Blake and Deb Far Away

Siem Reap is the gateway city to the Angkor Archaeological Park, and like every other tourist we made it our base for exploring Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Like other towns in developing countries it is a bit dirty, a bit smelly, with more than its share of potholes and crumbing sidewalks. Still, the people were friendly, we had an incredible hotel experience (which Deborah has promised to blog about), and the food is cheap and tasty. Here is some of what we saw while walking around town. Cambodian version of a pickup truck, this one complete with coconuts. Khmer, English and Chinese all on the same storefront. Happy kids (photo by Deborah) She has a lot of work to do. One of the fancy hotels in town, complete with vintage automobiles. (photo by Deborah) Fish spas are everywhere. The little aquatic pedicurists will nibble away at the dead skin of your feet. Not a diet I would choose. (photo by Deborah) Tuk T...

Angkor Thom is another major temple complex in the Angkor Archeological Park, not far from Angkor Wat. At its center is the 12 th 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 ...

Cambodia is a poor country with a rich heritage. The latter, of course, is what drew us here. The Khmer Empire spread over much of Southeast Asia and flourished for over 600 years until its fall in the 15 th Century. Many monumental Hindu temples (later consecrated to Buddhism) were built during this period, including those in the Angkor Archeological Park World Heritage Site. Seam Reap is our base for exploring these magnificent temples. We bought a 3-day pass, which fortunately did not have to be used on consecutive days so we could spread out our visits and avoid getting “templed out.” We started by travelling by tuk tuk (2-wheeled carriage pulled behind a motorbike) with a pre-dawn visit to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat, which dates to the 12 th century and is the most famous of the temples in the complex. Its towers even grace the Cambodia flag. I had made arrangements with a tuk tuk driver named Tom (they often take Western names to make it easier on tourists) to pick...

This is the first time in all the years we have traveled that I actually have a camera, thanks to smart phones. In our past travel Blake takes all the pictures and I stand around and watch. It has been so much fun for me to take pictures and it keeps me occupied while Blake takes thousands!  To keep it interesting I try to not be always taking pictures of the same things as Blake. I like to take pictures of “life in action” so I have millions of these type of pictures.  Yikes! Here are the faces of Bali. Oh…... and the scooters!