Brooke exploring the very remote Beng Mealea
Next it was on to Cambodia to visit the temples surrounding Siem Reap. There isn't much to say about the town itself, except it's a tourist trap built around a French colonial quarter in 1907. The land is beautiful, the people were friendly, and the high heat of summer keeps tourists from flooding the area. Our first day we toured the far temples by SUV with a local guide named Ma. He not only gave us an overview of the temples' construction and history, he gave us great insight to what the temples have meant to the people and what they mean today.
Sunset at Phnom Bakheng
Monks wander the upper deck of Phnom Bakheng.
Angkor Wat at sunset as seen from Phnom Bakheng
Siem Reap's river walk
Beng Mealea
This temple, like many in the area, was Hindu and built in the 12th century. Like Ta Prohm, it' has completely returned to the jungle; left completely as found, with no restoration. This makes for more of a jungle gym experience than the maze like paths that map most temples in the area.
Ta Prohm
Massive trees hold this temple together, both sheltering and destroying the original structure. Image a forest growing for 900 years right through the middle of the Vatican and you might begin to get the picture.
Pink sandstone blocks make up Banteay Srei
Angkor Wat, the best preserved and perhaps most well known temple in Cambodia. It served as the capital of the Khmer empire as a Hindu and then Buddhist temple.
Moat around Angkor Wat
What we found most amazing about this temple was the 2.2 miles of perimeter walls housing galleries of these amazing Hindu and Buddhist pictographs in various states of preservation and decay.
Interior of Angkor Wat
South gate of the giant 3Km x 3Km Angkor Thom
Our main mode of transportation in front of Thommanom
There are two types of people who love to stop and have there picture taken when you have a tripod set up: people on phones, oblivious to their surroundings;
and children, who just love having their photo taken.
