Tourist Sites

What bargain is behind door number 1?

Our hostel street

After our first day of temple exploration, I was very excited to see some more. Our Tuk Tuk chauffeur offered us a tour the next day to Banteay Sri a distant temple with renowned sculpture, along with a full day visiting other temples. Banteay Sri was one of the earliest temples of the Angkor era.

On the way there we saw Pre-Rup, another earlier, but taller temple on the north east edge of the Angkor complex.

ready to climb Pre rup

sara atop Pre Rup

We also visited Cambodia's land mine museum. During Khmer rouge era cambodia became one of the heaviest mined countries in the world.

Mike and sara at Land mine museum

land mine museum 2

Unexploded ordinance- Land mine museum

We had lunch at a roadside stall, and Mike drove a hard bargain getting souvenirs for friends. He visited five shops, made approximately 20 offers before finally making a deal. During the lunch, Mike promised to visit several shops and was told in no uncertain terms that he had to keep his promise. There were various, skirts, shirts, fans, hats, table cloths, miniature temples, post cards and a bamboo flutes in the running for our deal. The final purchase included post cards, two purses, and bracelets! Some little friends are going to be very lucky!
Our last temple, and possible the coolest was Preah Khan.

Preah khan rocks!

Preah khan architecture

PK dancing ladies bas relief

PK ruined ceiling

PK two story temple interrior

OOps did I do that?

Sara explores Preah Khan

Preah Khan interior ruins

Preah Khan interior 2

Boarding plane back to Kuala Lumpur

The next day, our tuk tuk from the previous night was waiting for us in the hopes we would tour the temples. We decided to hire him for the day along with our new Norweigen friend, Oevind. The three of us started our tour at about 11 in the morning. It turns out we only had time that day to do the "small tour."

We joyfully hit the road to tour what is billed as the eight wonder of the world. Most of the temples were built between 1100 and 1400 AD during the height of the Khmer empire. At the time when Angkor had around 1,000,000 people London had about 50,000. Talk about the power of agricultural advances!
Enjoy the pics.

elephants at park entrance

outside bayonne

Sara come down!!

faces 2

faces of bayonne

life in the midst of stone

gross... don't look

Mike Meditating

Bayonne entry

Buddha north of Bayonn

then Baphuon.

Mike and Oevind

temple Cambodia

sara wants to go heavenward

sara climbed here

sara on Top of Bayonne

Temple north of Bayonn - - siem reap

the top of temple Buddha-- siem reap

We then headed north outside of the city for lunch and a couple of temples further north and east Ta Sohn I believe.

raiders of the lost ark anyone- siem reap

Mike is a mythical creature- siem reap

Sara, Mike, and our buddy Oevind- siem reap

bas relief at AW- siem reap

cool light at AW- siem reap

Buddha at AW- siem reap

inscription at angkor wat - siem reap

end of day at angkor wat- siem reap

It was an amazing first day. Entrance to the temples for 3 days $40 USD. Transport for the day $15 for three people. Additional expenses...lunch $6 per person. The only decision for tonight...How early do we start tomorrow?

Next Episode...What deal is behind door number one or...you want 2 WAT?

enjoy the photos courtesy of our buddy Regina
Casa Rosada

Plaza de Mayo

Columbus monument

cemetary

Peace,

more soon
Sara and Mike

Finally, we arrived in Cuzco. The heart of the Inca Empire and the “umbilical cord of the world.” After the trauma of our bus ride we found some breakfast, and then we happily began to settle in at our hostel. Sara and Regina took a siesta while I went exploring. The streets are almost entirely cobblestone with the center of town being mostly colonial age buildings with balconies. I found my way to the main plaza. Its main plaza is beautiful. One side was almost entirely filled by the Cathedral which had been rebuilt several times due to earthquakes. There was also a McDonalds with Wi-Fi along with several other colonial buildings populating the plaza. I wandered to a few other minor plazas and had a cup of café con leche, before deciding to check on Sara.
My return turned out to be a little more circuitous than planned since I had done quite a bit of twisting and turning in my exploration. When I returned the ladies asked me if I thought the room smelled funny. My sense of smell not being the greatest, I didn’t notice much…yet. We ate dinner in one of the minor plazas near an wood-fired oven, which Sara loved because she was still freezing from the night before. When we arrived back at the hotel the room definitely smelled BAD! The doors being closed for several hours had concentrated the musty smell beyond the point of minor annoyance.

The next day we did the city tour visiting five surrounding Inca sites.

Quiracancha…the temple of the Sun being one of the most impressive. It is right in the middle of the city and the Spanish conquerors demolished much of it to build a monastery, but they surprising left some of it intact.

Saqsawaman comprises another large ruin complex just on the hills outside the city. Two large hills were almost entirely covered by original and reconstructed walls. Sara and I climbed almost to the top of one before we went on to meet up with our tour. We also visited a hill/cave complex and saw an altar where human and llama sacrifices occurred. This was by far the creepiest moment of the trip to date. Our tour guide very consistently told us of the perfection in all ways of the Inca proudly told us that they only did human sacrifices every fifteen years or so! YIKES.

On our last day in Cuzco we went to Machu Pichu. What can you say? Every amazing thing you hear about it is true. You descend into a rain-forest type environment from the high desert of Cuzco.

All the while the train follows the valley of a sizeable river with rapids and small falls. Finally, we climbed to the summit of the ruins via mini bus.

Mist and vegetation covered mountain spires surround the citadel (or monastery depending on who you talk to). The only drawback was the speed of the tour and the size of the crowds thronging the ruins. The terraced mountain provided space to grow crops and defend the city. Farmer’s dwellings huddled near the agricultural sector. Higher up a sentinel station stood watch over the entrance to the city and its approaches. The temple of the sun and main temple dominate the heights and off in the distance on one of the closest peaks an astronomical observatory beckoned. At the end of the tour, we stopped and sat amidst the ruins for some time, trying to soak up the grandeur and get beyond the observational factoid voice of our tour guide.

It was during this time of quiet reflection that we were almost trampled by llamas that graze the grass of Machu Picchu.


The amount of uncertainty and contradiction that still surrounds the ruins is almost as astounding as its beauty.

We shared a nice pizza and beer with a fellow traveler, Alexis (from Disrael, Quebec) at a friendly spot called the Quipu before heading back to the train station.

As we rode the train back down toward Cuzco in the darkness, we tried to save some strength since we would be back on a bus to Puno at about 7AM.