Temples, temples and more temples...

Hello, this post is from the place we flew to, Siem Riep. We spent our first two days in Cambodia being taken by a very nice guide called Sak to the ancient temples nearby. They were built around the 10th to 12th centuries by various kings, mostly called Jayavarman. King Jayavarman VII was especially busy and did lots of construction, including the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat. This first photo is looking across the moat to one of the 5 entrances. You can just see the towers of the temple itself in the distance.

Here we are a bit closer up with the temple reflected in a waterlily pond.

Barty and Arnie spent ages walking around this temple while we dozed in the backpack as we were tired from the journey. In fact, we dozed for most of the morning because after this temple there was another, and another, and another... this photo is from one called Banteay Srey, which Barty said was very beautifully carved but we didn't think it was very different from all the others.

Next day guess where we went - that's right, MORE temples! We actually really liked this one though. Firstly because it was all covered in jungle with trees growing on the roofs and down the walls.

It's all the trees that destroyed the temple, they started growing in gaps between stones then as the roots got bigger and bigger the stones fell down. We had fun climbing in the tree roots.

Secondly we liked it because it was used in the film Tomb Raider. This doorway and the tree by it are in the film.

The temples are a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu, mainly Buddhist now. Here are some Buddhist monks:

You see the monks everywhere, in the cities and towns and out in the villages. They live in monasteries and early each morning they stream out with their bowls and canvas bags to collect alms (donations of food). When someone puts food in their bag, they kneel down in front of the monk and the monk chants a blessing. It's seen as a great honour to give alms to a monk.

We hope you've all had a good week at school,
Lots of love from all of us including Barty and Arnie.

P.S. from Barty
Thanks for the note Lauren, glad you're liking Mrs Herrick. I used to hate teaching myths and legends, you'll have to let me know what you think of them. Which ones are you doing? Your book by Michael Morpurgo that he signed for you is about Robin Hood - you could take that in to show, it's a legend.