Cambodia Day 4 & 5: Temple Touring & Homeward Bound

Day 4: Temple Touring

Today was our last full day at Angkor Wat. We had another early start (6:30am) as we were touring the furthest temples.

First stop: croissants!

Pre Rup (961)

Pre Rup means “turning the body” and refers to a traditional method of cremation in which a corpse’s outline is traced in the cinders, first in one direction and then another.  The temple may have served as an early royal crematorium. 

View from the top
(Vanna told us not to climb it but we did anyway.  He is scared of heights)

The outer villages in the rain

Bantaey Srei (967)

There are so many butterflies in Angkor

Also known as The Citadel of Women, this temple contains the most intricate carvings in Angkor.  This is a not a royal temple, built by Yajnavaraha, a Brahmin priest and counsellor of King Rajendravarman II and his brother.  While the temple is small in size compared to the other Angkor monuments, detail of the gallery walls make up for it.  

A local vendor sells crickets

As we drove back to Angkor Wat, the skies opened.  Through the plastic covering, the country-side was amazing.  I saw many children running and playing in the rain.  This was one of my favourite experiences.

As we arrived at Preah Khan, we stopped for lunch in the village before continuing our temple touring.

The noodles hit the spot

Preah Khan (late 12^th c)

The temple complex of Preah Khan (Sacred Sword) is magnificently beautiful.  Built by Jayavaran VII, who dedicated Ta Prohm temple to his mother, dedicated Preah Kham to his father.  It is one of the largest temples with a maze of corridors, fine carvings and monstrous roots taking hold of the east gate.  Due to its size, it was thought to have been a Buddhist university.

You can tour this temple from east to west or vice versa, and have a completely different experience.  Entering from the west, Buddhist images were destroyed and converted into Hindu bas reliefs under the anti-Buddhist reaction under Jayavaraman VIII (13^th c).  From the east, the images are dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.  There are many passage ways to explore.  Officers, for a small tip, showed us the hidden carving of Jayadevi, one of Jayavaraman VII’s sister-wives.

The guard shows us where jewels of diamonds and rubies were once embedded in the sister-wives' image

This shows how hidden the goddesses are

We really enjoyed touring these temples as they were less crowded and quiet.  The surrounds were lush and green.  Seeing the way nature was overtaking the temple was breathtaking and more beautiful than Ta Promh in my books!

Look!  I've exhausted the Energizer Bunny!
We were officially exhausted.

We finished the day at Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King

(late 12^th c).  While this is a popular stop on all tourist itineraries, we could of given it a miss.  The Terrace of Elephants is a 350m long viewing stand for public ceremonies.

The Terrace of the Leper King is a 7m high platform, on top which stands a nude, genderless statue.  Legend has it that at least 2 of the Angkor kings had leprosy and the statue may represent one of them.  Another theory is that the statue is of Yama, the god of death, and the Terrace housed the royal crematorium.   This was our final stop in Angkor Wat.  We were officially temple'd out!

Traffic jam!

After a club sandwich back at the hotel, we treated ourselves to a foot massage.

For dinner, I ticked off a bucket list it: The Bug Café!  We missed a few opportunities to try the tarantulas at the street markets (rain) and we didn’t trust the crickets amongst the villages in the temples.  I did a bit of research and found a café for tourist to try the local cuisine.  The café was excellent – clean and talked us through where they sourced the bugs and what to try, etc.

We opted for the Discovery Platter (insect tapas)

·         2 Wild Spring Rolls with Ants

·         1 Insect Skewer (scorpion, tarantula, waterbug)

·         1 Mediterranean Feuilletes with red Ants

·         1 Tarantula Donut

·         1 Cricket and Silk Worms Wok

Waiter, there is a large ant in my spring roll!

Eyes closed, in the gob!  I am not going to lie, we had a few squeamish moments and I don’t think I have ever drunk a beer faster.  The final verdict: tarantula was not bad and I really liked the crickets.  I couldn’t bring myself to eat the water bug; it looked too much like a cockroach.

After filling our bellies with bugs, we hit the Angkor Night Market to grab some bargains on souvenirs to bring home.

Steps: 25,315 (20km)

Day 5: Last Day!

Our whirlwind trip has come to a close.  We finished with in-room Khmer massages before heading to the airport and we were homeward bound (me to BKK then Sydney and Sue staying on for her next course in Bangkok)!  What a fantastic experience and so much fun with one of my favourite colleagues.  Now that I know how easy it is to “hop” from Bangkok, I might start planning for 2017...

Random but on the free shuttle DMK - BKK
I saw the famous elephant shaped building!