Siem Reap, Cambodia - Angkor Thom (Wednesday, November 9th, 2016)

The second temple we visited this morning was Angkor Thom. It is a mysterious Bayon style temple with beautifully preserved bas-reliefs and more than 172 giant smiling faces hidden among the towering stone structures.  Looking for the faces in the stones is kind of like real life "Where's Waldo"!

This tower has four faces, one facing in each of the four directions

Around the outside of this temple stands a wall that used to have small buddha's embedded in it.  All of the Buddha's are now gone. A few have been recovered and now are in the national museum.

Us and our travel buddies!

The intricate carvings in the stone are hard to comprehend how they were done.

The bass reliefs found throughout this temple depict everyday life of the people that lived in Angkor centuries ago.  

During the time period of the City of Angkor Thom, about 2,400 people lived on these temple grounds, dignitaries lived inside the temple and commoners lived outside.  It is hard to imagine the beauty of it in all it's splendor because it is such an amazing sight even today.

A picture with our tour guide Sam by the elephant walls. He was a wonderful caring man.  We really appreciated how interested he was in helping us learn.  He was very into photography so he helped us all get the best possible pictures to capture our experiences.

As we left the grounds of Angkor Thom, we stopped for one more photo opportunity at the entry gate.

Just outside the Angkor Thom temple there is a little cafe where we all stopped for lunch.  It is a pretty common chain in Cambodia and Vietnam, and are especially well known for their ice cream.

Their famous ice cream served over fruit

The meal was very good and refreshing after a long morning in the heat and humidity.  After lunch we had a few short hours back at the hotel to relax before a big evening at Angkor Wat!