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!

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

This is a temple near the main wat of Angkor in Siem Reap. The sunset was going crazy and then some Cambodian security came to clear people out of the temple. I stayed on the run (sorta), ducking in and out of these little tombs when they came around in their cute little uniforms. I would have been more intimidated if they looked like Cambodian military (I don’t want to mess with those guys), but they looked like hired help… Eventually everyone was gone but me and a few security guards, making the rounds… eventually the rouse was up and my Metal Geal Solid routine had run its course.

This is a temple not too far from the main one at Angkor Wat. I noticed it was about 95 degrees while at the first temple, and a very cool 94 degrees while here. Also, there was a wonderful 1 MPH breeze that I detected for a few seconds.

As I changed lenses, I think I lost about a liter of sweat down into the inner chamber… that couldn’t have been good for the old Nikon.

I could hardly figure out where to look first! I was happy to have a second pair of eyes there with my camera, so I could look at one thing while the lens and attached remote looked at something else! Every 10 minutes the clouds moved and the light changed, creating a different scene as I snapped away in bliss.

You can feel the morning humidity hanging on the air over the lagoon. It was a little after 5 in the morning at Angkor Wat, and a small Cambodian girl had brought me a little chair to sit down in by the water. She also brought coffee and condensed milk, refilling me every 20 minutes or so. I think the chair and the coffee was the the best $2 I ever spent!

I arrived about 4:30 AM and was alone except for a few monks that were moving about, preparing for their morning offerings. The mist and humidity hung thick in the air, and you can really feel it in this shot. The whole scene was 200% dreamy, and the thick layer of fog made it impossible for my eyes or camera to focus on anything except for the impressionist vision itself.

This was one of my favorite temples in Cambodia. The various restoration foundations left this temple largely untouched, and they allowed the jungle growth to continue winding its way into the ancient stones. I also liked that there was hardly anyone around, leaving me to explore it in relative peace.

This was shot about an hour outside of Siem Reap in a remote temple that is not often visited. I was very happy to go and explore all the reliefs…. I could not recommend it more!