Stanley's pictures: Our Next Stop Was The Bayon Temple,

this one is famous as it has four Buddha images on each side of the structure,

also it appeared in the Tomb Raider movie,

naturally Diana with her Billingham bag has to be in the shot,

the perfect pose,

Jeff and Da also take the pose,

in front of the temple there are so many stones waiting to be put back in their proper place,

one of the Buddha faces,

again there were lots of tourists here,

but moving around a little they soon became out of sight,

so it was just the sculptures and myself,

every room had frescoes on the walls,

a detail of this one revels that the Queen had her face removed at some point in time,

Jeff then pointed this frieze out,

very interesting for me, most probably the earlist depictions of fish that I had ever seen,

also a crocodile eating them,

a view looking up towards the sky in one of the building,

just occasionally there is a statue that has been adorn with silk cloth and gold leaf,

a part of this temple has collapsed but wooden beams have been put in place to stop any further damage,

although it looks quiet and peaceful,

just a few steps away the temple is packed with people,

the girls decide to take the pose,

and again,

so we just had to as well,

we then decided to break away from the group,

and have a walk around by ourselves,

it was so much nicer,

but then we got caught up in the tourist trail again,

there were so many photo opportunities,

but which to keep and which to send to the dustbin?

which is why this series of posts is taking so much time,

by the time I have completed this series of posts,

and if you have looked at them all,

you will have seen over 1,000 images,

then to our next stop, but not by tricycle,

we went by mini bus to the South Gate,

a bit narrow for modern day cars, but when it was built the perfect size for carts, making our way to Angkor Wat

the Naga head at the end of the approach,

in the distance a lighter than air balloon was taking to the skies,

I guess it gives a great view of Angkor Wat, it is tethered to the ground, so it just goes up and down,

as we arrived a lucky couple were getting married, this venue is often used as a reception or photograph area, there are lots of restaurants here for the wedding party,

the cause way leading to Angkor Wat,

we are lucky this year,

the last time I was here the moat was dry as a bone,

the approach to the grand entrance,

what must it have been like all of those years ago?

our guide Mr. Johnny explains to us how 9 and 10 year old children were given guns 30 or so years ago and then told to shoot the place up,

one of the inner courtyards,

here another young man is getting ready to be married,

no sign of the bride yet,

as we make our way in to the temple we are greeted by statues,

unfortunately some did not survive Pol Pot,

then another walk,

we are on our way to East Mebon,

there are horses that you can see in the background for those that are foot sore,

but for us that was not an issue, we soldiered on in the now blazing heat,

work was in progress here too,

at both ends of the temple,

inside there were huge walls of carvings,

and pillars,

the work so fine,

it is so easy to look over work like this as there is so much of it,

we then moved into a series of inner courtyards,

but they were not what they seemed, they were all pools which would some 1,200 years ago been filled with water,

between courtyards there were a few more statues,

then more pools,

we must remember this is a holy place, so every so often Da would make obedience to the temple Gods,

as did many people,

through the next archway, and we found more pools,

so many it was difficult to know what there were there for,

but there were certainly lots of them,

these of course are ornamental pools, there are many reservoirs around Angkor Wat to hold and collect water for the dry season,

scientist and scholars that have studied Angkor Wat have concluded that a lack of water lead to its demise, well I have another theory, Angkok Wat failed because it became too rich, too successful, the non farming community put too many demands on the farmers, sons of farmers did not want to work and fled the hard life of the fields and moved into the huge city, which then slowly starved itself to death due to a lack of farm produce, wealth killed Angkor Wat, well that's my theory and I am sticking to it!

the view through one of the many windows,

and along one of the many corridors,

years ago you could climb these steps but no longer, they are now considered too step,

some more stones waiting to be scanned and put on a computer with an aim to finding out where they go,

Diana as lovely as ever,

Jeff and Da by the stairs that Mark and myself once climbed, great view from the top,

Diana poses before the great climb,

and she is up, the stairs look step but the originals were at a much stepper angle,

the view from the top,

and there is me down there looking for a coffee sweet in Diana's Billingham bag,

a view along one of the corridors at the top of the temple,

and looking the other way,

the view across the jungle,

Diana was down soon, she is almost as afraid of heights as I am!

this one temple is so huge, it is difficult to realise there are so many more almost a big,

the steps, I have been told that the steps for ladies when they were built were 55 degrees, but a staggering 72 degrees incline for men,

work continues, look just by the new looking pillar,

and you will see these chaps hard at work,

we now start to make our way down to ground level,

passing many passageways,

and corridors as we do,

another tour doing the rounds,

a few clouds start to appear in the sky, without them it is so hot,

silent sentries look through unblinking eyes, what stories they could tell,

we start the walk back to the mini bus,

palm trees line the cause way,

it is longer than it looks!

a smaller building half way along, the tethered balloon in the distance,

then on to the main cause way that links the temple complex with the mainland,

where we find another couple getting married,

this I believe the Groom,

and the bride,

made it at last through the sun and the heat,

we take a rest in the shade till we are all assembled to go for lunch,

then over the road to the restaurant,

part of the package we paid for was that we could order five main course dishes of our choice and any soft drinks included, for the four of us it was a great deal as we could not eat all of the five dishes,