Western Mebon Island, Spring 2008
The only part of the temple still standing is this one outer wall. |
This is a view of the wall from the field where the interior of the temple used to be. |
This pond is where the center of the temple was once located. A statue or stele probably sat here. |
The children walk around what used to be the central chamber. |
A girl plays iwth a lily pad. |
A full view of the only remaining wall. |
The wall had many worn carvings of animals on it. |
Deer, chicken and other animals. |
Wild boars. |
Floral carvings next to animals. |
More broken floral carvings. |
Up in the corner is a small animal with a bushy tail near a tree. |
Sunlight from the approaching sunset comes through a stone window. |
This wall has a well preserved lotus capstone on the tower. |
Some island musicians play for us. |
Hap sits next to a man with a tro (pronounced 'dro') which is a sort of two stringed violin with an attached bow. |
This old man told us our fortunes. |
Here he is reading Coach's fortune. He got a good one about riches, diamonds and a long healthy life. |
Here I am having my fortune read. You were supposed to put the stack of wood cards on your head and push a small pin in there. The pin marks the card that will be your fortune. |
My fortune was so bad Hap wouldn't even translate it for me. The old man shook his head and made me do it again. The second fortune I got was a normal one, not particularly good or bad. |
A silhouette of trees and plants frame the sinking sun. |
We watched the sun set from the water as we rode the boat back. |
A closer look at the sunset. |
A silhouette of children and boats. |
Another view of the children and the boats. |
This is looking back at the same boats facing the other direction, just for the sake of contrast. |
Watching the sun set over the water. |
I experimented with framing the sunset in different ways over the 5-10 minutes that we watched it. |
A zoomed in look at the bright reddish part of the sun. |
A picture of a similar view but this time I included the yellow parts of the sky. |
This one includes a bit more of the brighter top portion. |
A wider angle. |
Shifting the sun to one side of the frame. |
The sun is dropping down past the horizion. |
A close look of mostly the reddish parts. |
The same sinking sun but with some of the bright clouds. |
A flock of birds flew overhead. |
At dinner Patricia decided to give her fish some beer. |
That is a pretty ugly fish. |