Final post

We are back in the U.S. Our trip home was long but uneventful. It's good to be back. :)

One last look

Today is Sunday. On Tuesday evening, Gus and I will go to the airport to catch our Wednesday 1:30am flight.

The last few days, since I've been on vacation, I've spent time walking around the city taking pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Fishing in the Ping River

Taking a break

Ladies at the market

Stirfry vegetables ready to go!

Just a few peppers

The northeast corner of the moat


No, I didn't go....


Starbucks vs. tradition
(Full disclosure: They were just walking by.)

Lanterns at Thapae Gate

One temple along Thapae Road

Temple pigeon (at another temple)

Temple doors

Temple guardian (and plant holder)

Smile for the camera!

Mirrored eaves

Countdown

We have 19 days left here in Thailand, and I have just 4 teaching days remaining. What will we do with the balance of our time?

• Pack the office. This involves taking a detailed, comprehensive inventory of all office and teaching materials, and then sorting, packing, and moving everything from the office to the condo. This will take a couple days.
  
• Pack the condo
  
• Buy a few last souvenirs, probably in the Night Bazaar
• Perhaps visit the tailor once more
  
• Site-see

I haven't figured out which sites we're going to see, though there are a few contenders for our time:

• Doi Inthanon national park on Thailand's highest mountain
  
• Tiger Kingdom (again!)
• Wat Umong, a temple in the forests on the south side of Chiang Mai. Supposedly there are caves located beneath it, and deer living on the grounds!
  
• ?? Any suggestions?
  

More later. :)

Bombs bursting in air

There were fireworks each night during Loi Krathong. Here's a sampling! Be sure to turn up the volume so you can get an idea of the noise we were trying to sleep through. (The festivities went on from 6pm to 6am, every night.)

Loi Krathong

The past few days here have seen the celebration of Loi Krathong. The holiday was officially on Wednesday, but the party atmosphere went from the Saturday before until the Thursday after. People celebrate this holiday in a number of ways: launching small boats made of banana leaves into the river in order to release bad luck, sending lanterns into the sky, and setting off fireworks. From 6pm until 6am. Every night. No kidding. Sleep was a little hard to come by; good thing we had earplugs on hand!

Here are a few pictures we took:

The bridge was lit up for the holiday.

A view of the river.
Note all the little lights floating along.
Those are the krathong.

Another look at the krathong.

The sky was full of lanterns!

More lanterns, with fireworks along the horizon.

Ta Phrom

The last temple we visited was Ta Phrom. It is a few miles from Angkor Wat. According to the guidebook I bought, Ta Phrom "was chosen by the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient to be left in its 'natural state', as an example of how most of Angkor looked on its discovery in the 19th century."

If you ever saw the Tomb Raider movie, then some of these pictures might look familiar.

The entryway

A silk-cotton tree at the entrance.
Gus said it looks like it's melting.

Ruins

Shrine

This is a strangler fig tree. Rather appropriate name, I think!

Moss-covered wall

Lots of roots. These trees are enormous!

Probably the most well-known tree at Ta Phrom.

Bayon and Banteay Kdei

After Angkor Wat, we visited three other temples in the area.

Bayon:

The bridge to the entry way. Note all the sentinels along the bridge!

Bayon from the north.

Bayon is covered in stone faces.
There are 37 stone towers, each with two to four faces carved on them.

A video view of Bayon.

Face.

I like the vine growing out of his nose. :)

Gus and one of the many faces of Bayon.

Bayon has its fair share of dancing girls, too.

Some are less demure than others!

Banteay Kdei:
A couple miles from Bayon lies Banteay Kdei.

These girls are merchants who sell guidebooks, postcards, etc, outside the temples. The girl in the pink shirt sold me a book.

East entrance to Banteay Kdei, seen from the inside.

One wing of the temple.

Columns and missing rooftops.

A very solid-looking stone door.
How did they open this thing??

Next post: Ta Phrom (I'm saving the best for last!)

Angkor Wat

In Siem Reap, we spent parts of two days exploring Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Phrom, and Banteay Kdei. These are all 900+ year old temples, in various states of disrepair.

First, Angkor Wat:

The walkway across the moat.

The first structure seen on the other side of the moat is the entryway and enclosure that completely surrounded this "island", which is nearly one mile square. In the far distance, the towers of the wat itself can be seen.

Gus just inside the entryway, checking out the dancing girls!
There are almost 2,000 of them carved into the walls at Angkor Wat.

Once you pass through the entrance gate, there is a nearly 400-yard causeway that leads to the main temple.

Monks walking along the causeway

Midway from the entrance to the wat, there are two smaller shrines.
This horse was hanging out in front of one of them.
He was very friendly! I petted him for a few minutes.

Angkor Wat

A slightly closer view

After walking the length of the causeway, one comes to the wall surrounding the wat itself. This wall is lined with columns on the outside, and decorated with vast stretches (650 yards) of intricate carvings. The carvings detail Hindu religious stories and conquests of the kings who built Angkor Wat.

Columns

Carvings

Carvings close-up

The temple itself is a pyramid with five towers: one on each corner and one in the center. The central tower is about 150' tall.

Inside the main enclosure, with the pyramid and northwest tower on the left.

I was standing in the northwest corner of the enclosure when I took this brief video. The southwest, northwest, and northeast towers are visible. At the end of the video, Gus can be seen in the center of the frame at the base of the tower (wearing a white shirt and brown shorts).

Next post: More old buildings!