Last Saturday was a fantastic adventure in the great outdoors! We woke up very early and took a tuk-tuk into Angkor Park. The park spans hundreds of kilometers and there are many different sites and cities all over the place -- we drove about an hour and a half out into the wilderness! We arrived at the base of a small mountain called Mt. Kulen, which is famous for its pre-Angkor carvings in the river beds.
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| Tim on the way up Mt. Kulen! |
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| Cool forest trees! |
Over 1,000 years ago, the people in the valley believed in the sacred power of the waters, and so they carved thousands of linga designs and depictions of Hindu texts into the rocks along the river...quite a sight to behold!
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| Amazing! |
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| Here I am on the way back down! |
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| Butterflies! |
The best part of the whole hike was coming down -- at the bottom we were greeted by three adorable puppies! I am a total sucker for the dogs here, and I was very tempted to put one in my backpack :)
Adorable.
Our next stop on this lovely day of adventuring was to a beautiful temple called Bontaey Srei ('Citadel for Women') which was built after Angkor Wat. It is famous for its use of pink/red sandstone, and it really is spectacular!
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| The gateway into the temple |
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| Beautiful carvings |
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| Thousands of intricate carvings dedicated to the gods |
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| Tim and I |
It was a beautiful day, hot, but gorgeous and we had a fantastic time visiting all of these ancient sites! I am always amazed when confronted with the massive engineering tasks that were possible a thousand years ago!
Next post: Behold ANGKOR WAT!
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