A Final Glimpse into Cambodia

Yesterday was another action - packed day visiting ancient Hindu temples with a lovely home - hosted lunch as a highlight.

We visited 3 ancient Buddhist temples in Angkor, a holy city that took centuries to build. The Khmer  aristocrats who built the temples and monuments between AD 800-1200 were motivated by their Hindu and Buddhist beliefs.

Our first stop was Angkor Thom (the big holy place).

Statue of the Hindu god Vishnu at an entrance

The longest continuous bas relief in the world--nearly one-half mile!!!

We all climbed to the second level, but only Britt, Thu, and Roger climbed all the way up to the third level.                                           

Next we drove to a local village where Hope met us and escorted us to her home for a tasty homemade lunch.  The red jasmine rice her family produces was a nice change for us.  We had a delicious dessert called "sticky rice balls with palm sugar".

                           

Our yummy sticky rice ball with freshly grated coconut

Hope's kitchen

Hope

Enjoying our lunch

After lunch Mel was accosted by the local children offering items for sale "You buy one dolla?  One dolla?  Two for one dolla?"  Mel succumbed,  of course.

After lunch was our visit to famous Angkor Wat (city temple).  It is a masterpiece of Khmer architecture built between 1113-1150 AD surrounded by a moat of 570 feet.

The third temple we visited was

The tourists have named it the jungle temple because a variety of kapok trees have taken over the grounds, their roots splitting the foundation of the temple throughout.  It is an eerie site.  The temple was abandoned in the 1500 's.

                                            Judy standing next to the roots of a kapok tree

                                                            Tree and temple intertwined

After a delicious farewell dinner at our hotel last night, we're about to board a plane to Bangkok where we'll spend the night before starting our long, long trek home tomorrow.  I'm sure we'd all agree this has been an incredible journey.