CAMBODIA:Bayon

"The faces with slightly curving lips, eyes placed in shadow by the lowered lids utter not a word and yet force you to guess much." Writer P Jennerat de Beerski in the 1920s.

The Bayon is located in the center of the city of Angkor Thom and is It is easily my favourite place in Angkor.

The Bayon was built nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat.
The basic structure and earliest part of the temple ate not known.

Since it was located at the centre of a royal city it seems possible that the Bayon would have originally been a temple-mountain conforming to the symbolism of a microcosm of Mount Meru (Any connection to Meru in Selangor ?)

Bayon vies with Angkor Wat the favorite monument of visitors . the two evoke similar aesthetic responses yet are different in purpose, design and architecture.

Over 2000..yup! 2000!!!!.... large faces carved on the 54 tower give this temple its majestic character.


The pix:
"Bayon; I stand before it; stunned at it's beauty and splendour."

"The gateway to Bayon."

"Can u spot the 3 elephant trunks ?"

"The protectors of the gateway to Bayon."

"The protectors up close and personal."













" A shrine among the ruins."

"My trusty guide who speaks with an American accent."



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Comments may be sent to: therevelation11@gmail.com

Cambodia:AngkorWat

They say there are two great complexes of ancient temples in Southeast Asia, one at Bagan in Myanmar (which I have also been and need to seriously dig up those photos!), the other at Angkor in Cambodia.

The temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements.
The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis

Consisting of an enormous temple symbolizing the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean.

All in all, freakin' amazing.
What get you when you get there is the vastness of the structure.

The pix:
"Welcome ye' weary travellers."

"Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. "

"The reaaaaaalllly narrow steps leading to the top...Did they have small feet back then ?"

"One of the many rooms where the head of the idols were hacked off by looters."

"Not only did these amazing people build Angor Wat stone by stone but they also carved almost every stone."







"One of the many libraries in Angkor Wat. Obviously education even then was essential."

"The short dimensions of the huge compound are precisely aligned along a north-south axis, while the east-west axis has been deliberately diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and north of west, seemingly in order to give observers a three day anticipation of the spring equinox."

"Germany is one of many countries assisting in the restoration of Angkor Wat."

"One last look at Angkor Wat and the famous tree...now onwards to Bayon !"


© All Pictures by Headliner unless stated. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used without permission.
Comments may be sent to: therevelation11@gmail.com

CAMBODIA:AngkorThom

After Laos it was on to Cambodia to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world; Angkor Wat.

It would take a whole day to vist Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Bayon.

First stop; Angkor Thom.
What is incredible is the vastness of the Angkor region and how the people built it.
It is believed to have sustained a population of 80,000-150,000 people.
Truly astounding !

Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609.


The pix:
"Stayed at the stately Grand Raffles hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Siem Reap."

"The old corridor where my room was which looks like something out of Alice In Wonderland."

"The Celebrity Bar at the hotel where pictures of 'we-drank-here' patrons adorn the walls, e.g Charlie Chaplin, Somerset Maugham, Jackie Onnasis-Kennedy."

"This is where you have to buy your pass to get into Angkor. Entrance fee is USD 20.00."

"Pass secured..now let's go in!"

"Lara Croft:Tomb Raider was also filmed here."















"Some parts of Angkor Thom are being repaired and what they do is they take the affected area down stone by stone and number them so they can be put back together like a giant jigsaw."

"The guide said this tree grew around this statue and left the face uncovered...some people say the root was cut to show the face...I have no idea though I would like to believe the former"

" From faces to asses....The guide said this part of the root is famous because it looks like a butt...WTF !"

"Standing in between the doorway of one of the temples where they say if u look straight up, you will see heaven.....it was a bit cloudy that day."

NEXT STOP: Angkor Wat !


© All Pictures by Headliner unless stated. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used without permission.
Comments may be sent to: therevelation11@gmail.com

DroolingOnTheSLS-AMG

Got to test drive the Mercedes SLS AMG which is the new safety car for this F1 season.
One word..."Awesome.."
So it was not the LeMans Red colour that you see in the ads but stilll...
Now if only...if only....

The pix:

"The SLS AMG-unwrapped"


"Whoa !..Nice rear-end !"


"The red and black trim of the console."


"The high-performance SLS AMG is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in only 3.8 seconds, and can reach a top speed of 320 km/h...eat that NS Highway ! "


"The gull-wing doors must be closed manually as the sales people said that the AMG engineers decided against auto-closing systems because the systems would have added 90 pounds to the car. In case of the car turning turtle, the doors can be fully detached to allow the occupants to leave the vehicle."

"Standard transmission is AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT 7-speed Getrag dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission through a lightweight carbon fiber driveshaft.....or so I'm told so I will take their word for it."

"This spoiler in the rear-end pops up automatically when the car is doing 120kh/h."

"Due to environmental concerns,the SLS AMG might be the last AMG using the 6.2 liter V8 engine......blame the tree-huggers !"

"And how much does this mighhhhhty-fine piece of machinery cost in Malaysia...just under RM2Mil...oh well."

"Enough chit-chat...Let's roll..*cue" Limp Bizkit's Rolling*."



© All Pictures by Headliner unless stated. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used without permission.
Comments may be sent to: therevelation11@gmail.com