Angkor What?!

OK that was about the lamest "word joke"i could make but.....words kinda fail when you see something this huge, this awesome and this imposing created so long ago.

Quick history?

Built by a series of Khmer kings from the 9th to 13th centuries. At the same time Angkor had a population of 1 million people London had only 0nly 50,000!

The buildings are covered and i mean covered in carvings, some tiny and intricate (think tukutuku panels on a marae, but in stone) while others are huge!

Religious stories, battles all sorts of imagery is seen and it is mind blowingly huge!!!

Sorry to keep using exclamation points but this place is gigantic, you know the moats that european castles had around them, well the Khmer kings made lakes around theirs, they look like huge olympic swimming pools surrounding these incredible stone structures.

The rainy season in Cambodia is like nothing ive ever seen, the trees started to cover Angkor as soon as the civilisation that created it was destroyed, you can see how the jungle did this in

The trees are now holding up the walls so are left as they are.

So lets have a quick look at the pics, oh yeah, there are monkeys there as well! and crazy steep stone staircases that threaten to make you fall to the bottom of these temples.
In several of the temples, it looks like the Ents are destroying ruins (sorry, a LOTR thing)

There are carvings of Monkey soldiers battling demons and all sorts! each carving is so detailed even after 800 years!

There are tourists everywhere, every nation on earth is visiting and yet the place is so huge (i had a motorcyle and driver each day you often find whole temples all to your self, well to you and the many kids selling scarves, coke, flutes etc!)

Its really hard to say no when a kid starts chattering away to you and when they find out your kiwi, starts counting to ten in Maori!!!, the same kid was able to do it in Polish and 8 other languages, talk about a clever kid and yes i bought her postcards and they will be coming to Hataitai soon (apparently the post office in Cambodia isnt quite like the one in Kilbirnie.... letters sometimes just dont get there!)

Because Angkor is still a Religious site, you find monks and shrines everywhere and the general mood in the place is quiet and thoughtful, most of the tourists are pretty cool with it and dont treat the temples like a climbing frame (but there are always exceptions like this pair of Yanks)

The Huge stone faces that seem to look down on you are quite spooky and at times you find yourself all alone in the jungle which can add to the whole Tomb Raider feel of the place.

The number of carved animals is amazing, you get elephants, monkeys, serpents tigers etc and they are often carved in 3-D (rather than as a relief carving eg just a little part is carved out of the rock)

I wont bore you with all 90 photos of Angko, but it was a very cool experience, im now doing some shopping before getting a bike and riding out to catch the sunsetting at Angkor.

I will be catching up with my friend Jasons sister in Siem Reap before going down to Phnom with them next week.