Cambodia - Siem Reap

We arrived in Siem Reap and found the hotel cat had recently had a litter of cats, which were running around all over the place

You had to be careful where you sat

Or stood

The main attraction around Siem Reap is Angkor Wat.  An ancient city which started to be built in the 10th century, spread over 60km square and housed around 1million people.  This was at the time that London had about 50 thousand people.

It's full of temples and with moats, reservoirs, walls, libraries, palaces and such

All the buildings are intricately carved with women, scenes of battle, gods etc

And they literally go for miles

It's amazing how vast it is

There are restoration projects going on all around, as a lot of the buildings are practically ruins

Angkor Wat was built in the 12th Century

Some of the levels were quite high up

Meaning good views

And great whilst you're actually within the complex

There are rainforest style areas between the sites and lots of wildlife

This is a typical temple with a main tower within 4 surrounding towers

The stone carvings that I'm standing between seem to guard entrances and bridges everywhere and are of nagas, which are like snakes, but with little feet

These are locals who are being trained in stone carving for the restoration works

It's rumoured the next Batman movie budget has been slashed

This is Angkor Thom, meaning 'Big City'

This is what it probably once looked like

This is where the king would bathe

I was expecting the walls to come alive any moment and start to chase us

Think I must be taller than they were a thousand years ago

Sometimes I worry about Paul

Some of the temples were soooo steep.  Some steps were broken or missing and the one shown here wasn't even the worst

Lucky I'd been working out

This temple is all overgrown and has been used for movie shooting in some films, so we're told

Proves trees can and will grow anywhere

This is a recently restored corridor

On top is what it once looked like

This is what it now looks like

Another before and after

This is the oldest building there from 10th century.  Made out of pink sandstone, whereas the rest is grey sandstone, which is more durable and therfore more detail survives

Competing for a meal