We are staying in Siem Reap - a bustling tourist town. This is the first time on our trip we have felt surrounded by tourists. Siem Reap really caters to the tourists coming to visit the Angkor temples. There are lots of markets and a pub street filled with restaurants serving Khmer food and Western food. We had a mixture last night of pizza and Khmer fried ginger fish. And of course spring rolls! It was very good.
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| Bayon Temple |
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| Bas Relief |
Today we got up and started our tour of the Angkor temples. There is a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist artwork throughout the temples, depending on exactly when they were built. Many have figures and symbols of both religions. As the religions moved back and forth between Hinduism and Buddhism, you can see many Buddhas removed or re-carved to look more like Hindu gods.
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| Buddha changed to look like Lotus |
We first visited Angkor Thom. The first temple, Bayon, is shaped like a pyramid and has many towers with smiling faces. The bas-reliefs are fascinating and tell stories of the city. We then went by Baphuon, a Hindu temple. However, along the back of the temple is a Reclining Buddha over the whole length. We wandered around a whole host of other smaller temples and then went to the Terrace of Elephants - a long terrace used for royal military reviews and parades. The entire terrace is decorated with sandstone elephants. Next up was the "Tomb Raider" temple - Ta Prohm - made famous by the Tomb Raider movie. This temple is filled with silk cotton (Kapok) trees and baryon trees that are growing out of the walls and over roofs. The trees have become a part of the temple, so during restoration, they left the trees.
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| Baphuon |
We had lunch at a Khmer restaurant and then went on to another set of temples. We drove through a farming village and saw houses up on stilts. We went to Banteay Srei - the temple of Women. This was made of pink sandstone and was a Hindu temple built by Hindu priests. It isn't a royal temple, like most of the other monuments. The carved lintels show scenes from the Ramayana. Our last stop of the day was at Praset Kravan, a temple that was built of smaller bricks - the others were mostly large lava rocks and sandstone for the carvings. We climbed to the top and could see Angkor Wat in the distance.
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| Terrace of Elephants |
Tomorrow we will start at Angkor Wat and go from there!
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| "Tomb Raider" Temple |
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| Banteay Srei |
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| Praset Kravan |
1 comment:
What a neat time you two are having. Loved the photos of all the temples.
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