cambodia

Lennon got our two new friends we met on a bus to Bangkok to play some UNO! Rocco is from Italy and Katie is from Pennsylvania. It is so fun to cross paths with people if only for a short time. We got to talking about life. Rocco is a great guy taking time to see more of the world. Yay, Rocco! Katie was traveling with her mom- they had just visited her brother in Korea. Fun fact about Katie is that her boyfriend is a pro wrestler who goes by the name of Adam Cole. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be the next Hulk Hogan!

Think about this: while making these stone etchings, there was zero room for error. If a mistake was made, they’d have to start all over. Talk about pressure! There was a temple in Bagan (can’t think of the name) where the man in charge wanted the bricks to line up 100% perfectly- so much so that if there was room for something so fine as a hair to get through a space, he would chop off that worker’s finger(s.) Ouch.
Each wall tells a story and these walls are loooooong. They are actually more like corridors where elephants would walk along transporting goods and people.

These etching are on the walls lining Angkor Wat. It’s called bass relief and they tell the story of 8 great wars of the Angkor kingdom. They are 2 meters high and they are 8 different stories each 75 meters long. That’s 600 meters, longer than 6 soccer fields, all perfect in design and carving and still in pristine condition.

Everything in Angkor Wat is perfectly symmetrical, to the T. It faces perfectly east. On the equinox, the sun rises perfectly through the northern corridor. The huge moat surrounding the Wat is aligned perfectly and is still full and entact. Every detail is perfect. And it’s the biggest religious building in the world. Tireless attention to detail, constructed nearly 1000 years ago. Incredible!!

We dragged the kids out of bed and took our tuk tuk to Angkor for the sunrise. Emerson noted that it was the first time any of the kids woke to see the sun come up. As you can see, she is really excited to get up early!

Nonetheless, worth the effort…