June
17, Sunday - Afternoon
After lunch (which was also breakfast by the way !) we pass Angkor Wat once again and continue on to Preah Khan, a smaller temple complex behind Angkor Thom.
The roads are busy with tourists. As you can see the main road through the Angkor complex of temples is wide and well maintained. Secondary roads are also paved, just slightly narrower. Many of the tourists hire tuk-tuks to move from one temple area to another.
The moat that surrounds Angkor Wat looks more like a lake, it is so big.
Beautiful majestic trees create tunnels over the roads
Another one of the bridges with the statues playing tug of war, not restored.
If you use your imagination you may be able to see that these are men pulling on a huge rope, like tug of war.
The wall that surrounds one of the temples
The pillars along the way were beautifully carved
The causeway leading to the temple has been restored
The temple itself is in ruins, but parts of it are in amazing condition
We enter through the main gate
Just on the side of the gate we can see that a huge tree has grown over the wall and is demolishing it. It looks like a huge monster is trying to walk over it.
The entire site is in ruins but beautiful to behold.
Buddha drawing turned into a Hindu drawing by adding crossed legs and hair knot.
A threshhold that is beautifully carved and which as servived for centuries
From the other side of the wall, we can see the rest of the tree
One of the beautifully decorated door lintels
Some of the carvings have also servived
This is not a tall man, but as you can see, he would have to stoop to get through the doorway. They must have been very short people when this temple was first built.
Another building which has been demolished by the growth of a tree. They cut this one down at some point in time.
Door openings all line up……
so do the windows!
Now there’s a puzzle waiting to be solved.
This one looks like it might be an original Hindu statue and not a Buddha coverted to a Hindu
I find it amazing to see some perfectly preserved carvings among the ruins. Again, the type of stone used may be the secret to preservation
As we leave the site, we find these two little local boys playing along the pathway
We return to the gate and exit the site of Preah Kahn
We make our way by bus to the South Gate of Angkor Thom: King Jayavarman VII, Angkor builder
Faces of Buddha at the top of the gate
and elephants at the bottom
From this point of view you can see both
Terrace of the Elephants, Angkor Thom
We made our way to the Bayon, within the Angkor Thom complex. The tourist brochure indicated that if you could only see two sites within the entire Angkor complex, it should be Angkor Wat and Bayon. Classic Khmer art and architecture.
This is where there are many stuppas with Buddha faces on them
Amazing !
and carved reliefs that look suspiciously new
We walked from there to Baphuon at Angkor Thom. It is a temple-mountain because of its shape and was one of the biggest religious buildings of ancient Cambodia. According to an inscription on site, it is considered to have been built in the Xl th century and preceded the building of Angkor Thom.
Angkor Thom
Elevated walkway to Baphuon, much narrower than others we have seen
Still impressive and quite massive
Looks like there's another puzzle to be solved. That's a person standing at the crossroads, just to give you an idea of the size of the stones that need to fit back into the puzzle.
Reclining Buddha, added at a later date to Baphuon Temple. You really need to use your imagination here and you can only distinguish the head. Start with the ear that is sticking up in the air and you should be able to find the Buddha
It was only mid afternoon, around 3 pm, it had started to rain and everyone was dead on their feet. Scott asked for our opinion and it was a resounding “BACK TO THE HOTEL” and no other site visits for today.
On the way to where the bus was waiting, we got a close up look at the Terrace of the Elephants.
Eroded, but the elephant figures are still visible. Amazing.
Some monks were visiting and did not mind having their picture taken
On the drive out of the park we got a glimpse of yet another bridge with the giant figures pulling a rope, but this one had some of the faces restored.
There was a huge Naga at the end of the bridge.Mayve the figures are pulling on a snake, not a rope ! ?
We drove back to the hotel and had a few hours to shower and rest before going out for our evening meal. We went to a beautiful outdoor restaurant for dinner, since today was Violet’s birthday and we were celebrating.
I tried a different type of appetizer that night: A BUG ! I must say it tasted OK since it had probably been soaked in some type of sauce before being baked or fried with herbs. It was my first bug …. and most likely my last !
I did follow that up with a delicious meal and a nice glass of red wine.
Happy birthday Violet !
After lunch (which was also breakfast by the way !) we pass Angkor Wat once again and continue on to Preah Khan, a smaller temple complex behind Angkor Thom.
The moat that surrounds Angkor Wat looks more like a lake, it is so big.
Beautiful majestic trees create tunnels over the roads
Another one of the bridges with the statues playing tug of war, not restored.
If you use your imagination you may be able to see that these are men pulling on a huge rope, like tug of war.
The wall that surrounds one of the temples
We leave the bus and follow the path in to Preah Khan
The causeway leading to the temple has been restored
The temple itself is in ruins, but parts of it are in amazing condition
We enter through the main gate
Just on the side of the gate we can see that a huge tree has grown over the wall and is demolishing it. It looks like a huge monster is trying to walk over it.
The entire site is in ruins but beautiful to behold.
Buddha drawing turned into a Hindu drawing by adding crossed legs and hair knot.
A threshhold that is beautifully carved and which as servived for centuries
From the other side of the wall, we can see the rest of the tree
One of the beautifully decorated door lintels
Some of the carvings have also servived
This is not a tall man, but as you can see, he would have to stoop to get through the doorway. They must have been very short people when this temple was first built.
Another building which has been demolished by the growth of a tree. They cut this one down at some point in time.
Door openings all line up……
so do the windows!
Now there’s a puzzle waiting to be solved.
This one looks like it might be an original Hindu statue and not a Buddha coverted to a Hindu
I find it amazing to see some perfectly preserved carvings among the ruins. Again, the type of stone used may be the secret to preservation
As we leave the site, we find these two little local boys playing along the pathway
We return to the gate and exit the site of Preah Kahn
We make our way by bus to the South Gate of Angkor Thom: King Jayavarman VII, Angkor builder
Faces of Buddha at the top of the gate
and elephants at the bottom
From this point of view you can see both
We then drove a short distance to Angkor Thom
Along a narrower route filled with tuk-tuks
Terrace of the Elephants, Angkor Thom
We made our way to the Bayon, within the Angkor Thom complex. The tourist brochure indicated that if you could only see two sites within the entire Angkor complex, it should be Angkor Wat and Bayon. Classic Khmer art and architecture.
This is where there are many stuppas with Buddha faces on them
Amazing !
and carved reliefs that look suspiciously new
We walked from there to Baphuon at Angkor Thom. It is a temple-mountain because of its shape and was one of the biggest religious buildings of ancient Cambodia. According to an inscription on site, it is considered to have been built in the Xl th century and preceded the building of Angkor Thom.
Angkor Thom
Elevated walkway to Baphuon, much narrower than others we have seen
Still impressive and quite massive
Looks like there's another puzzle to be solved. That's a person standing at the crossroads, just to give you an idea of the size of the stones that need to fit back into the puzzle.
Reclining Buddha, added at a later date to Baphuon Temple. You really need to use your imagination here and you can only distinguish the head. Start with the ear that is sticking up in the air and you should be able to find the Buddha
It was only mid afternoon, around 3 pm, it had started to rain and everyone was dead on their feet. Scott asked for our opinion and it was a resounding “BACK TO THE HOTEL” and no other site visits for today.
On the way to where the bus was waiting, we got a close up look at the Terrace of the Elephants.
Eroded, but the elephant figures are still visible. Amazing.
Some monks were visiting and did not mind having their picture taken
On the drive out of the park we got a glimpse of yet another bridge with the giant figures pulling a rope, but this one had some of the faces restored.
There was a huge Naga at the end of the bridge.Mayve the figures are pulling on a snake, not a rope ! ?
We drove back to the hotel and had a few hours to shower and rest before going out for our evening meal. We went to a beautiful outdoor restaurant for dinner, since today was Violet’s birthday and we were celebrating.
I tried a different type of appetizer that night: A BUG ! I must say it tasted OK since it had probably been soaked in some type of sauce before being baked or fried with herbs. It was my first bug …. and most likely my last !
I did follow that up with a delicious meal and a nice glass of red wine.
Happy birthday Violet !
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