We headed out towards The area called Angkor Thom. This giant area has a variety of ruins in it. We stopped at a French Restaurant which is located in the parking area right in front of Angkor Wat. This place had great food, was air conditioned and was Tout free.

Ah yes, the Touts…..There are the worst touts of any place I have been in my life in Cambodia, and at the ruins in particular. Hoards of little kids who will not take no for an answer. They surround and envelope you and make it almost impossible to move. Some, on mopeds will race slightly ahead and then turn in front of you to cut you off. If you go anywhere near a booth or business for just a coke or bottle of water, you will be inundated by dozens of touts who ignore your comments about already having 5 pairs of sunglasses and 9 guide books. They will cry “buy one more, just one more” and the will NOT go away. This is the biggest problem with going to the Wats.

Anyway, after a great meal we headed to Angkor Thom. Here is the grand entryway.





Next we hit Bayon. The ancient assembly hall of the Gods. Once having some 50 towers, each adorned with the four faces of Buddha facing in the four directions, there are 37 remaining intact. This place was a dizzying array of corridors and towers. Truly amazing. Several hours were spent here.









Next was the Temple of Baphuon





Then came a variety from Preah Palilay, Preah Pithu The Royal Palace and The Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King…..










After this we started into Siem Reap

Wow. Amazing resolution Val. What camera are you using. Must be at least 7 mp. How do do you maintain the crispness after compression?

BTW. We will be in Rio at the same time.

It is a 7.2 Megapixel Sony Cybershot. I took most of these at about 5M res. I just used the Imhov resizer provided by the board here.

Thanks, for viewing them all, it takes a while to load up unless you have high speed access

I'd like to add comment about the young touts:

They are relentless... But, damn these kids are resourcefull! I visited just after Arnold had been elected as CA's governor. One of the kids asked me where I was from. Hoping to throw him off I said, "Calfornia" (instead of America). He said, "If I can tell you the Governor of California, will you give me a dollar?". I said sure, since he was about the same age as my daughter who never in her life could answer that questions. Sure, enough he knew!

I asked him, "OK. Tell me the capitol of CA". He got it. ..."Tell me the capitol of the US"... He got it. ..."Tell me the capitol of North Carolina". He didn't get it! (But neither would I have!) In my opinion, he was working hard for his money and he deserved it. (And I think he was going to learn the capitol of N. Carolina as soon as he could...)

P.S. I use the same Camera -- don't leave home without it. The only thing I don't like is the power of the flash! But due to the size -- how can we complain!

My msq posted twice -- apologies.. apoligies.. <grin>

(Message edited by rastaman on January 22, 2006)