On the first evening we went to Angkor Wat - the big one. This was our first view of the entrance to the temple across the rather large moat. The temple itself is in the background.

Reflection in one of the pools in front of the temple.

Hippy shirt. Shouldn't be allowed.

This is the rather large moat.

Induling my fetish for taking pictures through arches.

This is the view from the entrance of the temple back towards the outer wall. That's a hot-air balloon you can see.

There are two bas-reliefs on each side of the temple, illustrating stories of Vishnu's triumphs over demons. They are masterpieces of sculpture, though have been damaged in places by shrapnel from good old American shells.

Vishnu being pampered by his minions. And why not?

This shows the army marching towards the centre of the bas-relief in a regular pattern. At the other end, the opposing army is marching towards this one in a similar style. In the middle the war wages. It's quite spectacular.

This is to illustrate that it really is in the heart of the jungle.

The way to heaven is meant to be arduous, so, in order to reflect this, the stairs in these temples are made hard to climb. Even harder is getting back down. In this one, the authorities have put in handrails and extra steps, thankfully. This wasn't the case in all the temples we saw that day.

Leaving Angkor Wat.

Nelephant.

The entrance to the former citadel of Angkor Thom.

This is Bayon, the first temple we visited in Angkor Thom. It looks like a giant pile of rubble from here but is pretty cool once you get up closer.

The most striking feature Bayon is the two hundred or so faces that smile down on and up at you. There are always about four or five visible at any one time.

I'm trying to copy his face here. It took a number of goes. The midday heat was upon us and nerves were fraying, much to the amusement of the Australian couple watching us argue.

Faces faces everywhere.

This is the walkway up to a temlple called, you know, someting or other. If I had my Cambodia Lonely Planet next to me I could tell you. I don't and I can't.

This temple is actually the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. It was dismantled brick by brick for cleaning. Then the files stating how it all fits back together were destroyed in a fire. What you see here are some of the bricks waiting to be reassembled by Germans.

One of the smaller temples, this one was never finished because an inauspicious lightning strike during its construction indicated the gods didn't fancy it.

These are the immensely steep steps we had just climbed and were contemplating descending.

Another of the steps. They really were steep. Really.

This is a temple called Ta Phrom, where trees have grown in and around the temple. One of these trees was used in the film Tomb Raider, where Angelina Jolie plucks a jasmine flower, only for a trap-door to open and she falls straight down into... Pinewood Studios.

This was taken by a Cambodian in a 'police' polo-shirt. He wanted to be our tour guide. We lost him eventually.

When man and earth collide... witness the destruction...

The destructive power... of nature.

Big tree. Big temple.

Temple and tree.

Tree and temple.

Tree.

The next day. Sunrise over a lake. Opposite a temple, surprisingly.

Another big temple. I'll look up the name later. Like it mattered at this stage.

This is Dee standing in front of a row of statues reinacting the tug-of-war, which used a giant serpent as the rope, between the gods and the devils, at the centre of which was Mt. Meru, which resulted in the churning of the sea of milk and ended when Vishnu turned himself into a turtle and balanced the mountain on his back. Or, at least, that's how I understand it. The gods won, you'll be pleased to here.

This looks like an ectopic Greek structure, with pillars in the middle of all the Khmer architecture. Weird.

Same same but different.

Our last view of the gateway to Angkor Thom.