Sunday, November 23, 2008

Lay-dee, something cold to drink? More Angkor by bike.

The next two days are awash with spectacular monuments--each one more incredible than the last. It is hard telling our pictures apart due to similarities in architecture and design, but we've done our best here to keep them straight.

Pra Thom is one of Angkor's most famous temples, known for the strangler fig trees that have grown up, around, and on top of the buildings. It is the most "natural" of all the temples in the park, receiving the least amount of attention throughout the years. Apparently after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge, the only thing the park needed to do was to sweep out the debris before opening to the public again. Pra Thom really makes you imagine what the whole park could looked like:

Angkor Thom and its central Bayon are very similar to Angkor Wat, with a mote and gates on the four cardinal directions. The main difference, however, is that Angkor Thom is most well known for its buddha face towers and bas relief images.

Angkor Thom also has a bunch more random monuments that sort of run together for us. Some of them, we weren't even sure of their names. So, this section is dedicated to "everything else" inside Angkor Thom:



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