Tag: Temples

Cambodia: Exploring Angkor Thom

Post author By Ferdz
Post date April 22, 2007
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The inner wall of the Terrace of the Leper King

The inner wall of the Terrace of the Leper King

After checking out the impressive Temple of Bayon, the exploration doesn’t end there. Angkor Thom, is a vast complex surrounded by high defensive walls with 5 gates, thus the name Thom, meaning Big. When Javayarman VII recaptured Angkorian empire from the Chams in 1181, he did some major empire wide constructions and made Angkor Thom as the new city capital. So aside from Bayon, there are other impressive structures just a walking distance from the center of the complex worth noting. So let’s take a brief look into some of them.

Tags Angkor Archaological Park, Angkor Thom, Heritage, Siem Reap, Structures, Temples, UNESCO

Cambodia General

Cambodia: Angkor Thom’s Bayon

Post author By Ferdz
Post date April 18, 2007
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Entering the Great City at Angkor Thom’s South Gate

Entering the Great City at Angkor Thom’s South Gate

We started our first day as early as 5am in the morning. Since Angkor Wat has been getting a lot of tourist lately, I thought that we should avoid the crowds as much as possible. Especially those bus loads of tourist that can easily block your composition view. In this series, I won’t be delving much on the history of each temple as there are a lot of resources in the internet which has detailed information on each temple. What I would focus on more are my favorite temples and my impressions of them. And more importantly the photos. So here we go.

Tags Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Heritage, Siem Reap, Structures, Temples, UNESCO

Da Nang General Mountains Vietnam

Marble Mountains of Da Nang

Post author By Ferdz
Post date October 20, 2006
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View of the Marle Mountains

View of the Mountains from Thuy Son Mountain

I’m close to wrapping up my series of entries on Central Vietnam. And as 2nd to the last entry would be one of the most fun destinations in my opinion close to the city of Danang.

Entrance to Ling Ong Pagoda Cave

Entrance to Ling Ong Pagoda Cave

After visiting My Son Sanctuary we continued our journey and headed to the famous Marble Mountains, which is a cluster of 5 mountain peaks jutting out flat lands towards the sea. The mountains are also called Ngu Hanh Son or Mountains of the Five Element since each peak represents five elements; Thuy Son (water), Moc Son (wood), Kim Son (metal), Tho Son (soil) and Hoa Son (fire). The sight itself from the main road going into the city was very interesting. It just makes you think how those mountains ended up there together when most of the landscape is flat.

Tags Caves, Danang, Marble Mountains, Pagodas, Temples

Quang Nam Rivers Travel Vietnam

Ancient town of Hoi An

Welcome to Hoi An

Entrance to one of the Art Shops in Hoi An

So there we were, riding on a back of a motorcycle on a 4 hour journey towards Hoi An from Hue. It was an exciting ride speeding through the hi-ways of Vietnam. I felt I was the young Che Guevarra (hoping to look as well :P) of Motorcycle Diaries who traveled from Argentina to Chile. But the problem was I was really feeling sleepy during the trip, which is kind of dangerous when you’re on the back of the bike. Good thing our “Easy Rider” guide gave me a bubble gum to chew on to fight the sleepiness.

Tags Heritage, Hoi An, Market, People, Temples, UNESCO

Eats Food Singapore

A day in SG 03: Temple hopping in Little India

Post author By Ferdz
Post date July 30, 2006
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Serangoon Road in LIttle India

Serangoon Road in LIttle India

After my walk in China Town, I took an MRT to Singapore’s Little India. Immediately after stepping out of the MRT station up in the streets, I was greeted by a faint scent of incense and unknown spices in the air. I walked towards the Serangoon Road, the main road which intersects the community, is also one of Singapore’s oldest roads.

Tags Eats, Little India, Structures, Temples

General Singapore

A day in SG 02: Thian Hock Keng and heritage town

Post author By Ferdz
Post date July 19, 2006
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Thian Hock Keng

Thian Hock Keng Temple and surrounding buildings

Moving along from the Sri Miriamman Temple I headed towards Cross St. where I would take a right turn towards the Thian Hock Keng Temple. It was only 5 minutes to 10 minutes walk and on your right along Telok Ayer St. you’ll find the temple passing by a small oasis park. The temple is a small typical Taoist Temple, said to be built by Seamen in 1821 for safe passage. The material construction of the temple boast of international origins, with ironwork from Scotland, tiles from England and the Netherlands, and towering granite pillars entwined with dragons from China. There was a small tour group there with a mixture of foreign tourist from Europe and some Koreans as well.

Tags Heritage, Skyscrapers, Structures, Temples

General Singapore

A day in SG 01: China Town and Sri Miriamman Temple

Post author By Ferdz
Post date July 8, 2006
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Sri Miriamman Temple Gopuram

Sri Miriamman Temple Gopuram

“Do you know how I could get to Roosevelt road?” a middle aged man asked me while I was waiting on a bus stop in Geylang. He was wearing those large fashion sun-glasses and I could see the noticeable streaks of gray in his hair while he pointed on a location on his map. I was smiling and told him “Sorry. No. I’m also new here.”

I’m actually so new in Singapore that I was about to venture into the city that Monday morning. My friend has gone to work that day so I’m left by my lonesome to explore its nooks and crannies. And here I am on my walking shorts, horizontal striped polo shirt with my mini-bag on my back lugging my camera and cheap tripod along with a handy tourist map and a copy of Let’s Go Southeast Asia which a friend back home lent me before I left the country. Fear never got into me as my brief venture along its streets a few days ago gave a familiar feel of a modern city of Manila due to the numbers of Filipinos I encounter along the way.

Tags China town, Structures, Temples