Another Random Photo!

HK is hot today.  Oh man, have we hit summer!

And it's so hot, I don't want to stay in this room.  Thusly and therefore, let's do a random photo.

You know the rules: photo chosen with shut eyes and if it's interesting I'll tell you about it, and if it isn't, I get to escape this room and into the air-conditioning.

Ah, that's me and Bonat at Preah Khan in Siem Reap in Cambodia.  And I think I've shown you this photo before.  Yes, here it is: in  my post about which temples out of the hundreds you should try to see.

Actually, that's an interesting shot: Bonat had just had his appendix out but couldn't afford not to work so his boss kindly assigned him to us: a two-some rather than a large group. Yup, the poor guy was forced to take us around the ruins for the princely price of $20.00 for the day.  He was in such pain but being so stoic about it I felt sorry for him so everyplace he took us I told him to sit and wait and if there was anything we wanted to know about and couldn't find in our guide book, we'd come back and ask him about it.

Most places were very sane and logical and thus we didn't have to bother him often.

But not at Preah Khan. This temple was so different and interestingly WRONG I had to keep running out every few minutes to ask him about something: mostly about how Hindu and how Roman the whole place looked; like the architect - who'd definitely and unquestionably traveled all over India - had once seen Ancient Rome too.  Borat said it was strange I mentioned Rome because archeologists had once found a leather purse full of Roman coins buried in there.

Yes, I know the time frame is all wrong and this was built centuries after the Fall of Rome, but nonetheless Preah Khan has a different basic structure to the other Siem Reap Temples. In fact, it's so much more Hellenic than any of the others, it makes me go "Mmmm!" - and so I'm thinking that, deep in the past,  there was an unknown someone jaunting around the globe, taking in the sights, and maybe, maybe, maybe going a lot further afield than we think possible today.

Anyway, Preah Khan!  Fascinating place.  Do check it out for yourself and then get back to me if you too see the hand of someone who had seen Ancient Rome - as well jaunted across India - in this extremely interesting cultural fusion temple?