Jan 02
Morning visit to the Bayon Temple in the Angkor Thom complex. The temple was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII. Its most striking feature are the 216 gigantic faces of Lokesvara (or as some claim, the king himself).
Dec 31
Today we visited the Angkor Wat temple complex. We spent several hours wandering around the temple grounds, taking in the sights and taking pictures. It deserves a post all of its own, and that will come soon. Here is the view of the outer walls of the main temple site.
Dec 30
Today we wondered around the old quarter of Hanoi. The trip included a visit to the Ngoc Son temple, located on an island on the Hoan Kiem lake (Lake of the Returned Sword). We also met the true guardian of the scared site. The beast was hard at work … Later today we fly to …
Dec 28
A quick visit to the Tay Ho district (again), this time more of look and see at the life in the streets… This area of Hanoi is quite exclusive and full of rather nice houses. A lot of westerners who work in Hanoi choose this as their home area.
Dec 27
To day we did a day trip to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. Hoa Lu is the old imperial capital of Vietnam dating back to 9th and 10th century, and features 17th century temples to a couple of the first kinds of Vietnam. Tam Coc is a remarkable location with water cutting through the limestone …
Dec 26
having done very little on 25th we wondered around the Tay Ho (West lake) district of Hanoi. One of the highlights here is the Ty Ho Temple, dedicated to the Mother Goddess…
Oct 22
Today was last day of out trip. We took the opportunity drive up to San Bruno Mountain and take a bird’s eye view over the San Francisco and surrounds. The pacific fog cleared long enough for some decent shots of the SF downtown. We flew out of SFX late at night.
Oct 21
After a nice lunch at Pescadero, we continued south along the coast, until we reached the our second stop – the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Alas the pacific fog was still with us.
Oct 21
Today we decided to have a slow start and then do a drive from San Mateo to Santa Cruz, along the Pacific Ocean. As soon as we crested the ridge between SF bay are and the Pacific coast, we drove into the bank of ocean fog, which provided a rather ghostly atmosphere for the drive. …
Oct 18
San Francisco Today we finally made it into downtown San Francisco. It was windy and the fog shrouded the Golden Gate bridge, just as you would expect to see in October.. We wondered around a bit and explored the Fisherman’s Wharf area of the city. This is where I found the Nyckelharpa player and got …