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January 11, 2005

Angkor What?

We took a three day whirl wind tour of the Angkor Complex, going 90 miles an hour each day.
It would literally take someone at least a week to see the entire thing.
It was beautiful and awe inspiring. Some of the ruins were pristinely restored, others were overgrown with the penetrating jungle. Some of the temples had extremely elaborate carvings, detailed to the point where you just can't imagine it done by humans. Other ruins were plain... massive stones laid upon massive stones, pyramid fashion and towering up to the clouds. Some of the temples were Buddhist, some where Hindu. Almost ALL of the temples, though, were built with five towers that looked like five lotus flowers. They represented the ancient Hindu legend about the creation of the universe. Something about the four outer towers being the stars in the universe and middle (tallest) tower representing the stick that stirred the universe into existance. I must say, the legends are really far out there... but very interesting, and beautiful, nonetheless.
The temple of Angkor Wat was the primoridal "crown jewel" of temples. It was beautiful, elaborate, and huge. It was made even more charming by the Buddhist monks wrapped in their orange robes that wandered about. I got some great pictures.

One evening, Pam and I were invited to a Cambodian night club by two of the locals that helped at the hotel. The night club was large and dark and loud inside, just like any other nightclub. It was very different, however. They played three sets of music; one set was traditional American dance music, one set was slow dance music (usually Cambodian men whining about a woman), and the last set was traditional Thai/Cambodian music. I was absolutely delighted to learn two traditional dances, complete with fairly easy footwork and wrist rolls. The dances were gorgeous, and it made up for the fact that Pam and I had to pay the entire bill.

Posted by Erin on January 11, 2005 05:59 AM
Category: 13 Cambodia
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