Cambodia: Day 2

Siem Reap, Cambodia. December 1, 2007

(notes from my journal)

I woke up to a stomach ache, but decided to take it in my stride. Dara was unavailable for the day, since he had to take a large tour guide out. Ponheary had told us that the temples we were going to see today did not really need a guide so we could tour them ourselves. The driver was there promptly at 9 AM and we were on our way.

Preah Kahn: The sacred sword

Our first stop was the Preah Kahn temple. Also called the “Sacred Sword”. Hong (our driver) dropped us at the opposite end than what our guide book suggested and he could not understand east or west in english. So we just assumed we were on the right side of the temple and tried to follow the guide book. Surely, nothing made sense. Eventually, we figured out where we were.

The Preah Kahn temple is famous for the 72 Garuda’s on its outer wall, who hold the temple up towards the heavens. The temple is a straight row of galleries, and there is no climbing involved here. It was built by Jayavarman VII and was used, primarily, as an educational center for the arts.

One of the interesting things here was the construction of roman style two-storied galleries with round columns. These are not seen anywhere else and are certainly not a part of Khmer culture. The reason for the existence these galleries is yet, unknown.

Neak Peahn

Next, we went to Neak Peahn. This temple was built in the middle of a now-defunct reservoir. The Khmer built a lot of reservoirs for water supply and then in the middle put a temple. We walked across the reservoir, and spent time there looking at the carvings on the wall on the outside of the temple. They’re really beautiful and I can imagine myself spending hours in each temple admiring the reliefs.

Heena and I sat at the steps of this temple, in the middle of the reservoir, admiring the beauty of this place and soaking in the feeling of being in Cambodia. We dreamed about coming here for such a long time…

Ta Som

Next was Ta Som. This temple is built in the Preah Kahn style – a row of galleries. It is much smaller that most other temples and we were done in about 15 minutes. One thing nice about Ta Som is that most tourists do not take the trouble to stop there so you get more quiet time and the place to yourself.

The vendors outside of Ta Som were aggressive, but not irritating, trying to involve me into a conversation with the hope that I’d buy something. As we entered the temple, they tried to get me to promise that I’d buy a drink when I would come out. I said “I’ll think about it when I come back.”. As soon as I walked out, they were there (with a smile): “So you thought about it and let me guess you’re getting a drink and a t-shirt!”.

East Mebon

It was almost 12:30 pm by the time we headed to our last temple for the morning: East Mebon. Since it was so hot, the temple was almost empty and we climbed up to the top. This temple is not decorated with sandstone like all other temples, but the laterite rock is exposed. We did not bother reading the guide book, but found a shaded spot and soaked in the feeling of this temple.

At these temples, as we we sat, admiring the artisans’ work, the architects’ vision and the laborers’ efforts we could not help but imagine the people who must lived here more than a thousand years ago, what they must have thought and how their life must have been… Together they produced some finest, fascinating and beautiful monuments in the world.

After a quick lunch at some place across the street (that had the best noodle soup in the country and the worst pizza we’ve ever had), Hong picked us up at 3 pm and we headed to see Bantey Kdei. We walked about quite fast since its small and the only thing to notice here were 2 concentric galleries.

Ta Prohm: The Ancestor Brahma

This is the most famous of all Angkor Temples. The jungle growth has not been entirely cleared, compared to other temples, which allows visitors to feel and get a glimpse of what the early European explorers must have felt and seen when they first came here. As we entered the complex we saw giant trees that were growing on the temples (and in many cases crushing the walls). In order to protect these crushing walls without cutting the tree down, additional support was added to hold the weight of the tree.

As we walked around the temple, we noticed that hardly any light makes it inside the corridors and it gives quite an eerie feeling to be there. There are a lot of quiet nooks that we found where we could admire the architecture and carvings, despite the large amounts of crowd that comes here.

Pre Rup

After Ta Prohm, we headed to Pre Rup, for another sunset. We climbed up the already full top of the temple and saw a lovely ball of orange sink into the horizon. Later, back at the hotel, we had a quick dinner (sandwiches, again) and, exhausted, went to sleep.