we walked slowly to fully savor the solitude.

When Karl is taking pictures he likes to spend some time and tries pictures from many different angles. He really loves his new digital because he can see what the picture looks like right after he takes it. All of this means that I still have a wait even after I’ve wandered through the entire temple and read the guidebook. So, I’ve used the time to write in my journal. It can be very relaxing sitting in a shady corner of a one-thousand year old temple writing about the events of the day. That is until I feel like I’m being watched and look over my shoulder to see a complete stranger peering into my journal. It happened several times and made me wonder if they thought I was writing about them! So, the first picture is me with my journal at Phnom Bakheng, the second is Karl with his camera plastered to his face and the one below is Angkor Wat. With more light, the picture is a lot more detailed than the previous one.

We have a few more days before we head back to Thailand so you’ll be hearing more about the temples in our next post.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Here in Siem Reap we are traveling around to the sites via Tuk-Tuk. Despite my dislike of motorcycles, I’m not as uncomfortable with riding in a Tuk-Tuk. I’m not so afraid of falling off! However, there are still some moments that take my breath away as we zip through the traffic. Here is a picture of me with our Tuk-Tuk driver, Nanty.

Friday morning, we visited a temple built by a very self-absorbed king, Jayavarman VII. The temple has 216 faces on the towers that supposedly look a lot like the king himself. On the upper terrace of this temple, you are looking right into some of these faces. It is really a neat place! No matter where you go in the temple you are always being watched by one of the faces. While we were there some Cambodian dancers came in traditional costumes and for a dollar you could get some pictures taken with them. Karl wasn’t interested in getting his picture taken with them but he wanted pictures of the dancers in their costumes. Many of the foreign tourists would take pictures of the dancers not realizing that they needed to pay. When they were informed that they needed to pay, some of them would walk away in a huff as if it was some kind of scam. We were a bit surprised because at Disney World people pay $10 to $20 dollars to get a picture of their kids with Mickey Mouse and think nothing of it. We were happy to give the dancers a few dollars for the pictures we took. Actually, the dancers added a bit of color to gray rocks of the temple.

The next temple that we visited is called Ta Prohm. It is well known because it wasn’t restored the way some of the other temples were. It had been so overgrown by the jungle that there are trees which are essentially holding parts of the temple together. So the trees remain in the temple but the temple isn’t exactly as it was found. The vines and other plants that probably covered every surface at one time are kept cut back and there are nice wooden walkways to guide visitors to the most famous trees in the temple. We read in our guide book about one of the trees that was featured in the movie Tomb Raider. As we were wondering through the temple, we heard people talking about the Tomb Raider tree and some guides boasted that they knew exactly where Angelina Jolie stood for the filming of the movie. The only problem was that every person we overheard was refering to a different tree! Since the temple isn’t fully restored it didn't match up with the map in our guide book which shows the layout as it should be. Because of this, we got a bit lost in the temple. Mostly this was because there were piles of blocks preventing us from going directly from one area of the temple to another. We finally made our way around and saw all the major trees in the temple. It is really quite amazing the power that nature has!

On the pathway into the Ta Prohm temple there was a Cambodian musical group playing. The group is made up of landmine victims who now make a living by playing music and selling CDs of their music. It is traditional Cambodian wedding music and the perfect musical backdrop for these temples. We bought a CD so that when we torture our friends and family with endless slideshows of vacation pictures they can have a break from our monotonous voices and hear some exotic music from Cambodia.

Our last stop of the day was at Angkor Wat, the most famous temple of the area. This temple is surrounded by a wide moat. When we stopped for Karl to take some pictures of the moat, I made the mistake of feeding some monkey some pineapple cores. The monkeys decided to join me in the Tuk-Tuk and see what else I had. After a few tense moments and Nanty encouraging them to leave, they finally exited the Tuk-Tuk and we left. So, now I know not to feed the monkeys! They really aren’t as cute as they appear.

Angkor Wat is really an impressive structure. After you cross the moat you enter an inner courtyard that is also quite large. There are two large ponds on either side of a walkway that stretches from the outer wall to the entrance of the main temple. In the picture, we are standing in front of one of the ponds with the main temple behind us. In this picture we are about halfway between the outer wall and the main temple, so you can see it is really a large area that this temple encompasses. The main temple is also quite large with a couple of additional enclosures before reaching what is called the temple-mountain. The temple-mountain is the center tower of the temple and it represents Mt. Meru. If I understand our guidebook correctly, Mt. Meru is where the gods lives so in entering the temple and climbing the stairs to the top of the temple-mountain you are metaphorically journeying to the home of the gods. By this time, Karl and I were pretty tired and we decided not to hike up the stairs. Perhaps, we’ll make the journey to the home of the gods another time.