Wedding goers and elephant taxis before the entrance to Angkor Thom

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A round Chedi perhaps denotes the change from Hinduism to Buddhism

East Baray is a modern reservoir constructed 1,000 years ago

I said "sushi" and Mako corrected with "sashimi"

Four faces are a feature of many of these temples

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I love natural poses, and here you'll have a lot of opportunities
to capture people and give another sense of this journey

Please avoid doing this, you could walk over a ledge

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How many accidents has this park warden had to report?

Dancing girls were a feature of Khmer culture

Don't get bitten by a monkey, they are not that friendly

On the road again

The normal two lane road approaching Angkor Thom become a four lane crawl in the early morning.
You can taste the exhaust fumes.

Today we were going to travel around the north east loop... Just as well as Angkor Wat was even more crowded than it was yesterday
Of course this is New Year's Eve and many people are on holiday

If you are prepared to walk around you can see scenes like the one shown left. This is truly a beautiful place

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I love people, especially smiling people, and so through this report you'll see some of the images I have taken

Mako's English was as good as my Japanese has become... I'm somewhat disappointed in how much Japanese language I have lost. These days I concentrate rather more on Thai. I can still read Hiragana, and Katakana to an extent.

I think large candles were probably fitted in these bases which have a flue to drain the hot wax.

One has to wonder how much contact there was between South East Asia and Europe as the architecture is very similar

Like Thai and Lao people Khmers squat together and share their food... We used to do that, it's called a picnic

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We arrived at Neak Pean at lunch time, hungry from the wanderings so far. Two girls came up to ask that we eat at their restaurants... 'Ask' is perhaps too mild a word, I responded "Yes Sir" with a salute!

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Menus are clear, with English, and pictures. Meals around $6 but they gave us a $2 discount
We always invited Sokin our driver to join us for lunch. He's a decent person.

East Mebon

There is a shear 200 foot drop behind Mako, and no safety fence

I've noticed that there are female Buddhist clerics blessing people and tying a string around their wrists.
We too were blessed

 
I remember country dancing at school in England, it was fun

She started so beautifully, then some ugly bloke comes in to try to rile her

I spotted these foating in the river a Khmer version of the Krathong

Apsara Dinner Dance

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Here in Thailand I always recommend visitors go to a Kantoke Dinner Dance where traditional Thai dancing is portrayed while you sit down to a good meal.
In Siem Reap they have an Apsara Dinner Show.
At this particular venue food is delivered as a buffet and a feeding frenzy does take place... If you're too late you won't find much food, and don't forget your pudding... If you go for pudding late the pickings will be at best slim.

After the show I wandered back to the guest house, there was supposed to be a party, but it wasn't very much, and so I walked into town.
It was choc a bloc with people, not my scene at all!
So I walked back by the Siem Reap river to the National Road 6 Bridge.

I met a policeman at the bridge who spoke excellent English and we chatted for a while.
He told me about the fire engines donated by Canada and the fact that Canadian firemen had been there to train the local fire fighters in using the more modern equipment.
Dignitaries were in attendance as a spectacular fireworks display took place to welcome 2015.

Happy New Year