ANGKOR WAT AND MORE!

Rithy, our AMAZING Angkor Wat Day Tour guide, picked us up at 4:30AM so that we could all see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, the largest temple IN THE WORLD!  We quickly found out that Rithy was quite the photographer, and we quickly forgave him for the early morning pickup, as watching the sunrise was nothing short of SPECTACULAR!  Rithy filled our brains with TONS of information and took LOADS of fabulous photos for us—so we are choosing to post pictures here!  You can click on the links to read more and get all the amazing facts on each temple we visited!

1. ANGKOR WAT  This was an AMAZING temple to see!  Rithy brought it all together for us, with his knowledge of what it used to be like, the symbols and what they meant today, and the history of what went actually went on there.  Truly a fascinating story of an AMAZINGLY breathtaking temple!  And the sunrise was icing on the cake!

This one had us cracking up!  Poor John!!!  Poor Matt!!!

This one did too!  How did Matt do that?

2. TA PROHM TEMPLE  This temple was something else because of the trees.  Their growth over the years had actually taken over and crumbled much of the temple.  It is the set where Angelina Jolie starred in the movie, Tomb Raider 2.  Matt, Val, John and I can’t wait to have a Cambodia Movie Night when we all are back in the States to watch it!  The temple, while in disrepair, was a sight to behold because of those trees!

We stopped for a DELICIOUS lunch and took a MUCH NEEDED break—who knew temple touring could be so taxing!

We decided that since these signs were hanging EVERYWHERE in the bathrooms, there MUST be a need for said signs! 😳

3. ANGKOR THOM  This temple had such realistic faces carved in the towers that are still seen today.  This was Rithy’s favorite temple, so he knew it inside and out!  The stories he told about all the wall carvings brought the temple to life for us.  But we were TIRED and we were HOT (and our brains were overloaded with all the good information Rithy provided to us!)  Luckily, our awesome driver, Toona, had our air conditioned van waiting, along with cold compresses and ice cold bottles of water!

4. BAPHUON TEMPLE  Three of us opted to remain in the air con (we admit it, we are wimps) while Rithy filled us in with details about this magnificent temple and John got out to snap a few pictures! (Thank you, John!)

Would you believe that after our touring was complete, Toona dropped Matt and John off in town while Val and I went FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF MASSAGE!  It was WONDERFUL and MUCH NEEDED!  Matt refused to have any type of massage—apparently he once had a bad experience with a forced facial and the cucumbers that were placed over his eyes scarred him for life! 🤣🤣🤣

What a tremendous two day visit to Siem Reap!  Seriously, we owe it all to our SUPER tour guide, Rithy (Angkor Wat Day Tour), who made the experience UNFORGETTABLE!

Val and I decided that we MUST all remain good friends for the rest of our days here on earth, as almost EVERY picture we have from Siem Reap is of the four of us!  Yes, it was the Diedam/Welty trip (of a lifetime)!