Day 163 – More Temples in Angkor

These carvings were part of one of the temples. Look at the second ring down.  Did the Cambodians know about dinosaurs in the 11the century?

Same with these figures.  Some look like dinosaurs.

Because it was David’s birthday, I talked to the guide ahead of time and arranged to have his birthday announced on the bus after everyone was loaded.  We sang “Happy Birthday” to him.  (Shame on her!)

We headed back to the Angkor Wat Preserve.  This time we went to the Prasat Kravan first, a temple that was build with bricks.  Most of the temples have been built with sandstone, some with lava rock and then this one with brick.  A lot of this one had been restored, and so it looked pretty good, but you could tell the difference between the old brick and the new.  The most interesting part was the murals on the walls were also done in brick, raised and formed that way. 

 

Prasat Kravan built from bricks and partially restored.

Inside the Prasat Kravan temple.

The relief in made from the bricks.

This young woman was making baskets for the venders in this area sell and put people's purchases in.  Her cute little baby was swinging in a hammock close by.

We then moved on to the Eastern Mebon Temple.  This temple had been built in the middle of a reservoir, and the only way to get there was by boat.  They had to build wooden steps up to it, because of the water that used to be surrounding it.  The water isn’t there anymore, because the wall that kept the water in has broken down in all these years.  Many of the temples were built in the 9^th century to the 13^th century.  One of the most interesting features of this temple was the sandstone elephants on each corner of each level.  They were made of one solid piece of sandstone, and that probably contributed to their relatively good condition even today.

East Mebon temple.

Each corner of each level had an elephant that had been carved from a single block of sandstone sitting there.

They were using the braces to hold this wall up until they can restore it.  Oh, and that's David, my 60 year old husband...

One of the hallways.  It was just amazing that they made the rooms so perfect and the doorways that just matched so perfectly all the way down!

 The third stop of the morning was to the largest man-made swimming pool ever built.  It is 800 meters by 1200 meters.  The ruler that built it used it for ritual bathing, but also for parties and picnics and boat races.

This is the largest made-made swimming pool.

After that, we went to the restaurant for a very early lunch, and then they dropped us off at the hotel for a two-hour rest break.

We met in the lobby at 3 p.m. and drove out to Ta Prohm temple.  This is one of the most beautiful temples in the area, but it also has the distinction of being the temple that The Tomb Raider was filmed at.  Not having seen the movie, that didn’t mean much to me, but it was an interesting fact.  There were a lot of tourists there because of that.  It really was cool to see.  The jungle had taken over this temple shortly after it was abandoned, and the trees were growing in among the rooms and on top of the walls.

This building was on the way to the "Tomb Raider" temple.

We were amazed by the root system of this tree.  They are the kind that took over this temple.

One of the massive trees in this temple. The roots just grew down and anchored themselves in place.

Close up of the tree roots.

Can you see the face looking out at you?  Hint, it's not in the middle.

These pillars were all turned on a lathe of some sort. They are all the same with the exact same pattern.

Another tree root system that look over the temple.

On our way out of the Tome Raider temple, this little girl, whose mother had been sweeping the leaves earlier, took up the job when her mother went to do something else for a minute.  We just happened by at the cutest time!

 Our last temple stop of the day was at Phnom Bakent, where we were to hike up the mountain and view the sunset from the top of the temple there.  The hike took about 20 minutes, and when we got to the part where we had to stand in line to get to the top of the temple, we decided not to wait in line.  They will only allow 300 people on the top of the temple at a time, so when someone would come down, they would let someone up.  Our guide, instead, showed us where we could go around the temple and get almost as good photography shots at other spots.  We were glad when we came back that we hadn’t stood in line, because they cut off people’s ability to go up, and I think we would have been stopped, for as long as the line was.  We did get some great pictures, and you could also see the Angkor Wat temple and the Western Baray from where we were.

There was a place there that you could get elephant rides, but they were about to close down for the night, so we couldn’t get tickets to ride.  However, one of the elephant handlers said David could sit on the elephant and get his pictures taken for $2.  That was his birthday present, his picture on the back of an elephant!

The temple Phnom Bakent that we hiked up the mountain to see.  All the people standing on the top to see the sunset and get a pictures.  Nah, we didn't think the trip to the top was worth the wait.

David's birthday elephant ride.

Another view of the temple.

I had been hoping to see a monkey all day long that I could get a picture of.  When we came down off the mountain, this little guy was just sitting there waiting for me!

We hiked back down and rode the shuttle buses back to our big bus, and they dropped us off at the hotel.  Dinner was on our own tonight, so we decided to try the restaurant in the hotel. It was a good meal for a good price, and we were too tired to go anywhere else.  After dinner, we went to the little store next door and bought a couple of ice cream bars to finish celebrating David’s 60^th birthday!