The second part of our trip to the Temples took us to the area known as Angkor Thom. Of our total "Angkor Wat" time of seven & a half hours, we spent quite a lot of it at Angkor Thom - in particular, Bayon, the temple of King Jayavarman VII. This is one of the more commonly photographed temples, given the 216 enigmatic stone faces (of the Buddhist Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara) that adorn it. A fascinating place and although more 'ragged' in appearance than ...

Hello again. Angkor Wat is a massive, ancient World Heritage Site located only 5 or 6 kilometres from Siem Reap. It was built in the early 12th Century as a Hindu 'Temple City' (this being the translation of the words Angor Wat). Very approximately 100 years later it was reconstituted as a Buddhist centre and so it remains today. There is so much history attached to both this and the other nearby structures that I won't insult anyone by pretending to know muc...

Hello fellow Simians. It is going to take me a while to put up the photos from Angkor Wat etc so here shortly will be some pix of the local night markets. We are a bit over the whole T-shirt and tourist stuff scene so Ken had the fish foot-nibbling Spa treatment and Des had a 30 minute back massage. Add to this the USD $0.50 draft Angkor beer schooners, dodging of scooters, cheap eats & noisy bars and it's a good way to spend some time before heading back...

Howdy. Most of today has been spent in Airports so not a lot to report. We had a flight out of Vientiane this morning to travel the 1hr 20 minutes to Pakse (pronounced Pack-say) in the south of Laos. From there we had a connecting International 1hr flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia - gateway to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom etc., etc. Some pix are attached, although (maybe) tomorrow we will go to Angkor Wat - which will be much more interesting I expect. Sabaidee!

Hi all. We visited two quite different locations today, this being our last day in Vientiane before setting off for Cambodia. Pha That Luang is an important national icon, seen as a symbol of both Buddhism and Lao sovereignty. There are a number of buildings on-site but the most significant is the 45 metre high Stupa. As I understand it - meaning this is likely wrong - every Stupa contains a relic of the Buddha. In this instance, a piece of his breastbone. Le...