Siem Reap

This morning we rose early and said goodbye to Phenom Penh. The short flight to Siem Reap was easy and by 9am we had begun touring the temples.

The temples were mostly discovered in the 1800s. Depending on the King's preference they were either Buddhist or Hindu. The picture below is of a carved Buddha was was defaced during a Hindu period by the addition of a beard. Many of the temples took 40 years to construct using elephants to haul the sandstone to rafts which transported the stone the 30 miles to the temples current sites. Hundreds of thousands of laborers built the temples interlocking the the stones.

As you can see below,the temples are not all intact. Giant fig trees begin their growth on the tops of the buildings. Their powerful roots grew into the structures dislodging rocks and causing collapses while termite mounds disrupted the structures from below.

You may recognize some of the pictures because Tomb Raider was filmed at this location.

After overheating in the 90 plus temperatures on the tour we took a break with our adopted daughters (dental students) Jennifer and Olga and enjoyed a Cambodian lunch with fresh coconut milk. As I write this I am sitting by the pool. We are definitely ready to begin our 19 hour journey home, though we will miss the Cambodian people.