Days 9 & 10; 1/31-2/1 Cambodia

Rise at a civil time on the 31st. Have breakfast and then bus to Carins to catch our plane for Cambodia. The weather is nice today. We really lucked our as the cyclone that made land fall yesterday was just a couple of hundred miles south of us. We have a 7 hr flight and change 3 time zones. We'll be exactly 12 hrs ahead of NYC. Two more great lectures and of course lunch and later a snack. We fly over Indonisia, Vietnam and right up the Maykong River. We land around 3 and fortunately it isn't as hot and humid as predicted. We stop at the Cambodian National Museum and take a nice tour. There are many artifacts, mostly Buddas. While their is a fair amount to see the sad part is like so many countries ruled by European powers in the past, more treasures are in France than here. We arrive at our hotel, relax a short while and have dinner. This is a beautiful hotel that was built during French colonial times. The appointments are quite European and clasic. Dinner is great. The wait staff are many and formal . I have local soft shell crab with a killer dipping sauce and a great local fish. Sue had pork medallions and pineapple with a pumpkin soup starter. Then off to bed as we have to be up at 4:40 to be ready for our bus to Angkor Wat.

 Up and out early. Have a light breakfast, spray ourselves for early morning insects and off we go. Angkor Wat is a vast complex surrounded by a moat. During the 70's it was used by the North Vietnamise and the Khmer Rouge as a fortress. It was first constructed as a Hindu shrine but was very soon converted to a Buddist Temple. It's the largest religious building in the world. We arrive at dark using our flashlights and carefully walk along the bridge over the moat and then further into the complex. As it begins to brighten we position ourselves to watch the sun rise over the towers of the temple and catch it's reflection in the pools in front of the buildings. We get rewarded with a nice sunrise and get to share it with hundreds of others. So what do you do after such an experience? You have another breakfast! We attend a Buddist prayer service and receive the monks blessings and a prayer string that we wear on our wrists. We then tour the temple learning about the various Bbuddas and gods depicted in all the stone carvings on all the walls and many of the pillars. We get up two of the three levels and learn about the amazing construction of this towering structure that is built out of large stones that are finely formed to fit together without any mortar yet are almost seamless and have lasted hundreds of years. It's quite an experience.

 Next we head to three other temples, Bayon Temple, Elephant Terrace and Ta Prohm. At Baynon we are treated to a faily long ride on an elephant. What a treat. It's getting hot now and is time to head back to the hotel. It's already been a full day so we decide to pass on a couple of excursions for the afternoon and relax. But first, lunch.