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Mr T!
Siem Reap, famous for the Temples of Angkor, was our
exciting next stop, and it is the uplifting sight Cambodia is famous for – with
Angkor Wat on everything from their delicious Angkor beer to Cambodian SIM
cards! We settled into our rather basic hostel, in a room without
air-con, and although we were tempted to upgrade as it was too darn hot in
there, we resisted the urge in an effort to be virtuously green. We were pretty
tired and feeling a bit under the weather, so we went to get some dinner,
sorted out our laundry, and got an early night. Thrilling stuff, I’m sure you’ll
all agree.
Feeling much better the next morning, we set out to
requisition a tuk-tuk for the day to help us get as many temples in as we
could! You can buy a three day pass for the all the temples, and although we
were unsure if we’d need three days, it cost the same for a three day pass as a
two day pass so we went for it anyway. It turns out though that, no matter how
many temples you see each day – you really do need at least three days, and you
could easily spend a week here – though you might be a bit mad by the end of it
all!
T, our driver, turned out to be very sweet and helpful,
saving us from a rip-off haggle and offering a fair rate for a day out. It would
be a nice job if you’ve got a good book actually, as most people view the
temples either by bike, or by tuk-tuk, and then drivers wait for you while you
wander round each site. We quickly negotiated for him to pick us up the next
day too – which put him in an even better mood, he was telling us how happy he
was to be able to go home and tell his family he had another day trip booked! I
did get quite caught up in imagining what his life must have been like – from everything
he said, it sounds like he had a nice family and enjoyed his work.
Our first stop was Sra Srang, a massive swimming pool
essentially, though actually a ‘Pool of Ablutions’ for the king of the time and
his wives. It measures 800m by 400m, and has the remains of a small temple in
the middle – you can just about make out a shimmer in the water that is the old
temple base lying just under the surface. It is a very picturesque setting, and
would have been perfect for sunrise or sunset (though to make the sunrise you’re
looking at a 4am start – not sure we were up for that!).
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Sra Srang
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Just across the road from Sra Srang is Banteay Kdai, our
first real glimpse of Angkor. It was a Buddhist monastery, built in the 12th
century, but has become quite ruined thanks to remaining unfinished, and being
built in a hurry. Even though it’s not complete, it has some impressive
features, notably the strangling fig trees that are taking over (the first of
many we’d see). These are epiphytes, a type of plant that grows on another plant,
in this case other trees (the seeds are usually dispersed by animals or birds).
In the case of the strangler fig, they send roots down from higher up in the
trees, and eventually the tree becomes so dominant it can effectively ‘strangle’
the original tree (and sometimes the original tree will die, leaving the
strangler fig hollow!). These trees are common in the tropics, and have become
very significant aspects of the Angkor environment.
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Banteay Kdei
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Banteay Kdei
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Banteay Kdei
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Banteay Kdei
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Banteay Kdei
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Banteay Kdei
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We jumped back into the tuk-tuk, and T took us to Ta Phrom,
a Buddhist temple built by Jayavarman VII from 1186, which is composed of a
network of corridors within a large square structure. It is also famous for
being in the film Tomb Raider (the bit where Lara has a dream and plucks a
jasmine flower from the aforementioned tree). Now this is a strangler fig! It
runs the risk of swamping the temple entirely, and there is more than one tree
here trying to take over. This slow natural battle with the building is eerie
and makes the entire place quite spooky – the leafy canopy makes this a
naturally shady environment and the air feels damp and thick. It is the stuff
of fairytales, with mosses and lichens covering stones that were once part of
the structure but have been given the boot by the fig trees. You wouldn’t
believe there were that many shades of green, looking around from a shaded
corridor…
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Ta Phrom
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Ta Phrom - 'Tomb Raider Tree'
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Ta Phrom
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Ta Phrom
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Ta Phrom
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Ta Nei
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The next stop was Ta Nei, a low key version of Ta Prohm also
built at around the same time. In many ways the atmosphere here eclipses Ta
Prohm, principally due to having fewer visitors (it has no Hollywood angle,
unlike Ta Prohm). This makes the fairytale feel a lot more real, and the
encroaching trees more physical.
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Ta Nei
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Ta Nei
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Our last temple for the day was Ta Keo, built between
968-1001 by Jayavarman V. This has the classic Angkorian design of four towers
surrounding a central tower (in this case, one that reaches almost 50m). This
temple is distinguished for being the first Angkorian temple to be built
entirely from sandstone, although this is another temple that was never
finished, and the reasons for this are unclear. One story suggests that
construction halted upon the death of Jayavarman V (presumably the next ruler
had other things on his mind), but an alternative theory is that, because
lightning struck the temple during construction, this may have been seen as a
bad omen and helped them decide to stop work. Whatever the story, it was our
first grand Angkorian-looking design and an excellent way to finish the day before Angkor
Wat the next morning!
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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Ta Keo
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T dropped us back near our hostel, and we dropped into the
same restaurant from the night before for dinner. Perhaps we’d been a bit too
tired to appreciate then, but we realised we’d found a real gem of a place – it
was so cheap and amazing quality! We couldn’t figure out what it was called,
but it was also popular with the locals and did the most amazing pineapple
shake – in fact I had pineapple with most things there, and Bradley and I alternated
between noodles and rice so that we could share a bit of everything.
We were feeling pretty sprightly after a pleasant day, so we
decided to head into town to see what Siem Reap has to offer. The answer is
fairly predictable – there’s not much of note in the town, but it has plenty of
bars and restaurants with good beer happy hours, so we dropped into a place
called Mikey’s bar (which was a mistake, because although we wanted to like it,
it had terrible service, and there seemed to be a pimp operating out of the
bar) so we quickly changed course and went to the Khmer Grill for a few more
beers and some ice cream to stave off the heat, before retiring to bed to get plenty of sleep before an early start with T the next morning.
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