Between approximately 800 and 1400 the Kmere people built dozens of temples at a place called Angkor, near Siam Reap, Cambodia. We visited three of the four most famous. They are 1)The Temple at Angkor Wat; 2)Angkor Thom and its Bayon Temple; and 3)Ta Prohm Temple. The bottom line here is that these were really big and really old temples. The Ta Prohm Temple is the one with the big old trees growing through it and was the backdrop for the recent movie "Tomb Raiders".

Judith Jackson, the operator of the ship's spa, Sylvia Atkins, Donna, Dale Atkins, a guest speaker on psychological issues and Jacqueline, the spa manager joined me for dinner. 5 women to one guy, I really had to be sincere and sensitive for nearly the entire dinner.

On the road to the airport in Bangkok. It looked suspiciously like the Long island Expressway.

The Bangkok smog.

Bangkok has some wonderful modern buildings.

Dale Atkins and Donna in the airport waiting room.

Guess who?

We fly to , Cambodia.

Seam Reap as several hotels but thereof perhaps 50 in the process of being built. We stayed in perhaps the finest restored French hotel in the city, The Grand Hotel D'Angkor

Our hotel The Grand Hotel Danker

The room was very old french

The view from the balcony with a little telephoto help

Dale and Donna.

Donna and me.

Angkor Thom means great city in Khmer. Angkor Thom is surrounded by a wall approximately 25 feet high and two miles long on each of four sides. Exterior to this wall is a 300 foot wide mote. Within this wall there is a temple or Bayon.

The temple is surrounded by in many ponds.

Dale getting a kick out of my photographic directions. I thought I was quite cool.

The architecture in many places is quite classical.

Donna in her Lara Croft outfit .

Throughout the complex they were small altars and which one can buy and burn incense.

Much of the sandstone has turned dark gray. I think it is as a result of the high humidity.

A Buddha, Donna and Dale.

There were many small shrines set up by monks throughout the building.

The carvings of the women were all of tall thin gals with ample cleavage.."Baywatch Babes".

The gals were pretty cute back then. Thin was in.

Donna on one of the 4 approaches to the Temple.

The front facade taken from left center across a pond.

Many of the buildings not directly connected to the main temple were in need of major repairs. many foreign governments are supplying the funds and personnel to accomplish this.

The required "been there done that" picture.

Wherever the tourists are so are the vendors. the articles for sale were not that good but we have seen far worse.

The exterior face of the first story consists of long corridor is along which are carved Hindu religious scenes

Donna again making new friends.

An example of the carvings.

Our guide explains some of the stories told through the carvings to Dale and Donna.

Donna heard they were auditioning for Tomb Raiders II.

Most of the exterior is sandstone. The steps are weathered to the point where there is some uncertainty about traction which makes the long steep stairways exciting.

This section didn't look that steep from far away, but after you started up it did focus you.

Once you had climbed to the upper level the feeling was much more spiritual and serene.

And getting down offered some additional moments of high anxiety.

Dale on the descent. She's smiling but when she got to the bottom it took 4 men ten minutes to pry her fingers from the safety rail.

Donna was not too happy about how steep the descent was but she looked so good in the hat that she posed for me for 20 minutes smiling through the tears

Looking up after the descent, was a little unsettling even though we were sure that in a life or death situation, emergency medical treatment could be expected to be available on site well within 4 days. Not too good for a heart attack or if you swallowed something but fine if you had a moderate case of poison ivy.

It was really quite an experience to have visited this place.

Donna, Dale Atkins and me in the cocktail lounge. Dale supplied free therapy and I bought the drinks. It was well worth the trip (Dale is something of a celebrity therapist and a guest lecturer on the ship). I found it helpful to explore the question of why three fairly intelligent people would venture to this God forsaken jungle outpost in the middle of nowhere. A place recently run by one of the cruelest despots the world has ever known. as the night wore on I realized I could not possibly buy enough drinks to compensate Dale for the amount of time this question required.

Donna ended the night with a Cosmo. She gave the bartender the formula and he searched the hotel for two hours before coming up with the locally grown cranberry juice substitute.