ruoxi's rsp blog.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Angkor, spread out over an area of about 40 miles in northwestern Cambodia, was the capital of the Khmer Empire from A.D. 800 to approximately 1200, and was abandoned in 1431, following the conquest of the Khmer kingdom. After decades of war and strife, its temples and monuments are once more open to travelers, and are among the world’s premier architectural sites. The city’s highlight, Angkor Wat, is a temple complex built at the beginning of the 12th century by King Suryavarman II. It took 25,000 workers [wow!] over thirty-seven years to complete the construction, but after the fall of the empire, the complex remained unknown to the outside world until 1860, when French botanist Henri Mahout stumbled upon it deep in the jungle. Constructed in the form of a central tower surrounded by four smaller towers, it was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, and is embellished throughout with exquisite statues, carvings, and bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

photo by: Ameya Narvekar

OMG! Angkor Wat is so so so beautiful. I really really want to go. I know that rgs had organise a trip for this year, but it was only opened to the sec 3, 4. So sad )': This temple look so pretty against the whitish-blue backdrop. These people really have a high level of craftsmanship! look at the intricate designs, and my hypothesis was right. South-East Asians really like gold alot. See the magnificent gold gleaming.

photo by: Hugo van der Flier

I think this is one of the insides. I remember, in english class not long ago, we had done descriptive writing with this very picture! The tree branches were as though pythons forcing their ways into the small, narrow abandoned buildings.

Oh! Thailand and Cambodia really has lots of elephants. We can deduce that this is an Asian elephant, because Asian elephants generally have smaller ears as compared to their counterparts in Africa as Africa are lot hotter.
There is a bench(?) on the elephant back. Perhaps this is to provide rides for tourists. I rode on one before in Thailand!

photo by: J&T Cleland

Ohh... i'm not sure what this is, but it looks very very interesting.

i think south east asia really has much to offer. Its just that i think Singapore people really like the Western and whites alot that they are unwilling to truly explore the beauty of their own neighbouring countries. So instead of dreaming to go to Europe or America, why not take a walk around your own neighbourhood? places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand etc. can really be fascinating as well.

GREENified , 10:51 AM