catching up part 3: cambodia

the second portion of our trip was spent in cambodia. we took a bus from HCMC, vietnam, to phnom penh and then continued via boat up the tonle sap river to siem reap. we had one goal for all of cambodia - the angkor wat temples. disappointed we were not for we had our fill of temples and transport via tuk tuk. there are more photos from this part of our trip - over 2,000 in all - which is why it has taken me three months to get to this post. this post will contain only a sampling of the things we saw...if you are interested in seeing more, click on the link to the right to visit my picasa album. here goes the whirlwind tour...

traveling up the tonle sap river

traveling across tonle sap lake

 ta keo - one of the many unfinished temples

 preah khan - many of the temples have a lot of damage - partly due to vandalism, but also from the changing of royalty and the accompanying change in religious belief of either hindu or buddhism

 east mebon

 ta prohm - an experiment in letting the jungle take over

ta prohm #2

 banteay srei - some of the most spectacular carving

 the baphuon - staircase to heaven??

 stone carving on pillars of most temples - they signified that you 

were in the "hall of dancers"

 some of the faces of the bayon - one of our favorite temples

 one of the gates into angkor thom, the main city of the temple complex

 vishnu statue in angkor wat

spectacular bas relief at angkor wat

 angkor wat at sunrise

banteay kdei - ta prohm and the bayon all in one

in addition to all the temples, we took a tour of a silk farm while we were in siem reap, which turned out to be one of our favorite activities. angkor artisans is a group that trains youth from rural villages in different trades and pays them a living wage. they have a silk farm where they complete the whole process from mulberry leaves to garment. it was amazing to get to see the whole process of how silk is made...our heads were spinning by the time we left. he skill and time spent making silk products here was truly incredible. 

 scarf on a loom - the silk threats are dyed so that they have each of the individual colors of the scarf in a single strand; the weaver then places each strand to make the diamond pattern you see. crazy.

 students threading the loom one silk strand at a time

cambodia continued to be a adventure in wonderful food, incredible sites, and our first elephant ride. more about that in laos...which is up next!