Day 2 of our tour of Siem Reap involved a revisit to the temples of Angkor Wat to see a couple we'd missed the day before as well as a hike up a small mountain/large hill to a waterfall at the River of a Thousand Lingas. We saw some gorgeous stuff, for sure. Enjoy the pics!
The oldest temple, dedicated in 961 C.E., which is largely incomplete.
Matt's Castle.
Gorgeously detailed carvings. Super deep relief!
the bricks here much smaller than the other temples, and are held together with tree resin.
On the climb up to the waterfall, we saw some wild vines.
Josh was soaking his head. Later he took his shirt off and soaked it. Lemme tell ya, in the rainforest, it's unbearably hot.
Some of the 1000 Lingas. Phallic shapes carved into the rockbed of the river, symbolising the power of the god Shiva, to create a whole waterfall of holy water!
Carving of Shiva reclining on a serpent with concubines at his feet.
Lunch was had at The Flying Coconut. It was pretty nummers.
These ants were eating this worm alive. It was pretty grody.
Young gibbon suckin' his toe. We visited the ACCB (Angkor Centre for Conservation and Biodiversity) and got to see lots of native Cambdodian species that are endangered or vulnerable due to loss of habitat and hunting. The centre rescues animals kept wrongfully as pets, or orphaned by hunters, etc. They intend to breed the animals they can and release the offspring into the wild to help the populations of these animals grow once again.
Pig Tailed Macaque.
Long Tailed Macaque
Adult male gibbon.
Huge Storks. I forget what they're called.
Vicious wee kitty who lives at the ACCB. Apparently she'll hunt snakes, lizards and she attacked a german shepherd!
Also, while on our tour with Vantha, we introduced him to Geocaching. We missed his initial burst of hysterical laughter as he found the cache, but Josh managed to video the encounter as we explained how the game works. He giggles at the idea of it like a little boy. He was so excited. He kept wanting to find more and more. He was infatuated with the whole concept! The vid is here (sorry, uploading videos to the blog is painfully slow):
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