Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
We only spent a night at Chongqing and the next day we moved on westward to Leshan. Found at the south west portion of Sichuan Province, Leshan, which means “Happy Mountain” is home to a pair of another UNESCO World Heritage sites. Both sites Emei Shan and Leshan Giant Buddha are a mix of cultural and natural areas. Our first stop was the latter. So after checking out of Nanbin Hostel, we went out to the rainy morning streets, took a cab back to Caiyuan Ba Bus Station.
After setting our stuff at Nanbin Youth Hostel in Chongqing Municipality, we didn’t want to waste time that afternoon so we headed to Caiyuan Ba bus station to get tickets to Dazu County 大足县 and visit one of the most important Cultural Heritage Sites in China, the Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻, which is also included in China’s numerous list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
I can’t believe I’m home. I’m just stunned and thinking that in those 11 days I was in Mainland China I can’t believe I’ve been through all those places I’ve been. It’s like a whirlwind of an adventure in the heart of China that’s truly raw. The feeling of travel just really hits you and you want more. It’s a bit tiring but really fulfilling journey. Again, a backpacking adventure that’s really gonna be remembered for a long long time.
Wow! I’ve never felt so busy lately. Lots of things to take care of and lots of things to write and look forward to. Just along with some stuff from the Batanes Photo Safari, I still have to write about some sites from Pangasinan. This is just another short posts briefing some of the places we visited in Iloilo and Guimaras and something to for you guys to watch out for. We only had a limited time so we have to pick some spots. Iloilo and Guimaras is huge!
For my long overdue wrap-up post on Cambodia, I’d like to summarize some of the not-so-popular or off-the-beaten-path temples around the Angkor Archaeological Park which I think is worth some people’s look if they have extra time. The park like I always said is huge and warrants considerable number of days to explore all of them. But personally, no matter how grand the structures here are, there are times you would be “Templed Out”. I must admit on our last day there after visiting a major temple, I no longer want to see another brick or ruin again because they started to look the same. hehe. So it is advisable if you mix your temple-hopping with other activities in between to add variety.
I still have quite a lot of materials from my fave temples in Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Archaeological Park. Like I said before, this place is quite huge so there’s a lot of photo opportunity here. I will try to post an entry or two each month until it runs out along with some new materials. Please note that not all travel post are real time, as some materials are posted for documentation purposes as well. And for this entry, is another temple that I enjoyed exploring at the park, Preah Rup Temple.
Continuing on with my series of my favorite temples in the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park, this time we venture of quite a distance, 20km away from the main temples and visit the so called ‘Jewel among the Temples Angkor‘, Bantey Srei. If Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom impressed you with its sheer scale, Bantey Srei, which literally translates to ‘Citadel of the women’, will mesmerize you with one of the most celebrated Khmer Art intricately carved along its temple walls.
