Beng Mealea, Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre

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Kong met us early after breakfast to take us on the journey through the countryside to the jungle temple of Beng Mealea.  The road had been recently upgraded by a private company, which required a payment of a toll.  A price well worth paying given stories I had heard about the previous road and the time taken to drive to the temple previously.  The drive through the country side was great, and gave us a better appreciated of the country outside Siem Reap and Angkor.  We passed a number of small houses along the road as well as a few small villages.  We stopped at one to buy some drinks; yes it was hot again!  Nobody spoke English, but the transaction was easy, and the price was reasonable too!

Continuing along the road we crossed a small bridge over a river, and stopped to photograph some water buffalo, who were quite pleased to pose for the camera.  While walking back to the car, a Stork-Billed Kingfisher flew past, with it's brilliant Blue-Green head and back and bright orange neck and chest.

All along the road monks and people were collecting to build a new road out to a Buddhist temple.  The cars often just threw the money out the window as they passed.

In just over an hour and a half we were at the entrance road to Beng Mealea.  We crossed the old bridge with the ancient Naga and made our way towards the temple, past a group of young girls sitting in the shade on the crumbled balustrade.

We passed the fallen stones of the southern wall and made our way through this temple were the jungle has been allowed its own free reign.  We clambered up rickety timber ladders, across teetering stone walls, squeezed through windows between broken columns and along darkened corridors and timber walkways as we explored this amazing place of history, age and nature.  Fortunately along the way we picked up two young guys who led us through the maze of passageways and corridors, past precariously balanced columns and lintels, broken stone coffins and fallen walls.  All with the constant heat and buzz of the Cambodian jungle all around.

We lunched at the restaurant across from the temple, made all the more memorable with Liam's trip to the toilet; a squat toilet back behind the houses.  I think Liam will remember that experience for the rest of his life!

Back past the pigs wallowing in muck we returned through the restaurant and were back in the car and heading to Banteay Srei.

An hour back the way we had come saw us take a different fork and heading towards Banteay Srei, the Citadel of the Women.  The bridge across the river had collapsed two nights previously when a truck loaded with about 30 tons of stolen timber from the jungle further north had tried in vain to cross the 8 ton limit bridge.  It wasn't the first bridge that the truck had damaged on it's journey, but it was certainly the last.

We crossed a temporary bridge across the river in our little Camry and decided to have lunch before braving the worst heat of the day at the most open and hottest temple in Cambodia.

Loaded with coconut milk we braved the heat and explored around one of the most beautiful temples in the world.  The carvings were very finely detailed and very well preserved and the stone of the temple differed from all of the other temples with it's pinkish hue.

Walking back through the small village, a procession made it's way through with girls in colourful dresses carrying what looked like money trees.  After a quick look around the many stalls we jumped back into the welcome relief of the air conditioned car, and made our way across the temporary bridge with scores of kids cooling down in the river.

We stopped at Banteay Samre on our return to Siem Reap.  This temple was unique in that it had an inner moat, which was presently dried up though the moat was grassed and it was easy to visualise the water lapping against the steps descending to the moat surface.

We returned to the Guest House late afternoon and freshened up whilst Liam played shuttlecock with Srei Pic.

We visited some of the more upmarket souvenir shops, which had some beautiful stone carvings, timber carvings and clothes, but the perfect apsaras I was looking for proved elusive.  We also saw some demonstrations of teaching of various stone and wood carving skills.

We headed over to the market, and had a bit of drama when a minibus reversed into us as we were looking for a parking spot.  These things are best left to the locals to sort out, so we explored the markets in Siem Reap for half an hour or so and then headed out for dinner.

Oiyee was determined to have Frog legs, with our restaurant the previous night being all out.  Tonight she was in luck and feasted on the tasty little amphibians (which tasted like chicken).  Regrettably the crayfish were small and overcooked, but this was easily solved with the order of another dish.

Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prom

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We had a late rise, and sat downstairs eating breakfast waiting for Oiyee and Guy who soon arrived in the Tuk Tuk driven by Savin.  We arranged for Kong to collect us while we waited for Guy and Oiyee to get settled, and we were soon off again to the temples.

Out in the heat on the causeway walking towards to the main temple of Angkor Wat, we passed a small horse all decked out in bright colours.

We spent a lot more time exploring the bas reliefs around Angkor Wat, but still did not make it all the way around, even after an hour of exploring.  We gave up on the bas reliefs and continued exploring the inner temple, climbing the near vertical steps to the centre tower.

Outside in the central courtyard a group of monks were very happy to pose for a photo, and also wanted us to take photos of them with mark and Liam, using their own cameras.

Approaching 1:00PM we started making our way across the sun scorched causeway to the stalls and restaurants.  The little pony had escaped the heat under a palm tree.

The trip through the searing heat was made easy for Liam, who had two young ladies protect him from the sun with their umbrella on the walk back!

Arriving at the car park we heard "Michelle, Michelle, you buy from me"!  The girls had heard me calling Michelle yesterday, and remembered her.

Lunch consisted of Luk Laks of differing varieties, noodle soups and many coconut drinks and cans of green Mirinda for Liam.  We found Kong after making our way through the many children selling and were happy to get into the air conditioned car heading to the Bayon.

This time, we explored the outer walls of the Bayon, which like Angkor Wat have many bas-reliefs.  We tried to find some respite from the sun in the darkened corridors beneath the ever watchful faces of the Bayon, and came across another large Cambodian family visiting and happy for a photo.

As we continued through the temple, we heard a squeal of delight, and the Temple Policewoman who had fanned and nursed him yesterday came running across the flagstones and soon had him pinned down again in the shade of an arch, fanning him in the afternoon heat.  We left Liam in her care and continued exploring the dark corridors before rescuing him ten minutes later.

We stopped by the Buddha sitting on a Naga, where Liam prayed for some cooler weather and then headed across to the stalls for coconuts and cold cans of drink.

We then explored the Terrace of the Leper King, which had a wall in front of the inner wall, creating a maze to walk through with old carvings in the rock. 

The young kids who had tried to sell us postcards, and had even given Liam a free postcard followed us around here.

Most people had more sense and rested under a huge tree as we continued exploring along the Elephant Terrace.  It was easy to imagine sitting up on the terrace in it's hey day, and watching the processions of colourful servants and troops and elephants pass by at the foot of the King.

We drove out through the Victory Gate, and made a quick stop at Spean Thmor.  It was fascinating to see how much the river had changed it's course, leaving the arches of the old bridge high and dry, and supporting a number of large trees.  Or were the trees supporting the remains of the bridge?

We arrived at Ta Prohm about 4:30, and it was still hot.  It was a surreal experience, having seen the temple in photos and film actually being there amongst the trees and stone was very humbling.

We spent an hour exploring through the temple, amazed by the huge Banyan Trees and Fig Trees which were interlocked with the crumbling stone walls pulling the temple apart whilst at the same time holding it together.

The light faded quickly but the heat continued and the sounds of the jungle grew louder as birds and insects filled the air with their many different songs.  Finally at the back wall of the temple we came across the famous doorway enclosed with the roots of the strangler fig where we spent some time just appreciating being here.

Angkor Wat, Bayon, Thommanon and Phnom Bakheng

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Flying over Cambodia we caught glimpses of the countryside below through the clouds. We flew over Tonle Sap, and could see large arrow shaped structures extending into the water, and at some places on to dry land. They looked like Aztec carvings. We later found out that they were fish traps, the ones on dry land left marooned by the receding lake during summer.

We arrived at Siem Reap Airport at approx. 7:45. The airport was small, but quite new and clean, a contrast to Saigon. We walked past the Visa desk in error, but the man at the immigration desk went back and got all the Visa forms for us to fill out. 15 minutes and US$60 later and we had our Visas and were looking for our ride. Kong was our driver, and he was a lovely friendly guy. He took us back to the guest house where we unloaded all of our gear.

Kong arrived back an hour or so later, and after a quick stop off to change our Traveller's Cheques we were off to see the temples!

We picked up our 7 day Temple passes on the way, following all of the advice to have passport photos ready, and the process was quick and simple. Then within minutes we were in the car park opposite Angkor Wat. What an amazing feeling being in its presence! Walking across the stone causeway with the Angkor towers looming ahead was awe inspiring and humbling. The other palpable feeling was the intense heat and humidity. Little did we know that it was only going to get hotter!

Angkor Wat was quite busy with tourists, but most interesting was that there were a lot of Cambodian tourists. This was due to us visiting in Khmer New Year. It was great to see so many lovely smiling Cambodian families exploring the temples with us. The children were very friendly, and of course it goes without saying that Liam was again the guest of honour, seing given an incredible amount of attention.

There was a Cambodian family visiting that we came across in the central tower who were quite enamoured with Liam and wanted their photo taken with him.


There was one little girl that played an adept game at avoiding having her photo taken, while her sister was quite happy to pose for the camera.


We explored the temple for more than 2 hours and still hadn't seen half of it!


As we walked back to the car park, a number of young Cambodian girls walked with us. One of them told us how cute she thought Liam was, but when we joked if she would like to marry him, she said he was much too young. "Maybe we could bring him back in a few more years!"
We battled the children selling in the car park and made our way over to one of the restaurants across from the temple for lunch. I tried the Beef Luk Lak, which was really nice; beef in sauce with egg and rice. Michelle and Liam had a soup. With drinks, the meal came to $11.50. The drinks were the expensive bit. Meals generally were around $2 to $3 and drinks $1 per can.


We battled again through the kids selling various souvenirs, though we did buy a couple of wooden snakes and a flute, and were soon in the car heading towards Angkor Tom. The South Gate of Angkor Tom is most impressive, even though most of the heads of the statues were in backyard gardens somewhere in Thailand. The scene of the Sea of Churning Milk from the bas reliefs in Angkor Wat is replicated in 3D at the gates to Angkor Tom, and Liam took time out to try his new flute amongst the statues.


We'd seen Tombraider, and some photos of Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom, but being here was something indescribable. The more we saw, the more surreal the experience became. We explored the Bayon next, which is a most remarkable temple. From the road, the 54 faces on the many towers seemed small as they cast watchful eyes over the 54 Angkorian provinces of old, but as we walked through the temple, their size was overpowering. Each face held a different expression, and wherever we stood, any number of them were visible at the one time.


Here as well a number of Cambodian families were visiting, and one of the Temple Police took a very affectionate liking to Liam, pinning him down on the steps and fanning him profusely in the 40 plus degree heat. A monk played a beautiful tune on Liam's flute whilst we watched the crowds gathering around Liam.


We explored many of the dark corridors of the Bayon as well as the open terraces, eventually coming to a large Buddha Statue sitting on a naga.


We spent just over an hour exploring the Bayon before escaping the heat at the market across the road, enjoying cold coconut milk and softdrinks. We bought some T-Shirts, and Michelle picked up a good hat for $2 to help ward off the searing heat.


We then travelled through the Victory Gate to the Thommanon. This was a smaller temple, but no less impressive. The delicately carved apsara with their pink lips were enchanting.


We explored around here for over 30 minutes, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the relative solitude before looking over some silks at the market stalls and heading back to the Guest House. Liam is shown at right showing off his wooden snake to one of the local children.



On the way back, we passed a number of monkeys at the roadside, which Liam (and myself) found fascinating to watch. The little baby was quite cute.


We relaxed back at the Guest House for an hour, and then I headed off again with Kong to Phnom Bakheng to catch the sunset over Angkor Wat.


I prided myself in being able to get most of my temple photos without tourists, or at least without Western tourists but this was simply in the realms of impossibility with the Temple Mountain.


It was swarming with people, from the foot of the mountain to the temple peak there was more people than temple! To make matters worse, the sunset was pretty well a non event.


I waited until most people had departed, looked at the views as the sun finally disappeared then started to make my way back. I succumbed to one of the many 'tricks' for tourists, and got talking to two boys. They originally started out with friendly chatter, interspersed with do you want to see the Buddha, etc. They suggested I walk down the path the elephants use, rather then the steep direct descent, and continued talking along the way. We passed many blind beggars on the winding path back down as they told me of their schooling. When we reached the bottom, the expected happened and I was asked to contribute to their schooling fund. I managed to get away for a couple of dollars.

Back at the guest house Pumpkin cooked a beautiful fish curry in a Thai style coconut sauce which we ate in the company of the geckos. The rest of the evening was spent downloading photos.