The sun rises in the east: Siem Reap Cambodia

Arrived in Siem Reap Thursday tried to write this last night but was too exhausted after two days of climbing temples. Oh Happy Super Sunday -Go GreenBay I think. Its morning here will probably be an abbreviated blog because we will be on the road at 9am. That's late for us -Friday we saw the sunrise at Angkor Wat-450 wakeup on the road at 515. Yesterday on the road at 8am. Its been well worth it there is a tremendous amount to see. Over 200 temples in the area and we will have only seen 20. It's like a best of album-probably not as good as the original but they were built 950 years ago.
It's been summer on our trip since we reached Saigon (apologies) here it is even warmer but less humid. Hard to believe they call this winter. So a little history Siem Reap is the city nearby where most of these temples are located-it was named in the 17th century after many battles with neighbor Siam (Thailand) and means "victory over Siam". Angkor Wat (some say the most magnificent) is one of many temples (all built at varying times from 802-1432) built by the Khmer empire. The religion of these empires was initially Hinduism until Jayavarman VII (1181-1215){ * does the name Magna Carta ring a bell }when Buddhism supplanted it. Angkor came to western attention in the 19th century when european explorers "stumbled upon it" (from the guidebook). It underwent restoration through the 20th century but then was lost again during the Vietnam war and Pol Pot's regime. Today it is a tourist oriented city -has some of the flavor of Cambodia, but once you go out to the environs you notice it is not representative of life in the rural areas. Ok enough blabbing will show some shots from Angkor Wat (city which is a temple) built from 1113-50 by King Suryavarman II with a little help from 1,000,000 of his subjects.