Angkor Wat

So we are settled into Siem Reap and over yesterday's whole scam thing. Today we got up at 4am so that we could do the one main tourist thing everyone comes to Siem Reap to do. Angkor Wat. If you don't know anything about Angkor Wat go to wikipedia.com and spend 20 min looking into it. It is AMAZING!!! First off, it is one of the 7 man made wonders of the world built in the 700-800 AD. It was built then by a civilization of more than a million people, at a time when London had only 50,000 people. The largest of the temples was covered up by jungles for more than a 1000 years, and only excavated about 50 years ago. Siem Reap is home to 100's and 100's of temples and old stone villages. Even to this day they are still unearthing alot of the smaller ones.

This place is just breathtaking and for only 20 bucks you can see all the temples you could possibly imagine for a day. However, some people buy week passes to go and spend time in each one of them writing and doing paintings of different architectural marvels within the temples.

Enjoy the photo's This picture and the surrounding, if you could have been there, were worth every bit of the pain it was to get up at 4am to go on this adventure.
Looking back out of the entrance at Angkor Wat, onto the lawn.

Looking at the front of Angkor Wat.

Inside Angkor Wat in all of it's glory.

Um, HELLO!!! Indiana Jones anyone? Actually Tomb Raider 3 was filmed here. Which i may have to go watch now just to say that i was there.

This is one of 4 libraries surrounding Angkor Wat.
This picture is from the "face" temple where alot of faces are built out of stone into the structure.

HMMM? Which piece is next? 3D jig-saw puzzle anyone?
This structure is one of there most well known photo's, and these guys (about 100 per group) appear on each side of the bridge as you enter Angkor Wat. To me it explains what 1,000,000's of people working together as one can accomplish.

So though the stone temples have been around for almost 2500 years, the trees have not. They started to grow only about 300 years ago, but make for an awesome photo!!!
Leave it to me to act retarded in the middle of an ancient dynasty. So actually the reason all the heads are missing off of the statues is because during the genocide of the 1970's in Cambodia, the Pol Pot regime deemed Angkor Wat as "history" and "religion" and wanted it to be defaced.
The pure amazement at looking at all these stones placed so perfectly!

God, i loved this day!
More nature interfering with the stone structures. Pretty fucking cool!