Day at Angkor Park

After transfers and farewell dinners on June 17th, we traveled to Kampong Cham and then on up to Kampong Thom on June 18th. Scott had interviews in both cities and he reorganized the branch presidency in Kampong Thom on Sunday as I've stated in a previous post. June 19th, we took a preparation day and took Scott's sisters to the 7th Wonder of the World: Angkor Wat. There are also many other temples there that are built in different eras. There are four pools on the 2nd level of Angkor. I have never seen water in them until this day. I found out later that these four pools are for the priests to clean themselves before going to worship their god called Vishna. This temple at first was built for the Hindu religion and later the Buddhists adapted it to their religion as Cambodia became more Buddhist than Hindu. The water around the temple was man-made as a moat and built to protect the temple from invaders. It was strange to see this green plant growing in the middle of one of the empty pools.

You would think Scott had been here before or something! He was reading his e-mail and letters from the missionaries while I walked around with his sisters! I guess no Preparation day for him! The monkeys gather at a certain place in the park and many people stop to view them. The little girl was fearless with the monkeys. Her mother sold bananas to tourists to feed the monkeys and she was just very comfortable with them.

I never tire at looking at these roots in the Ta Prom Temple. It is amazing how they grow above the ground and support these big trees. The height and sometimes the width of these trees is somewhat reminiscent of the Red Woods in California. I stand in awe of these magnificent trees. At the Bayon Temple there are many faces. In one area of the temple, one can stand and almost touch noses or kiss the head of these ancient faces.

Melanie, Lori and Sue were quite brave to get a fish foot massage. At first Melanie was very ticklish, but adjusted. You paid $3 for 20 minutes of fish nibbling. I opted out. I had a dress on and it didn't seem quite appropriate for me to do that at this time. plus, I am extremely ticklish on the bottom of my feet so don't know if I would have done it anyway. I took their pictures and visited with a man who kept asking questions about the church. He finally agreed to give me his phone number and let the Elders come and teach him about the church! I will have to ask the Elders if the number was a good one he gave me, or if he was just being nice.