Other temples & Angkor
Jun 22, 2018
This blog is my experience summarised, about the Angkor Archaeological Park. It covers a three-day journey with maps and my observations at various temples. It’s more of a visual compilation, combined with some text and google can give more background about the temples. We commuted around in a Tuk-tuk and I have provided the contact details of the driver at the end of the blog, along with a combined map. More on food, accommodation and other FAQs about Siem Reap travel soon.
Angkor temple complex was one of the last ones we saw, amongst all the 17 temples hence the name of this article says so. They were grand and planning to visit them could have easily gone wrong but we found the best guy to plan and take us around Siem Reap. Rules for finding such Tuk-tuk drivers- don’t usually go to the most eager ones and secondly, go by my recommendation[contact details at the end]
Siem Reap, the city with the nicest people still is trying to cope up with the horrific past, welcomes you with much warmth. Acquiring a visa online is super simple and you literally get in 5 minutes of applying. They do allow Visa on arrival but online application is a wee bit quicker.
Meeting our Tuk-tuk driver was a serendipitous encounter. We paid the bill for our fish amok (a must-try) lunch and turned around, we saw him quietly sitting in the rickshaw and scribbling something in his notebook, wearing a dust mask- a simple guy with a neatly tucked-in shirt. He had a small map of Angkor and quickly planned our next three days. After some negotiations, we fixed the price and our routes for the next three days to follow.
The next day started as early as 6 am as we met Sovanna, the tuk-tuk driver, waiting with the first day’s itinerary. We skipped Kbal Spean- the river of 1000 Shiv lingas as it was 25 km away from the Angkor area and going there would have meant not visiting a lot of other temples.
Our route for the day was decided and before heading for Banteay Srei, which is one of the oldest temples in the circuit, we stopped at Pre Rup.
Pre Rup
The first temple structure was the magnificent [1]Pre Rup. We relied on our guide books and the internet. This used to be the state temple of Khmer king Rajendravarman and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The one thing that was noteworthy was its name, which means turning of the body and in common belief, it was assumed that funerals were conducted here.
Steep staircases, huge pyramidal structures, a popular hangout to see sunsets and sunrise because of its height.
The half-hour drive to the beautiful temple [2]Banteay Srei was nice and breezy. It is one of the oldest and is believed to be built by women because of the extremely intricate carvings, that no man would have ever carved!
Lintels elegantly chiseled with flowers and petals, carvings relating to mythological stories from my childhood — some heard, some unheard of, wondrous representation of many gods, goddesses, animals and birds, moss green film on pink sandstone was awe-inspiring.
Flat structure, monkeys guarding the enclosed periphery, surrounded by the moat.
Tuk-tuk ride to our next temple, [3]East Mebon took away all the heat and sweat. The most astonishing aspect we learned was that this used to be an artificial island temple as opposed to what stands today in the middle of a forest. Only the structures tell a story of the existence of the East Baray reservoir, which is quite unbelievable as huge trees stand tall around East Mebon.
Necklaces and bells laden elephants stood as the cutest temple guards in all four directions, at both the levels of the structures.
We drove through tall trees and the next temple structure just popped up as our driver slowed down near the next temple, [4]Ta Som. We were elated to see our first Bayon style four faces gopura. The air was a little heavy and light was fading away. All we had were these tall trees around us for the company along with these dilapidated monuments.
We continued our walk admiring everything. As we emerged from the eastern Gopura, I had a sudden urge to look back and what I saw blew me away. The roots of a giant ancient tree were intertwined around the structure. It was a first for us and we spent a lot of extra time just staring at its untamed beauty.
The best feeling in the world is when you stumble upon something completely unexpected and discover something unplanned, like an age-old explorer. Upon reaching [5]Neak Pean at around 4 pm, we walked down a few steps with the aim of listening to the local musicians. As we stepped onto an artificial bridge, we came upon an endless reservoir stretching out as far as we could see. The water shimmered under the setting sun and while it was just a shallow reservoir, with a simple wooden bridge, at that moment it was truly magical!
It’s a reservoir with a main sanctuary in the center, entwined with two snakes or nagas and this is believed to represent Anavatapta, a mythical lake in the Himalayas.
[6]Preah Khan was the last temple for the day and it’s spread across a large, flat area. It has mostly remained unrestored hence there were piles of rocks with green moss all over the carvings.
After a hearty breakfast, we headed for the Angkor Thom Circuit and our first stop was the Bayon.
Angkor Thom used to be a walled city with temples, residences and the royal palace inside- here structures were made with wood like the Royal Palaces. Some structures like royal temple have perished but some still stand.
[7]Bayon is situated right at the center of Angkor Thom, at the roundabout, and it never ceases to amaze with the four faceted towers.
Bayon can get very crowded since it’s one of the most popular temples around. It looks like a massive expanse from outside, but the interiors show a completely different story, with narrow spaces between pillars, darkened corners, cramped corridors, and steep staircases.
The next set of temples was only a small walk away from Bayon. [8]Baphuon and other temples are situated in the royal palace area. Here, only the temples have survived the test of time whereas the palaces, which are believed to be built from wood have perished. Ancient Angkorian believed that only God’s abode was worthy to be built in something as eternal as rocks and stones.
Baphuon is a pyramid temple with an elevated bridge pathway that leads to the main temple area. Looking at the bridge, it was clear that there was once a lot of water below it, but now there are only a few puddles. The steep flight of stairs at various levels to climb to the top of the temple made everyone slow down because of the height of every step. Though the view from the top was completely worth all the hard work of climbing up — it was breathtaking.
Our guide book explained that that different temples in Angkor had been adopted by various countries to support and preserve the might ruins in Cambodia. This particular temple was looked after by the French government, as our guide book suggested and it also mentioned something peculiar. This temple was renovated to add a lying Buddha statue, which we couldn’t find. The dangerous descent took us to the back of the temple leaving us wondering about the off-route exit. We stopped for a while to read the summary board of the temple and it made us turn around to find the lying Buddha statue, which was as wide as the entire base of the temple.
It was unbelievable.
As we continued to follow the path, we found a green pond and long shady trees. Not many people took the path through the jungle where the palace would have once been. It was peaceful, quiet, and pleasantly warm, as compared to the crowded Bayon.
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More walking led us to an inaccessible pyramidal ruin with a strange story — [9]the temple of Phimeanakas. Apparently, the structure was for the king to spend the night of every first watch with the spirit of the nine-headed serpent disguised as a woman, to protect the lineage of Khymer.
Now, it stands peacefully surrounded by water and broken stones pieces.
This entire walk through the ruins was as quiet as it could get as these ancient structures told their stories in silence.
After a long walk, we headed back after a fruitful day.
Finally, it was the day to visit [13]Angkor and it started early. We had crossed Angkor before but the Tuk-tuk eventually took the final turn towards the temple’s moat. It was a cloudy day as we crossed the moat on a floating bridge with our guidebooks.
The huge temple complex was filled with tourists as we roamed around and took some mandatory photos at the lotus pond set against the Angkor silhouette.
Then, we proceeded towards the main structure and for the first time hired a guide for a little more reference than our guidebook. A quick tip here — Never hire a guide at Angkor and even if you do don’t hire him midway, and instead ask him about the area he would cover. Our guide explained a bit about the temple history, restoration, Indian mythology, and extremely generic stories for exactly 20 mins. He left us at the temple base, telling us that this marks his territory and he won’t climb up the main structure.
After that, even we decided to not climb up due to the long queue, which would have taken us an hour or two. Instead, we walked around to enjoy the longest bas reliefs in the world. They were carved on the four galleries surrounding the temple structure and were about the battle of Mahabharata, the final battle of Ramayana, the war procession of the King Suryavarman II and the churning of milk episode.
It was a delight to look at the beautiful figurines; the perspective and details of their intricacies. Ravan was made to look even more demon-like with his heads stacked instead of being next to each other and the disturbances in the sea world due to the churning in the ocean looked almost life-like.
It was then time to move towards the next set of smaller temples, a Baray or a reservoir, and the famous Ta Prohm.
After lunch, we went to [14]Prasat Kravan, a small five reddish brick tower temple structure next to a small pond. The temple was decorated on the inside with intricate bas reliefs of Vishnu and Buddha.
Next on our list was [15]Banteay Kdei, which used to be a citadel of chambers for monks. It was built in the style of Bayon architecture, but it was smaller and much less complex. There were fewer tourists here, as compared to Angkor and it was much more peaceful. We walked around the temple and sat in front of the gigantic tree for a few minutes thinking about how much the world has changed, and yet this mighty tall tree has been the same for decades.
[16]Sras Srang is across the road from Banteay Kdei and so we walked towards this artificial Baray. The water was glistening in the sun and we could see people sitting around it with small food baskets. After spending some time there, we came back to Sovanna’s Tuk-tuk to head toward our last temple structure.
[17]Ta Prohm was expected to have more crowd because of its popularity from Lara Croft and the famous intertwined trees. The structures and the trees are interdependent- The trees support the structures and the structures support the roots of these trees.
Archaeological Survey of India is responsible for the conservation of Ta Prohm and they have done a great job in doing so. It certainly isn’t as easy to conserve a temple this old.
The ginormous trees left us awestruck and there were many of them to our surprise. The walkways interestingly lead us to various forms that trees have taken. Only this could have been the most fitting ending to this journey through Cambodian heritage.
It was a good wrap-up of the entire journey.
Sovanna, our Tuk-tuk driver was the happiest to see us so elated after seeing Ta Prohm.
Tuk-tuk driver’s contact: Choeun Sovanna, +855 (0) 92 81 60 96, +855 (0) 96 26 34 883 and here’s his facebook page. Here’s the summary map:
