Tower Bridge at Night

Tower Bridge at Night, originally uploaded by andyspex.

A few weeks ago we completed the Shine Walk, a 26 mile charity walk around London overnight. I took the opportunity to take a few photos.  Tower Bridge at night looks particularly good.

Eden Project Biomes

Eden Project Biomes, originally uploaded by andyspex.

OK, so it’s been a while (8 months) since my last post. I’ve done quite a lot, but I haven’t taken that many photos and now I will try and catch up.

We went to Cornwall for the first time and to the Eden Project which is a place that I’ve wanted to go since it opened, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Hai Van Pass

Hai Van Pass, originally uploaded by andyspex.

Leaving Hoi an on our way to Hue, we took the Hai Van pass, a spectacular coastal road made famous in the UK by the Top Gear Vietnam special.

The road is twisty and almost Alpine in feel, and I would love to go back and drive it. The views would have been spectacular had it not been for the haze.

The top of the pass was a vital defensive point during the war, as the bullet holes in the bunkers will testify.

Japanese Bridge at Night

Japanese Bridge at Night, originally uploaded by andyspex.

From Nha Trang we went to Hoi An, which is a fabulous town. Famous for its tailoring (I had a shirt made in 6 hours) and its Lanterns and lighting at night.

Spung Tree

Spung Tree, originally uploaded by andyspex.

One of the main attractions of Ta Prohm temple are the trees growing, in, around, on and through the buildings.

The size of some of them are amazing.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm, originally uploaded by andyspex.

After Bayon Temple, we headed to Ta Prohm, otherwise known as the Tomb Raider Temple (as the film with Angelina Jolie was partly filmed there). This temple has been left much the same way as when it was re-discovered, with the jungle encroaching, and sometimes taking over the building (more posts to come).

Ta Prohm was built around the 12th century.

Faces at Bayon Temple

Faces at Bayon Temple, originally uploaded by andyspex.

The next temple that we went to was Bayon, inside the Khmer city of Angkor Thom and was built in the 12th and 13th Century.

This temple is carved with 216 gigantic faces.

Reading Woman

Reading Woman, originally uploaded by andyspex.

This lady was reading at the end of one of the corridors.

Angkor and the Balloon

Angkor and the Balloon, originally uploaded by andyspex.

At Angkor Wat, you can go up in a static balloon, to have what would no doubt be amazing views.

This was taken the other way and shows some of the scale of the temple.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, originally uploaded by andyspex.

Whilst in Siem Reap we went to the Angkor Wat complex.

This temple here is actually Angkor Wat, but there are about 40 temples spread over a large area and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. For more about the history, see the UNESCO page.

The complex is putting Cambodia on the world map, and turning Siem Reap into an incredibly touristy city, which is great for the economy.

This was the centre of the Khmer empire for 7 centuries, and was seen as being so good that none of the Emperors wanted to change the location of the capital city.

As you can tell, it is currently undergoing restoration work, paid for by international parties (German and Chinese t the moment).

I’ll post more photos later of this and other temples.