Koh Samui, Thailand

 We spent the last part of our Southeast Asian vacation on the beach in Koh Sumai, Thailand.  We stayed at a gorgeous resort that greeted us with drinks and leis on our arrival.

Checking In

View of the hotel from the beach

Berry smoothie at the pool

Building sand castles on the beach

Swim up bar - ;)

Trying to catch fish and crabs

We visited many of the tourist attractions available on the island, we visited tourist park and saw elephants, monkeys, water buffalo and let fish nibble our toys; we visited the Golden Buddha; Lamai Bay; a Butterfly Garden and a few other places.

The "mother" rocks (in the foreground)

The "father" rock (in the center)

Feeding the fish at the butterfly garden

Dinner on the beach our last night

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Soda!!!!!!

Night Night Thailand, back to Alice in the morning.

Green Gecko Project

Our first night in Cambodia, we had the good fortune of seeing kids from Green Gecko perform bokator for us.  Before we left we got to visit Green Gecko in person and see the amazing kids at their home and school.

Our boys loved the dogs and cats roaming around, but when the Green Gecko kids got a break from their classes they got a kick out of our boys.

 I was so enamoured with the kids and the program that I wanted to spend more time with them, but we were unfortunately leaving the next day.  However, I was fortunate enough to meet one of their volunteers who happens to live here in Alice Springs.  When she returns from her month in Cambodia, we'll get together to brainstorm ways to help the kids.  In the meantime, check out their website here.

Arriving in our tuk tuk

Boys dormitory across their own rice field

Gym Class

"dining" hall

Girls Dormitory

Banteay Srei and Ta Prohm

The boys were a bit worn out after the first two temples in the morning, so we had lunch and relaxed a bit.

After that we took the boys back to the hotel for a rest and Ian and I headed back out to see two more temples, Banteay Srei and Ta Prohm.

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei Temple is a beautiful 10th century Khmer temple complex dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor, it lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 23 miles North of Angkor Wat. Banteay Srei is built mainly of deep red sandstone, a material that lends itself to the elaborate wall carvings which are still well-preserved today. Banteay Srei means Citadel of Women and it is believed that the reliefs on this temple are so delicate that they could only have been carved by the hand of a woman. The relief carvings on the central buildings depict scenes from ancient Hindu myth.

In fact, the buildings are miniature in scale compare to the standards of Angkorian construction. The remarkable craving skills and the red sandstone medium have made the temple very popular with tourists, and is widely praised as the jewel of Khmer art.

Ian is taller than the entry way

(from the website: sacred-destinations.com) Unlike most of the temples of Angkor, Ta Prohm has been largely left to the clutches of the living jungle. 

With its dynamic interaction between nature and man-made art, this atmospheric temple is a favorite for many - who can't help but feel a little like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft (which was filmed here) as they pick through the rubble.  A rare inscription at Ta Prohm provides statistics on the temple's workers. Allowing for some exaggeration to honor the king, the inscription's report of around 80,000 workers, including 2700 officials and 615 dancers, is still astounding. Great trees tower above Ta Prohm, their leaves filtering the sunlight, providing welcome shade and casting a greenish light over the otherworldly site. Delicately carved reliefs on the walls sprout lichen, moss and creeping plants.  Some as wide as an oak tree, the vines at Ta Prohm cleave massive stones in two and spill over the top of temple ramparts. The effect is striking, especially at the strangulating root formation on the inside of the easternmost gopura (entrance pavilion). Another popular site is the "Tomb Raider tree" in the central sanctuary, where Angelina Jolie picked a jasmine flower and was sucked beneath the earth.  Ta Prohm is extensively ruined, but you can still explore numerous towers, close courtyards and narrow corridors, discovering hidden gems of stone reliefs beneath the encroaching foliage. Many of the corridors are impassible, thanks to the jumbled piles of carved stone blocks that clog their interiors. There are 39 towers at Ta Prohm, which are connected by numerous galleries. Visitors are no longer permitted to climb onto the crumbling galleries, due to the potential damage to both temple and visitor.

Buddhist monks visiting Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat and Bayon

Angkor Archaeological Park - There are just over 50 temples (or ruins) within Siem Reap Province and most are within the boundaries of the Angkor Archaeological Park near Siem Reap City.   Of these we visited four starting with the most famous: Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by a Tamil king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaivism tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist.

Getting ready to embark on our temple adventures.

Looking out over the Angkor Wat complex

Temple monkeys

The boys are a bigger tourist attraction than the temple itself.

Michelle fits right in.  :)

Looking back as we left Angkor Wat

The second temple we visited was Bayon.  Built in the late 12th century or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman's capital, Angkor Thom. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences.

Bayon

The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. The temple is known also for two impressive sets of bas-reliefs, which present an unusual combination of mythological, historical, and mundane scenes.  The temple has been described as "the most striking expression of the baroque style" of Khmer architecture, as contrasted with the classical style of Angkor Wat.

Just some local transportation options

 Most of the temples have some sort of conservation happening and putting them back together is like working with a very large jigsaw puzzle.  With no picture as a guide and many of the pieces looking VERY similar.