Exploring Angkor Wat

The next day the rain stayed with us in the morning, but by the afternoon the sun was out and shining. Unfortunately our pictures don't completely capture how amazing the temples at Angkor really are. We had a great time exploring the 400-square kilometer archaeological site. WARNING: The next paragraph explains history so if that bores you skip it.

For those of you that aren't that familiar with Angkor it is a site (located in northwestern Cambodia) where Khmer kings established their capital from the ninth to the twelfth century. You can see over 100 temples here. Up until the 12th century Khmer kings were Hindu, then at the end of the 12th century a Buddhist king built a number of temple complexes on the site. Angkor has a mix of Hindu and Buddhism all throughout the site. The main temple Angkor Wat was built for Vishnu, a Hindu god believed to be the preserver of the universe. Inside the temple are these elaborate bas-reliefs. It is amazing what they could carve out of stone.




At this temple there were faces all over.

Lance loved all the snake sculptures. The body of the snake stretches out over the wall that goes around the temple and the snake's tail curls up at the end.

This was a funny moment. At a few of the Buddhas there would be an old woman that would ask if you wanted them to pray for you to have good luck. They give you incense sticks and have you stand there while they say a prayer. Lance had no idea what was going on, but played along with her. Unfortunately they use this as a way to ask for money from the tourists. I would think it would be bad karma for them to ask money to say a prayer, but what do I know.