It’s Definitely In The Detail!
Day two of the Angkor Wat tour got underway an hour earlier than scheduled after we agreed to an 8:00 start to get ahead of some of the heat.
We started with a hasty breakfast amidst a bit of a frenzy as people rushed to get their breakfast before heading off on a tour to somewhere. It wasn’t very enjoyable, and we were more than happy to find our own driver and guide. I felt badly for the hotel staff as they hurried to keep up.
Safely in our vehicle Billy gave us a brief rundown of the six temples on the slate for today.
Arriving at Pre Rup Temple which was built in the mid-10th century, I spotted a monk climbing the temple steps in the distance. It just seemed so perfect and peaceful. Right place, right moment.
And then we started to discover the rock carving that would become the central theme today. Lucky us!
From here we moved on to the second temple of the morning, East Mebon Temple another from the 10thC.
Not only did this temple have lions, it also had elephants!
The king apparently built a temple for each of his parents and his sister and also to honour Buddha. I guess he must have had pretty good cash flow!
For the second day running Billy started us at the opposite end of the general tour route. This meant that our quiet early temples would later become very busy as the larger tours eventually passed this way, and that we should find relatively quiet temples towards the end of our loop.
We moved onto Temple number three. The temple complexes that we visited today were generally smaller in stature than those we saw yesterday.
Arriving at Ta Som Temple (late 12thC) I noticed a working motorcycle/trailer rig that was keeping some produce cold by using ice. I hadn’t seen this technique since we were in Vietnam 17 years ago. More evidence that Cambodia is developing very slowly.
It was in this temple where we really began to see the detailed relief work on the walls.
So very well preserved.
And then it was time to move on to the fourth temple, an island site centred in the largest hand cut reservoir in Asia.
We drove up to the central part of the reservoir. Billy told me that typically the reservoir was allowed to dry out at this time of year, but they have allowed water to stay year round. The reservoir is only about a meter in depth.
The site was rediscovered and excavated when just the very top of the single tower in the middle was all that remained showing. The workers started digging down until they found the central pool surrounded by four equally deep pools. Basically in the shape of a cross with the gates running from the big pool to the smaller pools.
One of the gates is currently undergoing a significant rebuild as is the pond behind it. Pain staking work with much of it being done by hand. All the rock is also being chiselled by hand.
Brutal work! The rocks are squared and made flat with a hand held sledge hammer and a large nail. As they pound away the sandstone flakes off.
And then we moved on to Preah Khan Temple. The temple has a fair bit of damage because in the 1970’s the government allowed the North Vietnamese army to shelter in some of these old temples.
Nonetheless, there were some excellent reliefs.
There is a bridge that leads away from the temple. Some of the figures still on the bridge were fairly intact. Others were completely gone.
We had to drive for nearly an hour to reach the last temple of the day. We passed through a lot of villages and small plots of land along the roadway. Usually these plots of land would have a house on stilts because of the flooding that occurs in this area, and there was always some sort of small business at the front of the house, be it a tiny grocery, clothing shop, or a place to eat.
I had read about the last temple, and was looking forward to seeing it. Not a large temple, but it was made out of a pink red sandstone. It’s in excellent condition and has the most amazing carvings on the walls.
The central part of the temple is roped off to protect it from too many tourists wandering through. It’s in amazing condition. The restoration work was halted during Covid and hasn’t yet restarted.
Now finished our activities for the day, we elected not to go to lunch at a place recommended by our guide. Yesterday we found the place we were taken to, to be full of tour groups. Today as we passed all the various restaurants there were so many tour buses and vehicles in front of each of them. Decision made we returned to our hotel. After saying a nice goodbye and thank you, we went and found our own place for lunch.
Fairly early tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will be driven back out to the airport to make our way to Bangkok. Our last stop on this travel. I’m really looking forward to three full days in Bangkok, a city of about 9 million people. Lots to see and places to explore.
That’s about it for now.
Cheers!🍻
Geoff
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 