Amazing Angkor Wat

**Disclaimer** I can't even begin to describe Angkor Wat. No matter what I write or what photos I show you, it will never represent what we saw and experienced in Cambodia. It truly is the most amazing place that I've ever visited.History: Angkor literally means 'Capital City' or 'Holy City'. The Khmer (dominant ethnic group in Cambodia) Empire resided in Angkor Wat between the 9th and 12th century. The ruins found in Siem Reap area are from a capital that supported over a million people and the Khmer's dominated much of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Supposedly many westerners and missionaries traveled to Angkor throughout the 16th and 19th century, but it wasn't until Henri Mouhot wrote about it in 1860 that Angkor got it's first tourist boom.

The ruins are innumerable. They cover such a vast area. In fact Angkor Wat is actually only one ruin, even though we tend to refer to the entire place by that name. Rich and I hired a tuk tuk (see photos) for $12 a day and he drove us everywhere. In fact we tuckered out on him and asked to return to the hotel early. It's just so massive, you could spend weeks exploring. We visited five of the major sites; Angkor Wat (very top photo), Angkor Thom (the one with faces at the very bottom), Bayon (pictured in part above), Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider was filmed there; lots of tree roots growing over the ruins; below), and Preah Khan (only one or two photos; couldn't be bothered b/c it was the last site we visited). I really was amazed at the detail of the carvings in the stone and how well the images have held up over so much time. Also I couldn't believe that we were allowed to walk and climb all over the ruins. Someday soon, someone will make that illegal in order to help preserve the ruins.Angkor Adventure Story: When exiting and/or entering each ruin we encountered sales people. They try to get you to buy anything and everything. Siem Reap operates using US dollars. In fact most won't even take the Cambodian money, however they will give you back change in the Cambodian money. Anyway a little girl (maybe 7) was following us trying to get us to buy 3 bracelets for $1. We weren't buying. She then asked us where we're from; we responded Japan. She then starts listing every popular city in Japan. Then she calls us liars b/c we don't look Japanese. We laugh. Then we tell her we can't buy anything b/c we only have Japanese money. She then bargains with us for 100 yen and even calls it by the Japanese name. Needless to say, we bought 3 bracelets from the best sales person I've ever met.
More Angkor Adventures to be posted soon. Until then check out our photos (110 of them), My View and Rich's View of Cambodia.