Angkor Wat and friends.

2:50 pm Cambodia time

Holy cow. It's only early afternoon and I already have a ton to talk about.

Today was Angkor Wat day. Ya know...one of the 7 wonders of the world? The big kahuna of Cambodia?

Well it's supposed to look like this:

Apparently they're doing construction on the front so my full view pictures weren't exactly spectacular.

At least I got a few good looking pictures:

Some history: Angkor Wat is a HINDU temple build from 1113-1150. It was build as a Hindu temple for Vishnu, the god of protection. Most people in Cambodia today are Buddhist, however, so they convince themselves that the temple is Buddhist.

**This is a statue of Vishnu, the Hindu god, decorated like Buddhist decorate statues of Buddha. You'd think they'd see the difference.**

The Cambodian government has put Buddhas all over the inside of the temple and has even tried to carve in sketches of Buddha. There is writings and carvings alllll over the temple that prove otherwise.

**Some female Hindu carvings that people constantly touch for luck. You can tell where they're most worn.**

**Some crazy stairs we walked up to get to the top of the 5th tower**

Our guide's name was Yut and was so incredible. Each outing we go on we have a driver and English speaking tour guide for every two people. Pretty nice set up.

Yut was a monk for 11 years, from when he was 13 to 24. We saw another monk walking around Angkor Wat so Yut talked to him and we got to see him and take pictures with him (without touching, of course.)

**Yut and Elizabeth talking to our monk friend in Angkor Wat.**

Some more history: In the 1980's was the Khmer Rouge where anyone with any kind of skill was targeted and killed. All four of Yut's grandparents were killed but his parents escaped. Later they went to see a memorial in Siem Reap that has the skulls of people killed and his parents claim to have found his grandfathers's skull by recognizing the teeth.

**Yut. Behind him is a wall describing the Khmer Rouge with pictures of the leaders during that time.**

**Here is the memorial for the dead. Let's look closer...**

**Intense.**