Nov.7 – Day 18 – We checked out of the hotel and took the ride to the airport. No comment.

The flight to Siem Reap was uneventful. I like flights to be uneventful. We have flown many times and have only had a handful of problems. We once had to land in Greenland on the way to England. A steward had become ill and had to be evacuated from the plan.

When you hear the three bongs over and over again, check your seatbelt, you are in for an unscheduled landing somewhere. The captain came on over the intercom and asked if there was a doctor on board. There wasn’t, so we landed in Greenland. But that’s another story.

It was a short fight and after getting settled in our rooms and freshening up, we were off to the Angkor National Museum. It is dedicated to preserving Angkorian artifacts from Khmer Empire’s Angkor period from the 9th century to the 14th century.

In the afternoon we went to the Angkor Wat site, the most famous of the the temples here is the Angkor Wat site. There are other temples here as well. We spent one day before seeing Angkor Wat at the lesser temples. On was called Angkor Thom. They are all wonderful.

The trees grow out of the blocks and the roots cover the building as if a giant hand was holding on in order to keep the trees from falling over. I have a few Bonsai trees, and these remind me of them with their roots exposed and looking for a place to hold fast to.

The more the wind blows, the taller the roots of the Ficus trees become. The area looks like a movie set from an Indiana Jones movie. Everywhere you look there is something more fantastic than what you have just seen a moment before.

The surrounding walls are made with gigantic stones and elephants are carved into them. It is amazing.

Every surface has been carved to tell stories of wars and the power of the Empire. The detail is amazing and much of it looks as though it were carved yesterday.

We spent the night in Siem Reap. Tomorrow at sunrise we are going back to see Angkor Wat as the rises behind it.