Wat can I say...ha ha...couldn't resist the bad pun!
We're now finishing our fourth and last day in Angkor, Siem Reap, where the most concentrated amount of wats (temples) in Cambodia are situated. This region boasts the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ('Big Capital') both of which are supremely iconic. If you don't know the names of the temples you will doubtlessly know the images, some from Discovery channel and others from the all time movie great 'the Jungle Book' and the not so all time movie great 'Tomb Raider' which were both largely shot in these two wats.
We bought a three day pass and tended towards 5-6 hours a day tiki touring around with our tuk tuk driver Samreth. It was an amazing experience and I implore anyone coming through South East Asia to get up here to see these amazing temples. The scale, detail, and unique beauty is staggering. Words can't describe, photos can try, but you really just need to experience it yourself.
Here are some shots from our first day of exploring.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36353&l=ce157&id=694561720
We have two days after this of experiences and over 1000 photos, no joke. We need to get ruthless and cull some but they are all so fricken sweet!
Only halfway through our third day, this morning after a 4am wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor we had our first moment of the 'templed out syndrome' travellers talk about. It was also on our second to last of the eight wats we covered, so we did pretty well! Not hard though if you pace yourself in the heat as they are all so unique -you always see something new at each temple: roots pushing the rock apart; crooked smiles on the giant faces; a beautiful and still perfect Apsara (celestial nymph) image after over 800 years of weathering; an ancient Buddha prayed to by pr
obably tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people over its long life; evidence of the war, often in the form of destroyed Buddha statues or bullet holes in the walls; it goes on. All these surviving so many generations, when my grandfather, and his father, and his fathers father were born it was still ancient to their generation! Ridiculous.
Coming from such a young country, the age and mass of history in a place like this blows my mind.
I particularly loved the apsara images. I've loved the image of the apsara and what she embodies for a long time now so seeing the real images in their most ancient form was pretty cool ow. And leads me to my next point....I am considering my first tattoo. I would say I have decided but as I don't have it yet, and have to wait for the right conditions to get it done (i.e. Europe), and am quite flippant with tattoo ideas, I will call it considering. I was going to get it today but Andy advised the likelihood of infection in the terrain we've been covering is pretty high, and that it would be no fun pussing particularly in the place I am thinking about getting it done... haha....calm, down....the arch of my foot! So that's exciting. Mum....comments?
xx
We're now finishing our fourth and last day in Angkor, Siem Reap, where the most concentrated amount of wats (temples) in Cambodia are situated. This region boasts the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ('Big Capital') both of which are supremely iconic. If you don't know the names of the temples you will doubtlessly know the images, some from Discovery channel and others from the all time movie great 'the Jungle Book' and the not so all time movie great 'Tomb Raider' which were both largely shot in these two wats.
We bought a three day pass and tended towards 5-6 hours a day tiki touring around with our tuk tuk driver Samreth. It was an amazing experience and I implore anyone coming through South East Asia to get up here to see these amazing temples. The scale, detail, and unique beauty is staggering. Words can't describe, photos can try, but you really just need to experience it yourself.
Here are some shots from our first day of exploring.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36353&l=ce157&id=694561720
We have two days after this of experiences and over 1000 photos, no joke. We need to get ruthless and cull some but they are all so fricken sweet!
Only halfway through our third day, this morning after a 4am wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor we had our first moment of the 'templed out syndrome' travellers talk about. It was also on our second to last of the eight wats we covered, so we did pretty well! Not hard though if you pace yourself in the heat as they are all so unique -you always see something new at each temple: roots pushing the rock apart; crooked smiles on the giant faces; a beautiful and still perfect Apsara (celestial nymph) image after over 800 years of weathering; an ancient Buddha prayed to by pr
obably tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people over its long life; evidence of the war, often in the form of destroyed Buddha statues or bullet holes in the walls; it goes on. All these surviving so many generations, when my grandfather, and his father, and his fathers father were born it was still ancient to their generation! Ridiculous.Coming from such a young country, the age and mass of history in a place like this blows my mind.
I particularly loved the apsara images. I've loved the image of the apsara and what she embodies for a long time now so seeing the real images in their most ancient form was pretty cool ow. And leads me to my next point....I am considering my first tattoo. I would say I have decided but as I don't have it yet, and have to wait for the right conditions to get it done (i.e. Europe), and am quite flippant with tattoo ideas, I will call it considering. I was going to get it today but Andy advised the likelihood of infection in the terrain we've been covering is pretty high, and that it would be no fun pussing particularly in the place I am thinking about getting it done... haha....calm, down....the arch of my foot! So that's exciting. Mum....comments?
xx
6 comments:
Arch of the foot is such a great place for it. That is a great idea. Do it! Do it!
yay! support! so doing it...
xxx
Oh you think you're so fancy with your arches, don't ya
madamme fancy arch pants herself!! but there has been a change of plan, the khmer language doesnt wrap curves so well so may do that one with another meaning in a more fluent text on the arch, maybe arabic....the khmer one is now going to run accross the inside of my pinky finger - reaowl.
little finger sounds beautiful...what will the arabic say?
it will be in khmer and say 'Apsara' the celestial nymph in the freeze we both have.
Post a Comment