Photos XXX: Angor Wat et al

It wouldn't be fair to use a cheesy title here because these pictures need to be found at a later date by anyone browsing through here.

Also there are so many pictures - about 250 between mine and Greg's photographic capturings, so there are many many links, and only a few, proportionally, of the pictures are going to be shown in all the glory they deserve.
But these links are all worth clicking, believe me

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This just happens to be the first photo so I'm gonna show it in full. You'll get the idea when I say that I simply cannot post most of these:

Carvings, of which there are literally hundresd of thousands, a full 1.3 kilometres of solid frescos on two sides of the main temple if memory serves correctly, are first seen here:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0702.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0698.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0695.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0697.jpg

General awesome architecture:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0701.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0700.jpg

Cool perspective shot, you need to click it to see the whole picture to get the idea really:

Ornamental tower shots:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0696.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0694.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0693.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0692.jpg

Best of the bunch:

More general glorious stonework:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0690.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0689.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0688.jpg

Those last two are particularly spectacular actually, but I can't show it all for the sake of some of your bandwidth!

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`Arty` shot:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0687.jpg

Long perspective through one of the corridors/cloisters:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0686.jpg

The outer courtyards included the library and some other big important religious element - some temple or something - and were frankly very impressive:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0685.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0684.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0683.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0680.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0679.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0681.jpg

And it all looked a little like this:

Some clown outside the front of the main temple:

One of the seperate outer temples inside the main huge compound:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0677.jpg

Something a bit like the classic, famous shots of the Angor Wat temple with 3 towers - there are in fact 5, and that is just the central temple, not the miles and miles of perimeter walls, temples or other buildings:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0676.jpg

The long causeway leading from the outer wall up to the central temple - gives you some small idea of the scale of the place:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0675.jpg

Dark Corridor:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0674.jpg

Dark corridor with dark-souled American in the way :

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0673.jpg

Me getting the shot right - but the yank is still in the way, Typical:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0672.jpg

The inside corner of one of the many outer rings of temples, walling and carvings before you get to the temple proper - which you can't actually get to, so everything, everything you see here is really just the peripherary, even as amazing as all this is still nothing from the central temple of the uppermost tier of stonework on which it sits is even available to photograph.
When I say BIG, I mean it:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0671.jpg

All balustrading is carved like a cobra, a 9-headed cobra to be precise. This is what the end of every peice of balustrading looks like, some of these individual endcappings are maybe 4 feet wide and 5 feet high. Impressive stuff yet again:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0670.jpg

I think this one will look pretty enough to deserve full sized posting. I can't tell you what it is or where it's from, exactly, but I think it's from the outer gatepost before you enter the main complex but have already crossed the 150-metre-wide moat, and have only the 350-metre walk along the `causeway` to the entrance to main temple.
BIG. Remember I said that:

This is the smallest outer gatepost tower thingy:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0668.jpg

This is me with an ill-advised choice of headgear; gentlemen, start your chortling:

The causeway/walkway from the outer gatepost to the main outer ring of temple walls:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0666.jpg

Ah, bits of that moat - this surrounds the entire thing and has a surface area of a million square metres, give or take 30 or so, and is very, very, very impressive (and BIG, obviously) :

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0665.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0664.jpg

From the outer of the inner rings of templing we got some nice shots of courtyards and stuff:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0713.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0712.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0711.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0710.jpg

One corner was under restoration well, all of it is, really, but this one was under cover and the direct real-time up-to-date contemporary on-the-day guidance of the German organisation responsible for restoring Angkor Wat:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0709.jpg

One fancy corridor - note the ceilings:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0708.jpg

The library from the middle courtyard walls, I think:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0707.jpg

Probably a huge sacrilege to photograph Buddhists praying, but hey. Unless I commit at least a little sacrilege, I feel like a day has been wasted:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0706.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0705.jpg

A cheeky monkey monkeying around inside the temple:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0704.jpg

You can actually see all 5 towers of the main temple from here, pity the lighting is a bit shit (curse you, meteorology!!) but hey:

The grounds and temple in background:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0787.jpg

Sunsets! :

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0786.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0785.jpg

Ruined stones and stuff awaiting reconstruction. I expect them Germans have it all catalogued somewhere:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0784.jpg

The main temple with a little foreground added for flavour:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0781.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0780.jpg

I caught one of the monks taking pictures himself, so, naturally, I took it as my duty to get photographic evidence of the guy:

Assorted pictures from the main grounds, I believe, including some from/of the outer temples and suchlike:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0778.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0777.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0775.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0774.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0771.jpg

A cool big archway somewhere in the place; Buddhist monks included free of charge:

Some total jackass Westerners hanging about an incredibly scrade place not giving proper respect for anything.
Or just doing what we do - seeing what we can see:

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More more more MORE Angkor Wat!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0769.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0768.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0767.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0766.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0765.jpg

Another big 9-headed cobra - a Naga - and this time you get to see it in full :

And another biggies - you can see the balustrading that always ends in a big ornate carved Naga here running along near to the camera, then the temple behind across a pretty big lawn/courtyard thing:

Few more monkeys from around the grounds:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0752.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0751.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0750.jpg

Me with an even worse-advised hat idea:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0749.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0748.jpg

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A little complex of stupas in the grounds somewhere off to the side near a school or operating temple or something:

More general Angkor Watness:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0746.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0745.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0744.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0762.jpg

From around the grounds, a quarter mile or in each direction to the inner edge of the moat (BIG remember) in one direction there was this little view with a small temple at the end:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0761.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0758.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0760.jpg

Cool tree en route:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0759.jpg

Another Naga:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0757.jpg

More of the towers:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0756.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0755.jpg

And possibly THE quintessential photo of Angkor Wat from the day:

Some of the amazing carvings from the walls of the outer temple walls:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0724.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0734.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0743.jpg

Other various stuff:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0742.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0741.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0739.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0738.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0733.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0732.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0728.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0730.jpg

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And some more of those cool carvings:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0729.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0737.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%203/IMG_0735.jpg

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And for now, even though there is plenty more, I think I need a rest. Phew.