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Wat-ting and Shadowing
What a day! Angkor Wat at dawn and shadow puppets at dusk, with local school children and artisans in between. We arrived at Angkor Wat along with about 10,000 of our closest friends at 6:00 am for a 6:45 sunrise and parked ourselves on the slope of a reflecting pond. On perfect mornings the sky…
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Gawking and Donating
I hardly know where to start. Bayon Temple inside Angkor Thom contains an fantastic collection of faces. Everywhere there are faces, not quite smiling, but not neutral either – kind of the late 12th century version of the Mona Lisa.
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Exploring and Visiting
An early start this morning saw us at Ta Prohm before the crowds, but still there were lots of tourists taking in the sights with us. Ta Prohm is a small part of the overall Angkor complex – you will see it in the bottom right-hand part of the map – and was constructed around…
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Flying and Anticipating
Today was largely a travel day. We left the Luang Prabang hotel at 9 am and arrived at the Siem Reap hotel at 2:30 pm. On the way we stopped at Pakse, Laos, exited the aircraft, waited half an hour in a lounge and then reboarded for the rest of the trip. I’m not sure…
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Eating and Dancing
In 1975 with the rise of the Communist state, the Lao royal family was exiled to somewhere in eastern Laos. Our local guide claims no one knows where they were sent or whether any are still alive. The French-built royal palace is now The National Museum. Much of what was in the palace is still…
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Discovering and Giving
And I thought I had seen a lot of Buddhas by now. We started today with a brief walk through the morning market where everything, our guide told us, can be purchased. (Except diet Coke – ed.) Entire plucked chickens – heads and feet still attached – and both live and barbequed fish as well…
