adventure cambosky - day 3 (episode 2)
it's now tuesday...and as promised, episode 2 of adventure cambosky is here...sorry, sneak previews were only released to the select few in my family over the chinese new year. =)
anyway...
adventure cambosky - day 3 (episode 2)
after the ungodly-hour start to day 3 (episode 1), we went back to the hotel for some breakfast and rest...
before setting off to the next must-see-angkor-temple...the temples of angkor thom...
entrance to angkor thom
"thom" actually means "great" in khmer (correct me if i'm wrong cambo jo)...so this was a kick-ass huge estate that king jayavarman vii reigned from the years 1181 - 1219. supposedly, at the height of it's glory, it was said to have supported a population of 1 million people...so when i say kick-ass huge, i really mean freaking big.
and obviously, if your population of 1 million is excluding the biggest land animals in the world, the proportion seems so much the greater...there were elephant statutes everywhere around angkor thom...
elephant statues
and even today, their descendants still thrive within the walls...
real angkor thom elephants
one of the most famous temples inside angkor thom is this place called the bayon...it's the second most popular angkor temple, after angkor wat...it's also known as the four-faced-buddha-temple...actually, i just made that up...but anyway, you'll see why...
entrance to bayon
and yet, more reminders of the gentle giants...
more elephants
there are a total of 54 towers with 216 buddhas smiling down on everyone...
bayon 1
bayon 2
and it was here that i decided to play around with my black and white settings on my nikon camera...some actually turned out not too bad...this kinda went on for a while, so don't worry, you're not occasionally colour blind...haha.
light at end of tunnel
bayon 3
there was this cute chic waiting for her prince...which we unfortunately deduced to be the ugly chinaman taking her picture. to each her own...haha.
bayon rapunzel
bayon 4
sorry, i didn't know what else to call you lah...
photographson (jason)
bayon four-faced buddha
bayon half-faced buddha
josonsky bayon 1
there were lots of stairs to climb, as with almost all of the other temples that we went to...all of which are so steep and narrow that a crash helmet is recommended...just in case you slip on any of the afore-mentioned chinaman's wads of spit...haha. kidding lah. bad karma moby... =)
bayon stairs
bayon is really magnificent...it must have literally taken all of the one million people who populated angkor thom to manufacture such a masterpiece...
bayon overview
josonsky bayon 2
as we left the bayon, to head on to another part of angkor thom, we saw this entrance somewhere...
middle-of-nowhere entrance
and we decided to take a break by taking another picture next to this big old tree...
josonsky before-cambo-jo-fall
cambo jo slipped when he was getting off the tiny hill towards the-middle-of-nowhere, and got a few scratches on his poor wittle thigh...he wanted me to put that in.
(notice hand on hip and slight limp)
entering nowhere
as it turned out, the middle of nowhere led us to this place called phimeanakas, which is supposedly the royal temple...
phimeanakas steps
"legend has it that at the top of the stairs, there's this place where the king was 'forced' to make love to this mystical serpent snake thingy every single night." - cambo jo
i didn't take pictures of that place cuz i didn't feel right about disturbing the sanctity of the sensual mating ground of a king (no less) and his snake...i wonder which hand he used? hahahaha. kidding kidding...bad karma...and no, i didn't NOT take pictures cuz i was scared of heights! serious! really!
there was one last place of interest inside angkor thom that i wanna include here in episode 2...which was this place called the terrace of elephants...
terrace of elephants carving
this place used to be a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies and served as a base for the king's grand audience hall...these walls stretched for about 350m...
terrace of elephants wall
this is where the king would stand...
platform for king
imagine the king reviewing his troops before war...think of all the famous roman / greek / scottish war movies you've seen...all the infantry, cavalry, hourse-drawn chariots...and then add in elephant fighters!!! wowsers! it must have been quite a spectacle...
king's view
and thus ended our visit to angkor thom...but before we take a break, i wanna give you a tiny preview into episode 3...in the meantime, think angelina jolie for a while...trust me, it's something to do with it...i know it'll make at least 50% of you happy...haha.
preview to ta prohm
stay tuned...cheers... =)
anyway...
adventure cambosky - day 3 (episode 2)
after the ungodly-hour start to day 3 (episode 1), we went back to the hotel for some breakfast and rest...
before setting off to the next must-see-angkor-temple...the temples of angkor thom...
entrance to angkor thom
"thom" actually means "great" in khmer (correct me if i'm wrong cambo jo)...so this was a kick-ass huge estate that king jayavarman vii reigned from the years 1181 - 1219. supposedly, at the height of it's glory, it was said to have supported a population of 1 million people...so when i say kick-ass huge, i really mean freaking big.
and obviously, if your population of 1 million is excluding the biggest land animals in the world, the proportion seems so much the greater...there were elephant statutes everywhere around angkor thom...
elephant statues
and even today, their descendants still thrive within the walls...
real angkor thom elephants
one of the most famous temples inside angkor thom is this place called the bayon...it's the second most popular angkor temple, after angkor wat...it's also known as the four-faced-buddha-temple...actually, i just made that up...but anyway, you'll see why...
entrance to bayon
and yet, more reminders of the gentle giants...
more elephants
there are a total of 54 towers with 216 buddhas smiling down on everyone...
bayon 1
bayon 2
and it was here that i decided to play around with my black and white settings on my nikon camera...some actually turned out not too bad...this kinda went on for a while, so don't worry, you're not occasionally colour blind...haha.
light at end of tunnel
bayon 3
there was this cute chic waiting for her prince...which we unfortunately deduced to be the ugly chinaman taking her picture. to each her own...haha.
bayon rapunzel
bayon 4
sorry, i didn't know what else to call you lah...
photographson (jason)
bayon four-faced buddha
bayon half-faced buddha
josonsky bayon 1
there were lots of stairs to climb, as with almost all of the other temples that we went to...all of which are so steep and narrow that a crash helmet is recommended...just in case you slip on any of the afore-mentioned chinaman's wads of spit...haha. kidding lah. bad karma moby... =)
bayon stairs
bayon is really magnificent...it must have literally taken all of the one million people who populated angkor thom to manufacture such a masterpiece...
bayon overview
josonsky bayon 2
as we left the bayon, to head on to another part of angkor thom, we saw this entrance somewhere...
middle-of-nowhere entrance
and we decided to take a break by taking another picture next to this big old tree...
josonsky before-cambo-jo-fall
cambo jo slipped when he was getting off the tiny hill towards the-middle-of-nowhere, and got a few scratches on his poor wittle thigh...he wanted me to put that in.
(notice hand on hip and slight limp)
entering nowhere
as it turned out, the middle of nowhere led us to this place called phimeanakas, which is supposedly the royal temple...
phimeanakas steps
"legend has it that at the top of the stairs, there's this place where the king was 'forced' to make love to this mystical serpent snake thingy every single night." - cambo jo
i didn't take pictures of that place cuz i didn't feel right about disturbing the sanctity of the sensual mating ground of a king (no less) and his snake...i wonder which hand he used? hahahaha. kidding kidding...bad karma...and no, i didn't NOT take pictures cuz i was scared of heights! serious! really!
there was one last place of interest inside angkor thom that i wanna include here in episode 2...which was this place called the terrace of elephants...
terrace of elephants carving
this place used to be a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies and served as a base for the king's grand audience hall...these walls stretched for about 350m...
terrace of elephants wall
this is where the king would stand...
platform for king
imagine the king reviewing his troops before war...think of all the famous roman / greek / scottish war movies you've seen...all the infantry, cavalry, hourse-drawn chariots...and then add in elephant fighters!!! wowsers! it must have been quite a spectacle...
king's view
and thus ended our visit to angkor thom...but before we take a break, i wanna give you a tiny preview into episode 3...in the meantime, think angelina jolie for a while...trust me, it's something to do with it...i know it'll make at least 50% of you happy...haha.
preview to ta prohm
stay tuned...cheers... =)
