Angkor Wat

The next morning was the start of our tour of the temples and I woke up all excited. After a quick breakfast, I was picked up early by James, Terri and our tuk tuk driver Boron for the day. Our driver pulled up to the entrance...and we looked out to see a line of ticket booths which ironically looked like the entrance to Disneyland. So we were ready with our 3 day passes, guide books, hats, sunscreen and crayons...heading for our first destination, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was built a long time ago...can't remember exactly when but around 900AD. It was abandoned a few hundred years after being built and was rediscovered by the French in the 1800's or something. For a structure which was built so long ago, it remains prominently intact apart from the damage by the Khmer Rouge and some misguided bombs from the US. It was sad to the bullet holes riddled around the temple from the Khmer Rouge and a bunch of the heads of the Buddhas had been shot off. But my like in Rome where the statues had been vandalized by new emperors, governments and religions, the splendor of the site is still intact.

Angkor is a place that everyone has to see for themselves. Even the photos I took do not seem to do it justice. It's amazing to see a structure built by man so long ago. There were many statues of the Buddha's where you can say a prayer and get a blessing. Can't hurt right? I always liked Buddhism anyway after studying it in university.

We were walkling around the main entrance and I saw a few monks walking towards us so I cheekily took a photo hoping they woudn't catch me...they just smiled and walked by. Until I noticed that they were also holding cameras and cell phones...taking photos of each other. To our absolute surprise they stopped James and I and were asking to take photos with us...!! I guess they were tourists at Angkor Wat too...! The monks made sure to stand pretty far away from me in the photo. I woulkdn't want him to have to do a weeks worth of penance just for touching a woman...LOL!

I keept being mistaken for a cowgirl with my beach hat!!! :) The curlier my hair gets, the higher is sits...:)

 

(Author's Note: Ok..while sitting out the storm in Koh Tao, I might as well catch up on the blog. )

On our way out of the temple, there were a few street vendors selling bananas for everyone to you could feed them to the monkeys or eat them yourselves...This cute little girl who was about 3 approached me and asked sweetly if I wanted to buy some bananas...I said "No thank you" so she tried again..."Lady Bananas...?" "No thank you" I say feeling more and more guilty and we went round and round..."Bananas for the monkeys?"...."No thank you" I say again...as her face changes into the sweetest little pouty girl face." In my trip to Phu Quoc, Eva told me that she bought crayons for the little kids who were selling fruit on the streets...so right at the moment when she was about to ask me again...I asked "Do you want a crayon?" and pulled out the box. This cute little girls face changed so quickly it was amazing. Her face lite up with glee and she screamed to her brother in Cambodian(Khmer?) "She has crayons!!!!" She started bouncing up and down trying to decide what color to choose out of the box...Her and her borther took 2 each...and she completely forgot about the bananas...she had crayons..:)!

and the day was just beginning...:)