Day 2 – A Couple Days Late But Not A Dollar Short

I do apologize for being a couple days late on the blogs! My intention is to take some time to blog and post pictures of our epic adventure daily. However, after a full day of seeing temples, and with the prospect of waking at 4am the next day. I had to put that aside to make sure we were well rested for the adventures of Day 3.

We slept in until 8am this morning, after our late arrival the night before, we arranged with Mr. Tei (Pronounced Tee.) who met us at the airport to take us around the next two days for $30 USD a day. He promptly met us at our hotel lobby after our buffet breakfast.

Our first stop was to the Banyan Temple. It was a bit of a culture shock, because I kept expecting to compare the temples in Siem Reap to those in Thailand, and that was impossible to do as all of the historical temples were in such disrepair. Due to the Khmer Rouge and other previous wars, each party each doing their part to destroy Cambodia’s Buddhist heritage.

We did get to see quite a few monkeys along the way. These two had a bit of a disagreement, but appeared to have made up along the way.

The temple structure itself was impressive, as you can see from the tower carvings here. The temple as build around 12 AD, and has 37 standing towers.

Here is Mi Jung the intrepid explorer, walking around in the Cambodian heat.  Which can be a bit stifling, however Mi Jung brought these cooling wraps that you soak in cold water, and fasten around your neck. They helped quite a bit, and Inside the temple passageways themselves where these little Buddhist shrines.

Here is a close up of the face carvings in the tops of the towers.

Our next stop was the Ta Prom Temple, which was made famous in 1999 by being the temple featured in the movie Tomb Raider.

This was a great temple to get to walk around and photograph. Not only was the stone work itself fun and challenging to photograph, but the trees that grew in and around, and sometimes through the temple made for great subjects in and off themselves but also made a nice addition to my portrait work.

 Here are a couple of really good portraits I did of Mi Jung with the 50mm lens in the cleft of a large tree trunk.  I was practically in Mi Jungs face with the lens, but it turned out great!

Mi Jung got to pick up some really nice paintings done by a local artist, and he was nice enough to also let me photograph him.

As our day of temple exploring drew to an end, I was able to get this hilarious photo of Mi Jung literally running away from one of the many children trying to sell her souvenirs. They were not expensive, only a dollar a piece, the problem comes from the fact that if you purchase a trinket from one child, the others are watching and crow around you trying to sell you their wares. It can get to be a bit much at times.

It was back to the hotel to wash the red Cambodian dust off our weary bodies, and spend about an hour relaxing around the pool. I ended giving Mi Jung a swimming lesson, and she went from panicking in 3 feet of water, to somewhat of a doggie paddle across the width of the hotel pool to great amusement of the poolside chef! You have to start somewhere. I don’t know what it would be like trying to learn to swim as an adult myself.

We finished eating dinner around 8pm, and it was time to get much needed sleep, before tomorrows sunrise visit to Angkor Wat.

I thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and I am sorry that things did not go as planned!  The internet aboard the boat was just way to slow to upload any pictures, and I am in not in this for the article alone.