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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 11, 2009 5:35:00 GMT
The little frieze above: *swoon*
And the penultimate one of the monks -- that is just a stellar picture! It is such a treat to get to look at so many views of these temples.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2009 15:58:30 GMT
Too bad for those who are tired of this stuff. I could go to the Angkor temples every week (just like hwinpp), so here are some more photos. I should mention that the ponds and lakes that you see in certain pictures were also carved out of the jungle, just like the temples. They were not there already. The people that you see begging on both sides along the main walkway to Angkor Wat are all amputees.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2009 16:02:54 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 11, 2009 18:08:49 GMT
Tired?! Not hardly!! I can see how a person would want to go over & over again. There is so much to see, and I imagine different times of day, weather, etc. bring out different kinds of beauty in the temples. That overhead shot with the lion just slays me -- thanks!
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Post by spindrift on Apr 12, 2009 21:56:55 GMT
Lovely, lovely. I'll soon be posting my pics of the same temples.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2009 1:19:10 GMT
I keep viewing these photos and see something else each time,I can only imagine why one would want to go back again and again to visit. They are so beautiful. Thank you.
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Post by spindrift on Apr 16, 2009 8:13:21 GMT
The temples (all of them) are truly wonderful. The only thing that puts me off returning to the area is having to stay in Siem Reap which is the town nearby. Huge hotels have risen from the dust with dual carriageways - it's a mess. Luckily I found one of the few charming hotels which is built in Cambodian-style; it was a boutique hotel with luxuriant gardens away from the noise and bluster. The Hanuman Alaya hotel. www.hanumanalaya.com/
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2009 12:18:45 GMT
Maybe I could get a job there. Spend half the year there,half here. Yes,that would be quite nice. Room and board, a little spending money.
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Post by Jazz on Apr 16, 2009 12:25:20 GMT
Your temple photos are beautiful. I look often at many of the photo essays, they are all worth more than just one look. (Egypt-Baz' and yours, Spindrift's Tibetan threads (the windows!), Tilly in London, Bixa in Mexico etc. etc.) Maybe I'm just obsessed with photos?
I would love to see these temples, even once! Spindrift, have you stayed at that lovely hotel?
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Post by spindrift on Apr 17, 2009 7:45:53 GMT
Jazz, I did stay at that lovely hotel but only after a lot of trouble. I booked my Cambodia/Laos trip through a company called Himalayan Kingdoms in the UK. This hotel was specified for Siem Reap. We were tired when we arrived in Siem Reap, a car met up and took us to a hotel and we checked in. It was only when I was resting on the bed that I realised we had been put into a very inferior hotel on the main drag into town with building works going on all around us, dirty tablecloths and horrible touristy food! My companion didn't care and would have gone along with the deception but I roused myself and made a fuss. It turned out that the Hanuman Alaya Hotel was full but I was so irate that finally the manager of the H.Alaya put us in the 'overflow' house which was charming and was a genuine old Cambodian house filled with antiques and with no aircon (thank goodness). We stayed there for a week and walked to the main hotel for our wonderful meals. I was appalled by the hundreds of recently constructed multi-story hotels on the busy roads in and out of town. Actually I'd never want to return to that fracas. I'm sorry to say that there are hundreds of tourists at the main temples and the atmosphere has been ruined....but at the out-of-the-way temples there is still peace and tranquillity. I remember we went up a hill one evening to See the Sunset...It turned out that we were crammed in with thousands of others all marching up the hill to see a really inferior sunset and then we all marched down again. It was hellish. I noticed that ropes are being put around and into certain temples so that tourists can be herded around and 'Do Not Touch the Temples' signs put up. If you want to see the temples go soon or, in my opinion, they'll become a Disney World attraction....I wouldn't be surprised to see motorised little trains going around them soon.
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Post by hwinpp on Apr 17, 2009 9:49:21 GMT
Jazz, I did stay at that lovely hotel but only after a lot of trouble. I booked my Cambodia/Laos trip through a company called Himalayan Kingdoms in the UK. This hotel was specified for Siem Reap. We were tired when we arrived in Siem Reap, a car met up and took us to a hotel and we checked in. It was only when I was resting on the bed that I realised we had been put into a very inferior hotel on the main drag into town with building works going on all around us, dirty tablecloths and horrible touristy food! My companion didn't care and would have gone along with the deception but I roused myself and made a fuss. It turned out that the Hanuman Alaya Hotel was full but I was so irate that finally the manager of the H.Alaya put us in the 'overflow' house which was charming and was a genuine old Cambodian house filled with antiques and with no aircon (thank goodness). We stayed there for a week and walked to the main hotel for our wonderful meals. I was appalled by the hundreds of recently constructed multi-story hotels on the busy roads in and out of town. Actually I'd never want to return to that fracas. I'm sorry to say that there are hundreds of tourists at the main temples and the atmosphere has been ruined....but at the out-of-the-way temples there is still peace and tranquillity. I remember we went up a hill one evening to See the Sunset...It turned out that we were crammed in with thousands of others all marching up the hill to see a really inferior sunset and then we all marched down again. It was hellish. I noticed that ropes are being put around and into certain temples so that tourists can be herded around and 'Do Not Touch the Temples' signs put up. If you want to see the temples go soon or, in my opinion, they'll become a Disney World attraction....I wouldn't be surprised to see motorised little trains going around them soon. LOL! That would ave been Phnom Bakheng. A very nice temple, the first at Angkor. But I agree, sharing it with 3000 other tourists isn't exactly enjoyable. Next time you come SD, go there for sunrise. You'll have it practically all to yourself. And re hotels. I agree, the airport road bunkers are terrible. But SR is also slowly getting the thirst for smallish boutique hotels. There are some nice places in town itself now.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2015 19:29:35 GMT
I am rubbing my hands together over this thread trying to warm up.
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Post by questa on Feb 1, 2015 4:21:59 GMT
htmb...I have a few, do you want me to scan and post them? Someone tried to steal my camera there and after a short tussle I got it back but it had fallen to the ground and lost the zoom facility. What I have is OK though.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 5:49:00 GMT
More photos of Angkor are always welcome!
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Post by htmb on Feb 1, 2015 11:22:54 GMT
htmb...I have a few, do you want me to scan and post them? Someone tried to steal my camera there and after a short tussle I got it back but it had fallen to the ground and lost the zoom facility. What I have is OK though. Sounds great, Questa!
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Post by questa on Feb 2, 2015 23:12:38 GMT
Having spent so much time on it, I will finish it. I looked again at the other posts and the colours are all a bit strange. Probably age, mosses and jungle light change the spectrum. ht
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Post by questa on Feb 2, 2015 23:37:55 GMT
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Post by questa on Feb 2, 2015 23:45:59 GMT
Hardly worth the effort, was it? I will look carefully at the other photos and see if I can post any. It was another roll of film and before the camera was damaged.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 3, 2015 5:27:30 GMT
I think it was Questa! Amazing photos of a place I doubt I will ever visit. But your photos have left me in awe of this incredible sight. The root formations look quite frightening - I wonder what the stonework looks like underneath them. Almost crushed to a crumble, or preserved better than what the eye can see..?
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Post by questa on Feb 3, 2015 5:46:58 GMT
Thanks, tod. The trees are Strangler Figs and are amazing. They put out a little shoot smaller than a pencil which creeps along until it finds a crack to go through. Then it enters there and grows huge, splitting the stones like a steel wedge. then more shoots emerge. In the first pic it looks like a monster (a Triffid?) standing on its many legs and its arms reaching over the roof top. Creepy,
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2015 5:53:20 GMT
Most of the stonework was indeed destroyed. Much of what can be see now has been reassembled over the years (but not too much), first by the Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient and in later years with the assistance of UNESCO with sponsorship of temples by various countries. When the temples were first rediscovered, most of them were just a jumble of rocks, destroyed not only by the vegetation but also by earthquakes.
One of the most impressive things that you can see when you visit the area is the fastidious numbering of each and every stone in the reconstruction projects, because before you can rebuild a stable base, you have to take everything apart first -- but remember how to put it back together.
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Post by questa on Feb 3, 2015 21:23:40 GMT
I found it a strange time to be there...they were putting the last touches to a huge set which was to be used in a presentation to mark the beginning of Year 2000. All the lighting, sound and visuals of the main Wat mixed with beautiful dancers and chanting monks. It was to be shown around the world.
On the other hand there were still stray bullets being fired as the Army rounded up the remaining Khmer Rouge. and, as K2 said, repeated warnings about leaving the marked paths due to landmines.
Mixing these factors with the ancient ruins, jungles and strange light...it was an unforgettable experience.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2015 6:03:23 GMT
Really fascinating photographs, Questa! Of course I'm sorry that your camera got damaged, but the resulting effects seem to heighten the impression of discovering that amazing ruin in the jungle.
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Post by htmb on Feb 4, 2015 11:30:14 GMT
Thanks for all your efforts in posting your photos, Questa. They are quite interesting!
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Post by questa on Feb 5, 2015 11:33:14 GMT
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Post by htmb on Feb 5, 2015 11:52:34 GMT
Beautiful, Questa!
(I was surprised to see a horse in your first photo of the last series.)
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Post by questa on Feb 5, 2015 12:20:59 GMT
A Horse? I see no horse. Some have called the trees growing over the roof a 'stegasaurus' but a Horse???
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Post by htmb on Feb 5, 2015 12:31:58 GMT
First photo in reply 33: there is a tree at the top edge of the water. Look to the left of the tree. There's a white horse.
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Post by questa on Feb 5, 2015 20:59:18 GMT
I see it now, I was looking at a wrong set of pics. I can't remember many horses in Cambodia, just pairs of white buffalo, with huge horns, pulling the carts and ploughs. I wonder if someone was setting up a "pony ride" business for the local tourists?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2015 22:53:36 GMT
I remember a few horses grazing beside more than one of the temples.
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