Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm
We left off the last post after several hours at Angkor Wat- now we headed to a gallery and museum mainly focused on a particular Cambodian artist. I’d never heard of him, but I recognized his work, as it’s featured all over our hotel.
Reminder: you can click any image to see it fully on your screen without scrolling
I liked the sculpture are more than the paintings and especially liked this little herd of elephants.
Mostly, I liked the museum exhibits - especially this one showcasing lots of musical instruments.
We got separated at one point, but I found Rob outside making a cat deliriously happy, which came as no surprise.
From there it was off to more temples. First stop was the South Gate to Angkor Thom with the rows of gods and demons carrying a Naga, a human/snake hybrid god of the underworld. FYI: a female Naga is called a Nagini and how all you Harry Potter fans have to go and re-evaluate everything you thought you knew about that one horcrux now that you know it’s supposed to have been part human. I’ll let you ponder that.
the Naga is on the opposite side of the god statues and much of it has crumbled away, so you can’t really see it in this photo- Also notice the face above the archway and the two faces looking in opposite directions to either side
Angkor Thom is a city - “Angkor Thom” translates to “big city” and “Angkor Wat” means “temple city” - and in the big city are several temples. These are Buddhist temples now, having been constructed by the invader king who ousted the Hindu king that began Angkor Wat. Are you keeping up? OK- the largest temple in Angkor Thom is Bayon and it’s famous for its quad-faced towers. I don’t mean the towers face four ways, I mean there are four actual faces on the towers, each face looking in a different direction.
at the gallery we just left, we picked up a small piece of art depicting that face on the right
It’s quite a large temple, even if it is substantially smaller than Angkor Wat.
Like Angkor Wat, the walls here are adorned with intricate carvings and etchings. These tell a story, most of which I’ve already forgotten. I’ll blame it on the heat.
While the design is strikingly different than Angkor Wat, Bayon has its own charms and impressions. The giant faces almost seem to give it a personality.
From there, it was off to Ta Prohm, which turned out to be my favourite. It looks much the same as how it was when it was discovered, only with some brush clearing and walkways added to keep tourists’ feet from damaging the site. The jungle - especially the sprung trees have claimed the site now.
The temple and the trees seem to live symbiotically. It’s as if the temple said to the trees, “they will want to preserve me, so as long as I am standing, nobody will come to cut you down” and the trees replied, “then we will help you to keep standing.”
Part of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed here, if it looks familiar. I remember the movie being largely forgettable, but I may have to re-watch it now to see if I recognize the locations. Also because I just looked it up and I see that Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Iain Glen (Jorah from Game of Thrones) are in it. Don’t even remember them, but they weren’t really big stars at the time.
Usually, this temple is described as ‘eerie’ or ‘creepy’ but I found it anything but. Unlike the others, which were obviously meant to inspire awe, I felt a calmness and tranquility here that wasn’t present in the others. That could potentially change after nightfall, however, when the jungle likely comes alive with sounds besides the (unbelievably loud!) cicadas we heard during the day.
The sun was dropping quickly in the sky, so we wouldn’t get to see if anything spooky came out in the temple after dark. I’m fine with that. Instead, we headed down the road a bit to view the sunset over a pond.
Back to the hotel after a full day of temple tromping in the heat (around 33C with a humidex pushing it to 38C or so) and we’re told that we have an hour to freshen up and relax before the bus would pick us up for dinner. Rob and I decided that since there were more temples to see tomorrow, we’d be better off skipping the dinner and getting plenty of rest. So Rob had a bucket of ice sent up to the room and I went across the street for some Burger King takeout.
The menu was mostly familiar, with the addition of spicy fried chicken drumsticks, “shrim balls”, and iced coffee… but no milkshakes.
So while we did miss out on the group dinner, which we were told was delicious, we countered that with a double gin on the rocks and burgers in our bathrobes. We were both showered, comfortable, and snoring by the time the group got back from dinner. No regrets.