Thank you for all the feedback yesterday. I appreciate it very much; indeed the negative feedback was quite constructive and helpful. Thanks for taking the time, as usual, to share your thoughts.

Now that we are getting back in the normal groove of posting beautiful places and beautiful things, here is a nice one for your Sunday!

This is Angkor Wat in Cambodia at sunrise. I think I went there every single morning around 5 AM to see the clouds and light in different formations. I got to know some of the locals there. A small girl from a family would see me in the dark by the lake, and come over to say hello. She would then bring me a chair and some Vietnamese coffee (quite thick and sweet with condensed milk). I would pay her just a few dollars and she was thrilled… I paid extra to keep the coffee coming in dangerously quick intervals. The sunrise lasted for several hours, and I was in no hurry…

This is an old temple near the main complex of Angkor Wat that sits high on a hill.  At the bottom, a man gave me an option of riding an elephant to the top.  I don’t know why I didn’t!  I think I might have been in a hurry to see the sunset and the elephant looked old and ponderous.

It was a bit sketchy up there with the storm, but there was nothing metal so I didn’t feel like there was much danger of lightning.  I was used to Texas thunderstorms with big lightning, but maybe they didn’t have those sorts in Cambodia – who knows?  Not me.  Anyway, it was too cool to stay up there and watch the storm as it rolled in…

Angkor Wat was really more of a fortress than it was a temple.

There is a massive moat that encircles the complex.  I can only imagine how long it took peasants to dig a thousand years ago.  I also wonder how they all drank fresh water back then.  I know I couldn’t go more than 10 minutes walking around the area without needing a drink.  The massive heat, humidity, and standing water was a perfect recipe for cavalcade of bacteria to rise up and fight back.  I don’t suppose they all boiled their water.  Maybe everyone was just more hardy back then…  Luckily, when I was there, there were plenty of little children running around selling me bottled water.  Which, upon further reflection, I probably should not have drank.

Away from the main temples of Angkor, this temple rests about two hours from Siem Reap through thick jungles and a sketchy road. As I made my way through the stone halls and entrance ways, I emerged onto this scene of a bunch of young Buddhists preparing for the next phase of their rites.

I think I ended up talking to almost a dozen different monks in and around Angkor. It was very interesting to hear their version of what happened with the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, and that whole mess. They killed over 1 million Cambodians after the US pulled out of Vietnam, eliminating anyone with “involvement in free-market activities”. I was a little afraid to tell anyone there that I sometimes speak at Libertarian conferences, in case there were a few rogue Khmer Rouge agents roaming the jungles!

Some of the stories are a bit sketchy to be reprinted in this format, so if we ever meet for coffee some day, I’ll be glad to tell you… but there is some messed up stuff around there.

On a lighter note, I’m headed to Vegas next week for just a day and a half. I have a little speaking engagement, but I’ll be spending every spare waking moment living with my right brain and seeing what bits are appropriate to capture for you all! 🙂

I found her after taking a few wayward turns in some confusing corridors in the main temple of Angkor Wat. She was a Buddhist bolt, but lighting incense at the foot of a statue of Shiva, the Hindu god. It turns out that she, and others like her, are from an interesting sect that bridges two of the big religions. I always enjoy talking to people about this sort of thing. It doesn’t really bother me one way or another, but I just find all the thought processes to be interesting.

She’s one of the billions of people alive (and possibly re-alive) that draws into the splinters of the original Vedic Brahminism. She didn’t speak a lot of English, so there were a few pieces missing in our conversation, but I filled them in later after talking to many other monks and worshipers throughout the complex.

This is the innermost temple in Angkor Wat. I was happy to be there on a brilliant morning when no one was around except for the occasional avout or two, making their rounds through the wat. The top of the temple is shaped like a Lotus flower and can be seen from everywhere around the temple complex. The robed ones tended to ignore me, as they usually do with the extramuros.

Inside, it was especially peaceful, especially while zoning out on my iPod. I was so zoned out, in fact, that I almost forgot to take a photo!

And for those of you waiting for the FIRST D3X shot… It should be in about 24 hours… posting around Midnight CST on The Night Before D3Xmas. Hey that is a clever title… get ready for it.

It was my second day in the wats of Angkor and I was back to explore the edges of the vast complex. One turn and another, a room within a room, I quickly became lost, which is altogether a great thing in these sorts of situations. Even better, as those of you that know me already understand, there was not a single tourist around to ruin the mood out deep in hidden recesses.

I came upon this meditating pilgrim, who had created her own little shrine area where the unexpected Hindu god statues had been absconded from the altar. She continued on, chanting in her particular Brahmanistic offshoot meme that seemed to bring her enough peace to allow me to pass after careful examination.

The second shot below is after I finally made it back outside, I sat down for a rest, and then decided to set up for a timed shot. My mom and sister always like to see more shots of me on the blog… so here you go! 🙂

We’re here for the tapestries! I’ve always wanted to do an improv like that to talk my way into a German castle, but the opportunity has yet to present itself. I’ve got it in my back pocket, just in case.

This place could not be further from Germany… this is a temple a few hours from Siem Reap in Cambodia… it is quite deep in the jungle and it was quite a thrill to explore it!

I heard the Amazing Race was just in Cambodia in Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is. I haven’t seen it yet, although that is one of the reality shows I kinda like. I’d love to go on it someday… if you want to go one with me and have an inking for adventure, let me know!

It had been a good several hours of trekking through a muggy jungle before getting to this place. I’ve been to a lot of muggy places (even Houston), but nothing compared to this place. When explorers "re-discovered" this temple just a few centuries ago, it was completely covered in jungle. I can’t imagine how hard the work was to clear the jungle back from the temple….

After emerging from the trees, I sat here for about 30 mins to regain my wits, and of course took a few shots to help pass the time while my ipod streamed some Baraka soundtrack action.

This one also uses my textures from the newer tutorial in this section