Angkor Thom & Ta Prohm Temples
Today was the first of two "WOW" days we will experience in what is certainly to be one of the most memorable experiences for anyone visiting SE Asia - the Angkor temple complex. Of the more than 1,000 temples in the entire complex, Viking selected the three most amazing for us to see and today we saw the first two in Angkor Thom & Ta Prohm. After breakfast we met in the lobby at 8am and headed out for the temples. After about 15 minutes we arrived at a exchange point where we moved to two smaller busses to carry us into the temple complex. You may notice in the photos that we have a badge around our necks - this is required for entering the Angkor temples at a cost of $62 per person, which is provided by Viking :) We arrived at the first temple and stopped to admire the East Gate into the Angkor Thom Temple complex. Along the bridge are 54 statutes on each side. On the left side as we walked across are the happy statutes, to represent the gods....on the right side 54 demons, all looking unhappy or mean. On all of the towers in this temple complex there are faces on all four sides. And what's truly interesting about all of these temples is there is NO MORTAR - over 1100 years old and they still are standing as the blocks are so accurately made to fit and stay standing. WOW.
We re-boarded the small bus and made our way to the actual temple complex. We circled it first to get an impression of the overall size before getting out and heading into the complex to explore it up close. This complex has 54 towers - what's with the number 54? At the time this was built there were 54 provinces in Cambodia so the king had this number of statutes built for the bridge and towers in the temple. The temple is surrounded by a large wall and is made up of three levels. Every inch of the wall is covered with detail engravings picturing life in Cambodia, battles, and various aspects of the king's accomplishments. And of course, all the towers have four faces on each of the four directions they face.
Back on smaller bus to go to the Ta Prohm temple complex, or the "Jungle Temple" as it's known. It's most widely known as a famous scene from Angelina Jolie's film, "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider." But our guide told us that if you watch the movie you will actually see some scenes which were shot at Angkor Thom and where we are going tomorrow, Angkor Wat. We drove through the gate, which was very similar to that at Angkor Thom and then walked about a half mile on a dirt road through the jungle to reach the temple. Interestingly enough, at it's height there were more than a million people living in the city surrounding the temple and NONE of the jungle was there, it was all cleared away! When we arrived our Cambodian guide told us that this is the most UN-restored temple in Cambodia so it is largely as it was originally. One reason it is not so restored is how the jungle has taken it over, as you can see in the photos below, that is part of the appeal of this particular site for visitors. We wandered around and through the dark passages and were treated to a "WOW" photo stop, a "WOW-WOW" photo stop and finally the culminating "WOW-WOW-WOW" stop as they were described by our Program Director Bob. Sidenote - Bob took photos of everyone in several key "Kodak spots" that he will share with us at the end of the trip.
Just as we were leaving Ta Prohm the rains arrived for the afternoon - excellent timing, Viking thinks of everything :) John, Valerie, Kim and I went immediately to lunch upon our return to the resort. Then they went golfing on the property and Kim and I had booked a "Sunset Gondola" excursion. We were the only two from our group that went. We left the hotel at 4pm and arrived to a dock on the moat/canal just past the entrance to the Angkor Thom temple complex. The peacefulness and serenity was very cool as we floated along. It was interesting to find out from our guide that in ancient times you could take this waterway all the way to China in the north and all the way to India in the west! I would NOT have wanted to be the guy rowing the gondola / boats :O And as we floated along I could not get it out of my head that in ancient times there was NO JUNGLE along the bank of the water way....instead it was bustling with homes and activity as over 1 Million people lived in this area - now, no one just the quiet of the jungle!
Once we returned the entire Viking group was taken out to dinner. What a GREAT day! And as great as today was, tomorrow promises to be even better as we visit Angkor Wat!
No comments:
Post a Comment