• Bayon

    Bayon is a 12th century temple which is covered in faces.

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    This is one of the side buildings.

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    The giant stone faces stare out at you in all directions and can be seen for quite a ways.

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    These are the lions that guarded the stairs to the temple and a small Buddha statue.

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    This is an apsara, the dancing nymphs that are shown on all of the temples. Because this one is carved really deep into the stone, her feet look fairly normal. Most of the time they stick out sideways and look ridiculous.

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    This is a better preserved lions. There were no lions in Cambodia, they had only heard about them from other countries they traded with. So none of the lions look very lionlike.

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    The faces everywhere were kind of creepy.

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    Every surface that was not a face was elaborately carved. Some with birds.

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    And some with dancers.

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    And some with complicated scenes.

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    Everywhere you peaked out there was another face.

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    The faces all look pretty much the same.

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    So archaeologists think they were probably of a specific person.

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    Most likely the king.

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    Of course the apsara faces pretty much all look the same too, and no one thinks they were of anybody.

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    All big eared stone people pretty much look the same.

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    This is a crocodile eating fish.

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    This is Matt near the top of the temple.

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    Here he is taking a rest in the hallway.

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    And in the library window.

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    Some walls are covered with inscriptions.

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    It is a very big temple.

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    With lots of faces.

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  • Cycling Cat Ba Island

    One of our included activities was cycling around Cat Ba island.

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    This was the flattest section. However it wasn’t like that for most of it and some of the hills were too steep for the 1 gear bike to handle. Especially when the seat was so low that we couldn’t pedal properly. There were a few parts of walking Cat Ba island. Still it was very beautiful and green.

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  • Amazing Cave

    If you can’t tell this is not just an amazing cave it was The Amazing Cave.

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    It was one of the stops during our cruise of Hanalong Bay.

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    The ceiling was very smooth because this used to be flooded and filled with water and the waves erroded the limestone into these patterns.

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    There were folded patterns of growth everywhere.

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    Some formations looked a bit strange.

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    There weren’t many long single ones, probably due to damage from visitors.

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    It did look like quite a few did grow at some point.

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    There were also some foolish residents who were less than thrilled to have all the tourists ruining their sleep.

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    We were amazed to see how they can hold onto what seems like a fairly flat surface.

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    This was really sparkly but the camera didn’t really pick it up that much.

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    There were some very large columns growing and overall it was a very good cave.

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  • Making Spring Rolls

    After sunset on the boat we had a quick cooking lesson to learn how to make spring rolls.

    First we took a plate covered in a damp towel and put the rice paper on it to soften it.

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    Then we added filling: steamed pork, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, noodles, cucumber and lettuce.

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    Make sure not to overfill.

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    Then starting at the end with the filling, roll halfway, then tuck in the sides and roll the rest of the way.

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    The sauce is made of 3 parts water to 1 part fish sauce with lemon, sugar, garlic, chilli, carrot and pineapple.

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    This is the end result.

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