Short note: I’m organising Malaysia’s first Bloggers Media Trip to Southern Thailand this July. Good news is, I have two one allocation left on this trip. Bloggers with 1000 uniques per day and interested to come on board are free to email me at nicootan@gmail.com.
Once, there were the gods,
And the asuras (demons), and they cooperated with each other to churn the Sea of Milk to create the elixir of immortality – amrita.
Asuras
But the teamwork ended when Amrita was formed and the gods went back on their words to give half a bottle to the Asuras, and hence the Asuras tried to steal it.
So is the great Hinduism myth, so you find at every gate of Angkor Thom (this is the Wat where Tomb Raider filmed one of their scenes), the cravings of the gods and the Asuras demons.
Why does the demon always look scarier?
These were the imprints and cravings at Angkor Wat, as I raised early the next morning and cycled all the way back to the Angkors (I missed the 5:30am sunrise shut up), there was barely anyone.
Angkor Wat
The front yard of Angkor Wat
Except for the few monks
It was the best time to tour the Wat.
Inner back garden
It was so empty, you could even sleep there.
Looking at the sleeping travellers.
What better time to test your self timing skill than now eh? 
Chilling out in the temple
Resting and looking around
Omg I love my hair color in this picture, several wash later it actually became blondish brown T_T
Red Head
Shadow on Angkor – peter pan??
How big do you think this stone stair is?
Pretty big~
Peek-A-Boo
Spider man on rocks!
Second take,
Spider woman on rocks closer view!
Phew, have to jump through gaps back and forth.
Okay next, how big do you think this stone stair is? Looking up!
Can’t imagine right?
Put a Nicole there.
I’d say pretty bloody BIG!
(This shot I have to run so very far away~ )
Walking on the stone street leading up to Angkor Wat, you’ll find many holes on the stones that were made to carry these heavy weights around.
Going through the temple, you’ll find yourself on the other side of AW which was meant to be the East entrance to the Wat. Here you can almost visualized how it used to be back in the days when Angkor was built.
The original road to Angkor
And how it was like few hundreds years later the whole Angkors were engulfed by the jungle.
Bayon
Further up north you will reach Angkor Thom – one of the largest of all Khmer cities (appropriately means “Great City”), or the four main gates surrounding it. This is the south gate, where most people enter and exit through.
No this is not the gate where the Tomb Raider evil guy pulled down.
One of the most prominent temples inside Angkor Thom is Bayon,
pretty much “the most enigmatic and powerful religious constructions in the world” according to this book,
This is a good book, not only it describe the details of each temple, it tells what is the best time to visit each temple (best lighting)
Which I bought from this girl who approached me during my lunch break.
I tell you, she was damn persuasive ok?!
More camwhore sessions,
First take, too close
Have to place on the top of the stairs and then run down in big steps and pose,
Second take, ah.. better!
Around the temple you will find a lot of face towers constructed to form an ascending peak.
More self timing
This is a difficult angel, an uncle from china helped me take this
They say there used to be 49 towers around the temple, but now there’re only 37 left.
Bayon, in my opinion, is one of the most visited temple among the tourists, why? Because when you see a bunch of locals in fancy themed costume are out to hunt for gullible tourists for over expensive Polaroid photographs, you know the place it’s over commercialised.
Seriously, the way she bent reminded me of these figurine carvings on every possible structure in Angkor.
yea bent it baby~
Even the monks love to take photograhs
Very cute Cambodian kid
Victory gate, Angkor Thom
On the way to the east entrance of Angkor Thom, I dumped my bicycle in the bush and decided to venture into the field.
Self timer on a rock
When it took you at least 10 mins to set up your camera, you take more than one photo.
I need to run pretty far for this shot,
first take, ran out of time, so turned around and pose first.
Second take, ran faster, leaped down the giant stone steps, across the field and up the stone steps again and POSE!
Haha, perfect!
I already cropped this photo, I appeared too small in actual one, you can view it here.
Thommanon
Exiting the East entrance (notice I didn’t say East gate, cause the east gate is hidden from tourists), on the way to Ta Keo and Ta Phrom temples, you will come by this little sweet elegant temple called Thommanon.
Post card worthy~
Obviously taken by another random tourist
This toothless grandma can climb better steps than me!
Don’t pray pray
Self timer pose at Thommanon!
How to take self timer pose at Thommanon!
Oh no, now my secrets are out!
Ta Keo
Now the Ta Keo is impossible to be missed. A giant temple-mountain made entirely, get this, sandstone.
It’s massive, tall and extremely towering, and it’s incomplete.
Also a playground for local kids
Shot of my feet
I’m getting used to standing at the edge
Resting after an intense climb.
The wind up here was magnificient!
Pose of myself chilling out at Ta Keo
Love the view~!
Phew, what a long post, total of 59 photos! I think. Didn’t really count. Lol
(I bet there are lame people who will count the photos after I mention it)
After so much climbings, so many running back and forth taking many shots of difficult self timing photos, I can feel water evaporating out of my skin.
I swear!! Those water drops were constantly there on my nose!!!
(more photos on the way~)
Oh did i mention that Baroque has a very handsome manager. Fat la but very handsome hahahah (hor, Sim! Kenko Diet Plum not working for you meh?)
