Advertisement
Published: July 31st 2006
Edit Blog Post
3rd day - 26 May 2006, Friday - Bayon / Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, etc
After visit to Angkor Wat temple yesterday, we get very excited and waiting to see more others temple today.
Today, we did not wake up early in the morning because we’re not planned for any sunrise viewing. We took our breakfast at the “Kopitiam” just next 2 shops from our guesthouse. The Beef Mee-Hon Soup here was strongly recommended by a Taiwanese in the internet website. The ingredients are Mee-Hon soup + Beef + “Tau Keh” + lime (you have to squeeze out the juice and mix into the soup). It cost USD 1 per bowl. With the local lime juice it enhances the taste of the soup. If you stay near by, you may take a try. This kind of “Kopitiam” we observe / know more about the local people life. “Yau Cha Kwai” also available here but we did not try it.
The 1st destination for today is temple Bayon which located at the Angkor Thom. It rated 4 stars and it was one of the best four famous “MUST” visit destination in Angkor.
The Angkor Thom / Great City
fenced up by a square perimeter stone wall. The Tuk-tuk brought us to the South Gate. It is one of the entrances to the old city (It has 5 entrances / gates in total). There have 2 rows of statues along the roadside before the gate and it’s well known with its giant four faces tower. When we passed along the road we can imagine the greatest during the old time. At this moment, we have a great expectation of the Bayon temple.
As we arrived in the Bayon temple, we noted that the overall size was not as big as the Angkor Wat. According to our study, this place famous with its carvings of faces on the rock. The temple consists of 49 units of 4 faces tower. After the guard checked our entry pass, we proceed to the upper level. Now I realized that, although whatever pictures we saw before in the websites and travel books, it’s could not adequate reflect the whole environment here. The place was so grand and wonderful as everywhere you look there is a face looking down on you. We really respect to the intelligent and knowledge of construction by Khemer. Here
is a very nice place for photo shooting and to test how creative you are. Nevertheless, because of too many tourists, you have to be patient and wait for the chance to take a good shoot. We have experience this kind of situation.
We have exposed to the hot sun and cannot ‘tahan’ anymore (it was very…very…very hot… advise to apply sun block), then we have a quick visit to the others site at Angkor Thom, which includes Phimeanakas, Elephant & Leper King Terrace (do not miss out the hidden wall - it has a lots of good carving). Soonest after this, we went back to guesthouse to take a break. On the way back, Lim noticed that we have missed out to take photos at the front entrance of Bayon temple. What a waste! So we decided to come back again tomorrow (if have extra time).
Lucky there was no rain in the late afternoon, so we proceed to visit the next temple called Ta Prohm.
This temple always at the top itinerary by the tourists. Why? Because Ta Prohm, which is the best known for its use the “Tomb Raider” movie and there were few
giant trees intertwined with the temples. It took a longer journey to reach here if compare to Angkor Thom. At the entrance, we were immediately confronted by a group of small children (about 4 to 5 children) offering bracelets, postcards and etc. They keep on saying “Ten for one dollar….”. We politely saying no and walked away but didn’t work, these children still follow us. Although these kids were so persistent, but at the end we still did not buy anything from them. (God Bless them, hope they have better future indeed)
It was really good atmosphere. There are a lot of trees at the surrounding; hence we no need to suffer a lot from the hot sunshine. Once we step inside the temple… a big giant tree appeared in front of us … Wow! Look like a special effect in the movie… it is about 5-storey building height (or even higher). After a few photo shots, we continued to the inner section. We found that a lot of building structures were collapsed but this collapsed stones seem have a different kind of beauty. Because of this collapsed stones, there are a lot of dead corner and increase the
fun to explore this “Tomb Rider Temple”. Few unique giant trees were discovered here, eg: a tree look like an octopus on top of a roof and Lim’s favorite giant tree seem consist of thousand small tree roots. Overall we spent about 2 hours ++ in this cool & wonderful temple. The experience was so great!
Later on, we have a quick look at Banteay Kdei. Then, we went to a place which at the adjacent of Ta Prohm, known as Srah Srang, a huge lake. Our purpose was to take a rest there. Yes… lucky we did not miss this wonderful place, it offered a great lake view … as the wind blows from the lake, we have a relax feeling. It was very peaceful.
We left before sunset and headed to Angkor Wat again for sunset viewing. The temple as usual full with tourists; but at this sunset moment let us have a very serene and pleasant way to end the day and also a nice photo shooting session.
After a whole day activities … the best thing to do now was to enjoy some beers. Therefore right after dinner, we have a relax and
wonderful time in the Pub. What’s a brilliant day!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Michelle Cheah
non-member comment
Nice picture
Very nice picture and good angle taken. Ur husband lost weight ah.