In Bangkok airport again, on our way to Ko Samui and some quality beach time. The Angkor ruins were magnificient — truly amazing. I took something like 6 rolls of film. The low-light of Angkor Wat? A flat bike tire about 2 miles away from help. 🙂
Just got my black and white film developed…. The children running through wasn’t intentional… but ended up really liking the symmetry of these two shots The above door is a close up of the following entrance.
My favorite temple was Ta Phrom. We got there at about 7:15am (by bike!). The place was entirely ours: there were (maybe) 6 other people there and it was cool (in contrast to the afternoon’s humid/sticky/unbearable afternoon heat). Unlike the other temples, restoration efforts did not remove the trees that had grown in and around the ruins. The result was a sensation of stumbling upon an ancient temple in desolation while walking through the jungle. The “Tomb Raider” tree.
Phnom Bakheng is one of the recommended sunset sites. As such, we were definitely not alone: You could see Angkor Wat in the distance.
We biked past Angkor Thom, famous for its “smiling faces.”
Checking mail in the Bangkok airport. Waiting for our flight to Siem Reap. The keyboard here are just crazy. I feel bad for the little kids trying to learn to type… let alone spell.
This temple was beautiful…. The wat just shimmered with gold.
There were no flights out of Chiang Mai today… So we’re staying an extra day. 🙂 Heading up to the mountain temple Dui Suthep in a bit (highly recommended by fellow travelers as well as my friend Liane). Tomorrow, we catch an EARLY morning flight out to Siem Reap, Cambodia via Bangkok. We’ll have 2 days to wander around Angkor Wat before we fly down to Ko Samui and the beaches! Very excited about Angkor Wat. As one travel poster advertized: “Angkor Wat: Where you interface with God!”
My favorite part of the trek was the elephant ride. The elephants we rode on seemed very well treated and fed… but it’s always hard to tell. Elephants are no longer really being used in day-to-day manual labor like they were before. As keeping an elephant is very expensive, the best hope for these amazing creatures in Thailand is (responsible) tourism. Some pictures… Feeding “Mae” some sugar cane: Headshot:
Lucked in to the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai. (In fact, we thought it was the famed Night Bazaar… After visiting the Night Bazaar, I think the Sunday Market was a lot cooler.) We think things might have been even busier than normal because it was the first Sunday of the new year. The next morning, the street was empty.