On Thursday, January 29, 2026, we awoke to pleasant sunrise colors in Krabi, in southern Thailand.
Sharon took this 20-second video that gives you the feel for the serenity.
Three of the couples in our group started their journey home that day (Lance & Lesa, Dayna & Robert and Paul & Becky). They headed out pretty early for their flights to Bangkok, and we missed them right away.
The rest of us were going on a bonus side trip to Cambodia for a couple of days.
At the airport, our group had their visas checked for entrance to Cambodia, so they gave us a red sticker and kept us separate from those getting off in Bangkok.
I had Kim pose by Kim's Cafe (the Korean says "Kim-su Kah-peh").
Once in Bangkok, there was a bit of confusion about our flight. We were finally loaded onto a bus that drove out on the tarmac for a while, only to eventually end up right back where we started. We were worried for a moment that we might have missed our flight, but it all turned out fine.
Here's a 20-second video clip that Greg captured of us wondering what was going on when our bus started driving in circles.
Tyler had booked us seats right up front so that we could beat the rush at immigration.
As we flew into the airport at Siem Reap, we caught our first glimpses of Cambodia.
We landed in the city of Siem Reap (pronounced like if you watched farmers harvesting—you would "see-'em reap.")
Linette was excited that we both got our luggage this time!
Tyler arranged a bus for us, which added one more mode of transportation to the list.
Once we were in Cambodia, we no longer needed the red stickers that were put on us to shepherd us through the airport in Bangkok. Several of them somehow ended up on Greg's back. He discovered them pretty soon, though.
This tuk-tuk is a motorcycle with a trailer instead of being a tricycle. (Incidentally, I first heard of tuk-tuks in Guatemala, where they are pronounced with a Spanish 'u' sound like in "Tuesday". Apparently the word originated in Thailand, where they pronounce it more like the "u" in the English word "put", like "took-took". And it sounds funny when people pronounce it like "tuck-tuck".)
I loved seeing the glowing green rice fields.
The people there were amazingly friendly. We got smiles and even waves from so many people, including this school girl riding along.
These thatched roofs are for real, not just decorations for tourists.
The amount of stuff carried by scooters is astounding.
Scooters and motorcycles abound there, and serve as the "family car".
In this 1-minute video, you can see thatched roofs, typical buildings, lots of scooters, and some friendly school kids waving at us.
We stayed at the Golden Temple Retreat, and it was a beautiful place.
The beds all had real flowers on them to welcome us.
The rooms on both sides opened right up to the pool that ran down the middle.
It was Tyler's birthday that week, so the staff had a little surprise for him when he got to his room.
The bathtub and sink were also full of rose petals.
In this 1-minute video, Sharon, Jen and Kim all give bits of a little tour of the hotel. I think Jen was recording a video for her kids, which is why it ends with "love you guys!"
After getting settled in, we all walked down to the famous "Pub Street" area of town. The bridge had fun lights.
Once we reached Pub Street, the lights and energy reminded me of Times Square in New York City. It was so festive! So everybody took pictures there.
Cambodia sort of gave up on their own currency and now uses US dollars.
You could pay $3 to put your feet in this tank and have fish eat the dead skin off of your feet for as long as you would like. I did not do that.
Speaking of gross, there was a place that had all kinds of gross things to eat, like scorpions, millipedes, insects and other creepy crawlers.
Apparently the protein content is very high. But still....
In this 2-minute video, you can hear the constant buzz of scooters as we walk a few minutes to Pub Street.
Some of the stickers from Greg's back somehow made it over to Sharon's back for the next few hours.
She eventually found them.
We joined Tyler for an amazing dinner at one of his favorite restaurants.
They, too, had a little birthday surprise for Tyler.
The staff whooped it up pretty big for Tyler's birthday, which was hilarious. You can see how it went down in this 45-second video.
They also brought out this fancy tree of fruit drinks for us.
When we walked back to the hotel, there was a little traditional dance performance going on in their dining area.
Here is a 2 1/2-minute video of a couple of traditional dances that Sharon, Devaughn and I captured.
It was Linette's birthday that week, too, so the hotel staff had a little cupcake for her, which was so sweet of them.
As in Thailand, the traditional greeting and 'thank you' gesture is to put your hands together and give a little bow. In Thailand, this is called a "wai", and in Cambodia, it is called a "Sampeah" (pronounced like the English words "some" and the vegetable "pea" with a soft little "h" at the end). Linette bowed and said "arkoun" (thank you).
Here is a 10-second video of the staff singing Happy Birthday to Linette.
I had always been fascinated by Angkor Wat, the ancient temple complex in the jungles of Cambodia. So when I saw that this was offered as an add-on to our Thailand tour, I was excited to join in.
So the next morning, we boarded a bus and our tour guide gave us a firehose crash course in Buddhist and Hindu beliefs and gods, and the history of the three temples we would be visiting.
The first temple we visited was the Ta Prohm Temple. Construction began on this massive temple complex in 1186 A.D. by Jayavarman VII, who was king of the Khmer Empire at that time.
The Khmer Empire lasted from 802 to 1431 AD, and the script used in Cambodia is called the "Khmer" script. The Thai and Khmer script both derived their style anciently from India, where the little loops on the letters were apparently important to avoid tearing banana leaves when writing. But they evolved so separately since then that the letters do not resemble each other more than, say, Latin and Cyrillic (Russian).
No mortar was used in the construction of these buildings, so weather and plants have gotten in between the stones and caused some separation.
Our guide sat us down in the shade by this cool building and taught us more about the structures and symbolism. Here is a brief overview of my understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hinduism. Early Khmer kings were mostly Hindu. In Hinduism, there are three main gods, each with a female counterpart.
Buddhism. In the late 12th century, at the time Ta Prohm was built, King Jayavarman VII shifted the empire from Hinduism to Buddhism.
Throughout the day, our guide would refer back to these figures as they were portrayed in the art.
You can see ancient walls and courtyards being overgrown with massive trees.
The ornate stonework was fascinating.
We walked through gates and came across more and more buildings, all of which looked so cool to me.
Like the Mayans, the people here did not discover the "true arch" like the Romans did, so they were more limited in how wide of an area they could span with a stone roof. You can see here their use of the "Corbel Vault", which is the practice of having horizontal stones go closer and closer to the center. They were masters of this technique, but couldn't match the span and strength of a true arch.
Looters stole heads of many of the statues of Buddha throughout the complex, especially during the chaos of the Cambodian Civil War (1970s-1990s). Stealing an entire statue was too hard, but looters could carry a head and get a good price for it.
In February, 2025, archeologists at Ta Prohm were able to exactly match up a sandstone torso with a head that was found by French explorers in 1927, and reunite them after nearly a century apart.
One of the most fascinating things at the temple complex was to see the massive trees growing into and through the stones of the buildings.
This example was especially cool, so a lot of us got pictures there.
Monks in Thailand and Cambodia wear an orange robe. The orange color is said to symbolize the color of the sun, burning away worldly desires and attachments, and also the autumn leaf, which reminds us of the impermanence and decay of things. It also identifies them as men of peace.
Here is Greg's Sampson pose.
Unlike Mayan ruins, which have often been reconstructed from piles of stone that have tumbled down, the ruins here are maintained using "minimum intervention." In this example, it is likely that the lower stones are still sitting where they were originally placed, hundreds of years ago, while the upper blocks have been disturbed by plants and weather (and occasionally by people).
When the French archeologists studied these temples in the early 1900s, they decided to leave Ta Prohm mostly as it was found—overgrown by the jungle—so that visitors could see what it looked like when it was discovered. I do think it looks awesome this way.
This relief depicts Kala, the "Devourer of Time" as a monster at the bottom, missing a lower jaw, which indicates its insatiable appetite. It consumes everything, from individuals to empires. The "Fire Flower" motif coming out of it show that while time consumes, it is also the source from which all new life and creation emerge. A deity at the top has risen above the destructive power of time.
On a lighter note, my elephant shirt made me happy.
We did some panoramas showing each couple at both the entrance and exit of this building.
Some hallways had blocks that had fallen from the ceiling. But I'm sure the ones where we were walking were fiiiiiine....
The Khmer kingdom started out Hindu, but switched to Buddhist when Ta Prohm was first built. In the 1200s, King Jayavarman VIII switched back to Hinduism, and ordered the destruction of the Buddhist images, including scratching off the faces like in this carving. In 1295, this king was overthrown by his son-in-law, Indravarman III, who was Buddhist. However, they had a philosophy of peaceful coexistence, so they did not destroy the Hindu imagery.
Here, Darren points out the Utah stone.
The roots growing down here are fabulous.
These shafts apparently used to have roofs on them that have collapsed over time, but they serve as a nice skylight now.
This one is still pretty dark, and you can see dozens of bats hanging around up there. We could see them flying around (and you had to watch out for droppings!)
Here is a 1-minute video that shows the bat hanging out and flying around.
Everywhere we looked, we saw a cool mix of structures, ruins and jungle.
The movie "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" had several scenes filmed in Ta Prohm. Here is Angelina Jolie by a temple with roots growing over it.
And here is Sharon in the same spot! (Sharon & Roger watched Tomb Raider that night in their hotel).
This is sometimes called the "dinosaur wall." Some people (like me) see a stegosaurus in this frame. Others see an animal like a rhino or boar (which is more likely, given that this was carved hundreds of years before the stegosaurus was discovered). Still, kind of fun.
(I'm including a lot of pictures here without explanation, just because they look cool, even though I don't know specifically what they were for).
Greg and Kelly are standing by the head of a Naga, a multi-headed serpent deity. Here it serves as a guardian over the bridge, protecting the sacred area from evil spirits.
Sharon is standing between the necks of the Naga guardians.
This fancy lady is having a photo shoot there.
Our guide regularly stopped us and said, "Phoootooooh!" Afterwards, he almost always said, "Stunning!"
This statue over the gate represents Lokeshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. The four faces represent Metta (Loving-kindness), Karuna (Compassion), Mudita (Sympathetic joy) and Upekkha (Equanimity, or calmness and not freaking out about stuff). These are the "four sublime states" of Buddhism and were meant to guide a king's rule.
We are doing a silly imitation of this. As the east-facing one, Linette is Loving-Kindness; I'm Compassion; Roger is Sympathetic Joy; and Sharon is Equanimity.
We were assaulted by vendors as we left the complex, and several of us made a purchase.
A guy offered to sell me a traditional 2-stringed violin (Tro Sau) for 30 bucks. I had lingered behind to take a few more pictures, so I was hurrying to catch my group's van before they left. I actually had considered buying a real one in Shanghai, China, several years ago (called an "Erhu" there), just for fun.
When the guy offered it to me for $20, I couldn't resist. When I climbed on the bus with this, Linette said, "What did you do?!" People had quite a time laughing about how in the world I was going to get this thing home on the plane. I think it was Jen who said, "He could say that it's his 'emotional support instrument!'"
Someone said I should play some John Denver on it, so I figured out the notes to Country Roads. It wasn't great, but you could tell what it was.
Here is a 3 1/2 minute video of some views around Ta Prohm, including some explanation by Sharon and our guide. It ends with a few seconds of me attempting to play the instrument after maybe 30 seconds of practice ever.
The group brought a few umbrellas to shade us from the sun, but it turned out that it wasn't too hot of a day, and the jungle and buildings provided plenty of shade anyway.
But if you hand two boys an umbrella, there's bound to be a sword fight.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious complex in the world, at over 400 acres. It was originally built in the early 1100s as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. But from the 1200s and onward, it was gradually transformed into a Theravada Buddhist temple complex. It has remained in fairly consistent use since that time, which is partly why it is in such good preservation.
BTW, "Angkor" means "city" and "Wat" means "temple" (like it does in Thai). So this is the "temple city".
After walking across a bridge over the moat, we entered a building at the entrance, where we could peek out the windows.
Then we caught our first glimpse of the iconic towers.
These are the iconic towers of Angkor Wat. They appear on the flag of Cambodia and are recognized throughout the world.
In both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, Mount Meru is a sacred 5-peaked mountain at the center of the universe where the gods live. Angkor Wat has five towers (three in front, and two more further back), which represent those five peaks.
The main temple faces west, which makes it so that at the spring and fall equinox, the sun rises directly over the center tower. Thousands of people gather on those days to witness that.
Sharon was pretty excited to be there.
So was everyone else.
One fun thing in Asia is that translations into English are just slightly off in a way it's hard to put your finger on. I knew what this meant and couldn't think of a shorter way to say it, so I guess it's fine.
This is telling us that there is more than one way to go, but I still thought it was funny.
This hallway has carvings all the way down it.
This massive carving represents "The Churning of the Ocean of Milk," and it is the most important bas-relief in the entire temple. It is 160 feet long and looks like a big tug-of-war contest, but it actually shows a massive, cosmic engineering project, in which the cosmic stuff out in the universe is churned so that the good stuff can solidify and rise up.
The Asuras (demons) are on the left side, holding the head of the snake, and the Devas (gods) are on the right side, holding the tail. They are not doing a tug-of-war, but are pulling the serpent back and forth, to spin the pillar (Mount Mandara) in order to churn the Ocean of Milk, so that the Amrita, the nectar of immortality will rise up. Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and beauty (and Vishnu's wife) also rises up out of the foam, along with lots of Asparas (celestial nyphms), which are shown dancing above the demons and gods.
Though the demons and gods are enemies, this shows how both are necessary to make the universe function (in other words, there must be opposition in all things).
Fun fact: Some people think that Angkor Wat is a 3-D model of this same cosmic churning:
And there's way more to it than that, but it was interesting to get a few more glimpses into what we were seeing.
Even without understanding all of that at the time, it was a pretty impressive carving.
This scene is just on the other side of the above pillars.
There were tall steps up to each temple. (This one was blocked off, probably due to unsafe deterioration and renovation activity).
Our guide had us do Hindu arms.
Eventually, we were able to climb the steep stairway to the top, where the central tower is located.
The window pillars created interesting negative space.
This building had "Devatas", too, which are sacred guardians of the temple. Each carving is unique. There are almost 1800 of these on the walls of Angkor Wat.
Here is Linette under the central tower.
And Kim & Devaughn.
And Roger & Sharon.
This Buddha was shrouded in a gold robe.
From this upper level, you could look out over the walls all the way to the jungle beyond.
It was a little scary to descend the steep steps.
This courtyard looked to me like a stage. ("Angkor Wat--The Musical!")
But it is actually one of four cleansing pools representing the four elements. (I wonder if the one representing fire was a hot tub? And the earth one was a mud bath? And the air one had jets?)
This temple is still actively used by worshippers.
Some metal rods are used to reinforce the structure to keep it safe.
There are four hallways that meet in a cross at the center of the building. Here is a view looking up.
And here we are surrounding the cross with our guide taking our picture.
That doorway is way over there!
Finally, we made our way across the serpent-lined bridge towards the "back door" at the eastern gate.
We had one more great view as we left the gate.
"Stunning!"
The walk to the exit looked like it went forever.
I hadn't seen warning signs like this before.
But after Kelly's experience of having a monkey jump on her shoulder, we had to get a picture of her with the sign.
I showed what the monkey would look like.
I didn't realize until later that the tower in the middle was in the center of the other four towers, since it kept looking like these three were all in a row.
Here is our group at one of the two "Lily Ponds".
And here are some couple pictures taken there.
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| Sharon & Roger |
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| Landon & Jen |
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| Randy & Linette |
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| Valerie & Darren |
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| Devaughn & Kim |
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| Greg & Kelly |
We got a few more pictures as we walked towards the exit.
There was a statue of Vishnu at the exit, this one having eight arms instead of the typical four.
Here is an impressive statue of the head of Naga, with seven heads.
We eventually walked across the serpent-lined bridge, and could see Angkor Wat across the surrounding moat, which you will recall represents the "Churning Ocean of Milk."
We got a group pictures and then couple pictures across the moat.
One photographic technique I learned a few years back is sometimes called "compression", where you stand back and zoom in so that your foreground subject is the same size, but your background subject isn't so tiny.
For example, here is Jen and Landon with Angkor Wat in the background, taken with a 1x lens on my iPhone.
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| 1x zoom, up close |
I got back about 40 feet, and zoomed in on them again using an 8x lens, which made them about the same size. But it made the background 8x as big, which is a much cooler picture.
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| 8x zoom, from way back |
Back at the bus, there were people selling us stuff, including some little kids.
We were discouraged from buying stuff from them, because it sometimes encourages them to skip school, but they were also adorable.
Here is a 6-minute video showing scenes and explaining a few things around Angkor Wat, mostly from footage that Sharon took.
After all that time in two temples, it was great to have some great food for lunch.
Sharon got a tasty passionfruit smoothie.
Greg is always happiest when eating Thai food.
This seemed like an unnecessary sign to me, but apparently someone found it to be a problem.
The final temple that we visited was the Bayon Temple, which was also built in the late 1100s. Unlike Angkor Wat, which was originally built as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, the Bayon Temple was built as a Buddhist temple.
A Buddhist statue welcomed us at the north gate. You can also see a serene face carved up on the wall. There are 216 faces carved into 54 towers at this complex.
This temple also had many carvings of Apsaras, the celestial dancers of Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
There were warnings about monkey attacks here, too, though it was also fun to see them.
This one had a baby.
This temple was far more "dense" in terms of the buildings all crowded together.
This is probably another depiction of Lokeshvara, with four Buddhist "sublime states" of Love, Compassion, Sympathy and Equanimity.
We wandered through a labyrinth of hallways, coming across several shrines.
Here is Linette in one of the courtyards.
The carvings at the Bayon Temple tend to be more historical. This one shows a military scene, with a commander riding on an elephant (just barely visible on the bottom left), and soldiers with spears and shields following behind.
This temple complex wasn't nearly as large, which was just as well, as it had already been a long day. So cool though!
Here you can see the demons and gods pulling on Naga the serpent to Churn the Ocean of Milk.
Here is a 3-minute video of some scenes at the Bayon Temple, including a glimpse of the baby monkey hanging onto its mom.
It was cool to see water buffalo there.
As we got back on the bus, I wondered a little more how I was going to get this instrument home.
It was a warm day, so after all that walking around at the temples, it was so nice to take a dip in the pool that was right outside our rooms.
It was wonderful to have a relaxing afternoon by the pool where we could chat and relax. (I usually forget to relax on trips).
Linette finally got around to enjoying her little birthday fruit treat.
We played a little bit of "Canadian Sadness", and you can tell that Sharon is currently "winning" as the saddest. (If I could find any Cambodia playing cards, we would play "Cambodian Sadness," but those didn't seem to exist).
At dinner time, Linette and I walked down towards Pub Street again, and ordered a pizza at an outdoor place with a portable pizza oven.
Roger and Sharon found some ice cream and some fun art work.
We also found ice cream at the same place.
We hadn't really done a tuk-tuk ride yet during our trip, so we took on the short ride back to the hotel.
If you would like to experience a tuk-tuk ride, here is a 2 1/2-minute video of our ride back towards the hotel.
Valerie had a knack for attracting the cute kids who were selling stuff.
The scooter parking lots were amazing.
Here's another place that sells gross stuff, in case you want to eat some, including snakes, scorpions, bugs and other nasties.
I hadn't noticed the four-faced statue in the hotel lobby when we first got there, but after being taught about Lokeshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, I noticed it right away on the way back through.
The hotel offered us a discount on massages there, so Jen and Landon got massages at the hotel that night. Several others got one that night or the next night.
Linette taught seminary on Friday mornings at 8:30am, which was 10:30pm where we were. The previous week, she had played a yes/no game to see if her students could guess where in the world she was. When they realized it was dark here, they eventually guessed Asia and then Thailand.
This week it only took them a little while to hone in on Cambodia.
What an incredible day! I have always wanted to visit Angkor Wat, and each of the three temple complexes we visited had their own charm.
In the next episode, we ride ATVs through rural Cambodia, and visit a Floating Village.