Cambodia - Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom is another major temple complex in the Angkor Archeological Park, not far from Angkor Wat. At its center is the 12th century Bayon temple, famous for the many faces (I’ve heard both 49 and 54, but I didn’t count) carved into its stone. There are also over a kilometer of bas-relief carvings in the walls of the first and second levels. We made the mistake of hiring a guide when we got to the temple, who spent much of the time complaining about corruption in Cambodia (it is bad: they rank 156 out of 176 on Transparency Internationals Corruption Index), even though we were paying him to tell us about the temple. As he droned on Deborah and I kept looking at each other wondering how much longer this torture would last. At the end I handed him a $20 for our $15 tour but he conveniently didn’t have change so he got a nice tip for a crappy tour. We actually made a return visit to this temple in the late afternoon of our last temple day to see it at our own pace, and without the “thousands of crazy Chinese” as our tuk tuk driver described the big tour groups.

Angkor Thom and the Bayon



The faces face all four directions on the towers








Bas-reliefs





These young people were doing a photo shoot at the temple (for a wedding?)








Set up for elephant rides


Reclining Buddha formed into the wall









There were a few of these guys hanging around the temple


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