Siem Reap, Cambodia

Hi Everybody, We spent last week in Siem Reap, Cambodia, attending meetings.

Here's what greeted us in our hotel room.

The grounds by the Le Meridian Starwood hotel were really tropical and beautiful.

There were all kinds of vehicles on the streets which were mostly scooters.

This beautiful building is the Siem Reap LDS church.

The first night's dinner was at the Sayam Seafood restaurant.

Here's Elder Chandler and some of the managers enjoying some great seafood.

We had a few photos taken of everyone at the hotel.  From left to right: Sameth Meth and Phanna Yi who both live in Phenom Phen, Cambodia, after the Chandlers is Leon Au from Hong Kong, then Chad Furness who is in Taiwan, then Ricky Mak from Indonesia, John Gutty from India, Steve Yang also from Taiwan, Bobby Leo from Malaysia, Nathan Draper who works in Thailand, and Fraser Chao who is from Taiwan.

Here they are again ready for the the one afternoon only that we had for sightseeing in Angkor Wat.

Here's some of Angkor Wat shown behind us. Angkor Wat is an ancient city in Cambodia that was the center of the Khmer empire that once ruled most of Southeast Asia. This civilization went extinct, but not before building amazing temples and buildings that were reclaimed by the jungle for hundreds of years. Here's what it says in Wikipedia about it: ANGKOR WAT 

We even saw a few monkeys but we didn't get close to them as we were told that they are good at stealing things and they are not tame.

In the early 12th century, this statue first had the head and arms of Vishnu, a Hindu God, but later in the 13th century when it became a Buddhist temple, Vishnu's head was removed and Buddha's head was placed on top.

By the way, did we mention how hot and humid it was there?  That day it was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit and about 80 percent humidity making it feel more like 115 degrees!  Our clothes were all soaked through with sweat.  

There are many very poor people who are trying to sell things on the streets and also by this complex.

There was a huge wall filled with bas-relief figures.

This might be the relief showing the "Churning of the Ocean of Milk"

The stairs are super steep and there is only one set that we were allowed to climb up.

Here are some of the people dressed in traditional clothing.  They charge one American dollar to let you take their photo.  All of the country uses American currency.

• This is one area where we were allowed to climb up and it was a little bit daunting but we did it!  Here's what one site says about it:
• Angkor Wat – This temple was built by Suryavarman and is considered the biggest Asian pyramid. It is over 200 feet high and divided into several layers. The central part has four towers in the shape of a lotus flower. This temple is the largest in the whole complex and is where the historic site gets its name. The central temple complex has 2,600 feet of bas-reliefs, including famous battles and Buddhist scenes like the Battle of Kurukshetra, the Army of Suryavarman II, Heaven and Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Elephant Gate, Vishnu Conquers the Demons, Khrisna and the demon King, Battle of the Gods and the Demons, and the Battle of Lanka.

Yes, they even had elephant rides but we didn't have time to take one.

Here's another ancient temple site there at Ankgor Wat: Bayon. Ankgor Thom  Here's what one tourist site says about it: At the heart of Angkor Thom is the 12th-century Bayon, the mesmerising if slightly mind-bending state temple of Jayavarman VII. It epitomises the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia’s most celebrated king. Its 54 Gothic towers are decorated with 216 gargantuan smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara, and it is adorned with 1.2km of extraordinary bas-reliefs incorporating more than 11,000 figures.

Nose to nose!

Here's a Buddhist shrine where they were burning candles and incense.  Our guide told us that they would do that for 15 days for the person who had just died.  The wife of the deceased was there kneeling at the altar.

It is all so beautiful and we wished we had more time to go to the many other temples and places there.  Brother Au took some time off and stayed for a few more days so maybe next week we can show you a little more and also include our cultural night with some of the traditional music, instruments and dancing.

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!