Faith, Hope, Karitas: Vietnam and Cambodia Part 2

Well, here's part 2 of my Cambodia and Vietnam chronicles. I'll try and let the photos do most of the talking, adding in commentaries along the way.

Can't see anything? Well, thats us along the causeway to Angkor Wat at around 5am in the morning, trying to catch the sunrise.

Sunrise over the main temple complex of Angkor Wat. Pathetic, right? We were rather upset, apparently, there was lots of heavy cloud cover that day... Hhmmmphh!

Wwwoooo....!!! Eeerie!!

Dawn over Angkor Wat... Sigh... Dreary looking morning ")

One of the many large courtyards (1 of 16?) within the main temple, yes, main temple. This does not include the 500m causeways and moats x 2, and the 2 smallish ponds in the compound.

The East Wall, the engraving covered the entire wall of the East and West wing of the temple. Thats alot of engraving... Circling the outermost walls of the temple compound.

Erm, the gals, acting weird before breakfast.

The centre-most tower of Angkor Wat. This is where the ancient cambodians place the Golden Lingam for worship.

Just love this picture... Dunno why, heehehe "D

The impossibly steep steps we have to climb. The ancient people who lived here must have been as agile and nimble as monkeys. I mean, imagine climbing up and down these steps carrying heavy burdens on your heads and stuff... Eeekk!!!

Engraving of Apsaras. Heavenly Nymphs. Many were defaced and destroyed.

The causeway towards Angkor Wat.

Bas-reliefs of ancient Khmer Kings at the Banyon, the ancient palace of the Kings.

Inside the Banyon...

Well, we are making asses of ourselves...

This was taken from the window of the rebuilt North Library. It was crumbling to the ground when Japanese researchers took it apart stone by stone and rebuilt it after stabilising the ground. Parts of the Banyon are slowly sinking into the ground as it is not strong enough to support the palace structure.

Its a bird, a plane, no, its the moon!

No lah, its a laser balloon from Tokyo University. The Japanese are scanning the entire palace with the laser scanning device mounted on the balloon. This allows them to rebuild the palace with accuracy subsequently.

Found this lovely spot to take a picture ")

Sanskrit engravings on the walls. Almost all the temples and buildings in Angkor are covered with intricate carvings like this. The amount of effort and man-hours involved is staggering.

The fact that they remain even now a tribute to human endeavour.

Haha... Another picture taken for comic relief ")

This temple was built according to some ancient philosophy. The doors stretch in a straight line from one end to the other as you can see...

Ta Prohm. An ancient temple left by the Angkor authorities in its discovered state, which means ruined.

As you can see, the temple has been in ruins for a long time. So much so that hundred year old trees grow freely throughout the structure.

Nature recovering its own.

Banteay Srei. By this time, we are all tired of exploring old temple ruins all day.

This temple is famed for the use of sandstone in its construction. It results in a rose-like hue in the colour of the temple.

Rushing back to catch the sunset over Angkor Wat. I managed to take this on the ride back.

In fact, I was the only one who managed to get any photos of the sunset. Everyone else was asleep by this time. In addition, we got there so late that everyone else was coming down even as we were running up the hill overseeing Angkor Wat "(

My 'black' boots after a day walking around the ruins of Angkor.

After a hard day exploring ruins a.k.a Indiana Jones style, its time to treat ourselves to a delicious dinner.

Cambodian Steamboat, sadly, is nothing to write home about. We got snake meat, venision, pork, chicken, and a few others. The meat are burnt on top, and we got raw lard instead of butter. The lard would burn and run down the sides, cooking the meat.

I ended up asking for repeated servings of instant noodles. The best part besides the chewy snake meat, hahaha!

Vietnam Air, the only way to fly...