Journey of 4 pilgrims to Siem Reap-Day Three, 17 August 2007, Friday

Oh Sunny Boy Where Are You!

Today was going to be a busy day, as we will be doing the grand tour, consisting of 8 temples along with our usual routine of sunrise at Angkor Wat. Hence, we were up early again. Since Angkor Wat does not require tough climbing, we only left the guesthouse at about 5 something. Hence, prayed really hard for the sun to show up.

Surprisingly even at five thirty in the drizzly rain, tourists have already crowded the temple. As the time pass on more and more tourists arrived. Along with them, we eagerly waited for the sun to rise. We waited and waited and waited till it was 6.30 am. The whole place was brightening up but there was no sign on sunny boy. Sigh! Another day, another disappointment! With very sore feeling, we headed to our grand tour beginning with the very first temple located 20 km away from Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei.

The Beautiful Pink Temple!

From all 8 temples only Banteay Srei and Banteay Samrei are located 20km away from Angkor Thom, bypassing the beautiful paddy village. The people lived in poverty yet there were smile on their face. The children were running happily on the courtyard, cows, pigs and hen lays on the side of the house, adults were on the paddy field and group of monks walking house to house getting their food supply. Unlike the spoilt greedy people of Angkor Wat, this was the real Cambodian.

Situated in the middle of the villages near the hill of Phnom Dei was Banteay Srei, built in 967 A.D. by Yajnyavahara, who served as a counsellor to king Rajendrawarman. The temple looked rather small from the outside and all ruin. Nevertheless, the entrance door of the temple was engraved with beautiful carving and it leads to 67 m long walkway to another magic door, where we encountered the most beautiful gopuras with breath taking carving of Hindu god and goddess on the red sandstone. The carving, though being almost 1000 years old, looked as if it was carved yesterday. Hence, to preserve it, visitors are restricted to enter the temple ground. The beautiful glows of red sand stone structure in contrast with the rustic orange sand and the tall pinkish wall making it looking more like glowing fort.

The paddy village near the hill of Phnom Dei, 20 km away from Angkor Wat

A typical Kampung house in the paddy field.

Lady selling local dishes at road side

It taste a little like lepat pisang ..yummy

The Main Entrance of Banteay Srei

ME, another window frame picture-ruin library of Banteay Srei

The rustic orange walkway leading to the second entrance of the gopuras

Figurine of broken Linga in the middle of the second entrance

Statue of Nandi split into two

The beautiful pink gopuras' of Banteay Srei

The front view..

The side view

Beautiful carving on the pink shaded gopuras

..i think its vishnu avtar!

ME sitting on the window frame

A beautiful little girl sitting in similar position drawing pictures ..she gave me one!

The Maze Temple.

From Banteay Srei, we headed on the opposite direction to Banteay Samre. Unlike Banteay Srei, Banteay Samrei was built on higher ground that was linked by the 200 m long walkway. We climbed up to the tinny entrance that was linked with 6m tall lacterite walls that served as the pathway. The 3 gopuras stood in the middle surrounded by dry man-made-pond that was connected to the four corner of wall by tinny narrow stairs. The structure of the temple, the color and the maze like walkway, made the temple very gloomy and dark. The walkways looked alike and were indeed confusing. Hence, we walked all around, coming in and out from different gopuras entrances till we failed to see the beautiful carving of Ramayana.

The entrance of the Banteay Samrei on higer ground

Opps...where is the rest of my body? The only part of the god statute left behind!

The surrounding wall cum walkway

US standing at the walkway

Name is bond...shuba bond...ME ..another window picture...

The second entrance to the gopuras of Banteay Samrei

Inside walkway - door connectinng one gopuras to another

The side view of the gopuras of Banteay Samrei

Temples and Temples and More Temples.

We continued our journey to 4 other temple East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Khan all situated in the surrounding of Angkor Thom. The first was the East Mebon, built in 953 A.D. by King Rajendravarman appears to be one of my favorites. It’s a very huge temple in the shades gray looking similar to Phnom Bahkeng. It is a 3-tier building with 2 lion kept at the entrance and huge 2-meter elephant at all corner of second and third tire. Above, there is a central tower on a square platform, surrounded by four smaller towers at the platform’s corners all in the shade of silver gray.

The beautiful huge East Mebon temple entrance

The huge lion at the entrance of the temple

Akka and me leaning on the jolly looking elephant

ME and ele

From there we headed to another beautiful temple deep in the jungle of Siem Reap. Ta Som is a small temple in the similar shades of gray and had a huge 4 smiley faced gopuras arch, just like Angkor Thom. Unlike other temples, Ta Som was all ruined and was unable to get into the temple ground. It’s a pity as the outer wall of the temple itself was engraved with beautiful carving, wonder what lies beneath. Nevertheless the attraction of the temple lies on the straggler fig that has dominated the whole arch exit, looking more like secret passage to a magical cave.

The similar four smiley face arch entrance at Ta Som

CLose shot of the face.

The entrance to the inner Ta Som temple

The carvings of Devatas on the outter wall structure

Another straggler fig at the exit ....was filmed in Thom Raider as well.

We then proceeded to Neak Pean. It takes approximately 100m long pathways that adjoin the main temple in dark gray with no wall, no door and no window. Here, the main gopura is positioned in the middle of the main pond, which was then connected to all four gigantic pond represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. The ancients believed that going into these pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease. In the middle of the four healing ponds is the central water source, where there is the main gopura facing peculier statue of Bahala (Bodisavatta Guan Yin transformed into a horse). However the beauty of the dried pond could not highlight the beauty of the temple or the figurine, as the temple has been reconstruct un orderly.

The main temple at the central pond

The main gopura

The funny looking statue...Bodisavatia...goddess guan yin transformed into horse

The face fountain ...

From there we headed to our very last stop, Preah Khan. The temple is so huge; we entered from one entrance and come out from another. Built in 12 century, it was the centre of a substantial organisation, with almost 100,000 officials and servants Similar to Angkor Thom, this temple had the similar four-face smiley face gopura arch and similar statue of gods and demons on the both side of the entrance pulling the serpents. However, the statues here were all ruined and missing head. The outer laterite wall of Preah Khan carved with 72 garudas holding nagas, at 50 m intervals.

Unlike other temple, despites having beautiful, carving on the wall, most of the structures were all ruined. Due to that the temple looked very dark, gloomy and scary. By time we walked though the centered part of the temple, almost everyone got tired so we ended our journey there and we headed back our tuk-tuk.

One of 72 garudas on the outter wall

The still standing Linga

An old lady at the temple..cleaning wax from the buddha's statue

The beautiful carvings at the inner wall of the temple

Four Pilgrims Journey to Shopping Free.

However, our holly temple visit didn’t end here. As the journey back home would bypass the Angkor Thom, we all opt to stop by Angkor Thom once again to do our shopping. Or initial plan was to go Angkor Wat to see the sun set, but since all of us were almost tired, we opt to head back home straight. We rested for a while, bathed and went back to ANgkor Wat for another session of sunset which we fail to see. Hence, we went for out very early for dinner. But first, we stacked our daily food supply form Blue Pumpkin. Some how, we ended at the same restaurant, Angkor Famous where today we got our royal treatment. Feeling so stuffed akka and me decided to go for a walk while Mok and Ramnah headed back room. The market was about to close but we still managed to shop. I finally found something for J, beautiful pendent and couple of elephants for akka. Feeling satisfied we headed back to our guesthouse to end another tiring day.

Akka and me at Angkor Wat waiting for sunset

If you really look close at those clouds...you can see a man's face ...ironic huh! may be god amused with us looking at sun set he decided to follows us!


The only view of sunset

Journey of 4 pilgrims to Siem Reap-Day Two, 16 August 2007, Thursday

Uhooo…Anybody There?

We woke up very early, packed our scarf, breakfast as well mosquito repellent and left for Bahkheng Hill at 4.30 in the morning. It took us approximately 30 minutes to reach the Bahkheng Hill by passing Angkor Wat. Even at that hour, Angkor Wat was bustling with lots and lots of tourist. Thank god we have opt for a different place.

Unlike Angkor Wat, no one was there except for another tuk-tuk driver sitting by the roadside, which mean presence of another tourist at hilltop besides us. Not knowing what was ahead, we were given a head light by Sokphal to climb the mountain in pitch dark. It was so dark, quiet and creepy I sure was glad reminding akka to bring our torchlight. We didn’t know what was ahead of us nor on our right or left or even on the path we were walking. We just simply climbed. I was pretty sure deep down all of us specially Mok and Ramnah, there were little fear clinging in their heart thinking if we have taken the right move to climb the mountain at that hour without a guide. But neither any of us showed our fear nor said anything. We all climbed up bravely as if it wasn’t our first time up. What no one knew was that I was holding my Swiss knife in my pocket all the way up.

The Mystical Phnom Bahkeng
.
It took us approximately 15 minutes to reach Phnom Bahkeng, which was built at the end of the 9th century (889-910 A.D.), during the reign of King Yasovarman. A huge Nandi (bull) sat all alone at the entrance of the temple facing the huge narrow stairs with two lion on either side. Each stairs was so high and narrow; we practically crawled up like toddler. It was a 7-tier temple and each tier had about 12 gopuras at all corners of the stairs, except for the summit that had one big gopura at the center and four little one at each corner with the figurine of Linga. All the gopuras’ door was position at sunrise. The structure of the temple, the sculpture and the carvings was extremely beautiful and in detailed. The Nandi, the Linga and the structure and position of the temple show it was once the sacred place for the Hindus. Nevertheless, what lies within the main gopura or at the bottom of the temples was the statute of Buddha.

The temple even though ruined, no longer active and had absolutely no statue of god or goddesses, it gave a peculiar felling. A feeling of presence of god on very stone, very leaf and even in the air that we breathe. The feeling that was so light and so soothing and was felt only by akka and me or may be by any Hindus that had stepped on the temple ground.

We enjoyed the strange feeling sitting on the temple top waiting for the sunrise in quiet with two other tourists. We waited and waited but the sun never showed up. By then, more and more people were crowding the place till it beginning to look and sound like night market. So we agreed view small gopuras scattered at the ground.

All gopuras had the statute of Buddha inside and the Linga’s scattered outside. It sure indicates that changes occurs in Khmer believe in god. About 200 meters ahead of the temple, a huge footstep was found on the ground and was believed to belong to Buddha. However, I personally feel that it belong to the mighty hanuman fro the epic of Ramayana.

The huge Nandi sitting at the entrance of the temple

The angels of Hannover Re

The friendly lone ranger at the temple top.

The only glimpse of sun rise at Phnom Bahkeng! Sigh!

The still standing Linga

The tough stairs. The sign board at bottom says "climb at your own risk!"

A huge footstep to be claimed as Buddhas'!

The Legendary Temples.

From there we headed to our next destination, the legendary Angkor Thom, which was just a couple of minutes way form the Bahkeng Hill in the deep jungle of Siem Reap. A huge mysterious smiley four faced god (or may be the King) arch stood as the magical entrance of Angkor Thom with several huge statutes of god on the right and demon on the left pulling a huge 5 head serpent welcoming people into the kingdom of Angkor Thom. I felt like princes walking through the grandeur Victory Gate.

Sokphal took us to the nearest stall for breakfast. Since the food there was extremely expensive we just ordered hot drinks and ate the blue pumpkin bread. I opt for my faithful buddy, musli. Sigh! Poor little princess indeed!

There are several temples built in Angkor Thom but the most famous one is the magnificent Bayon, one of my very own favorite temples. The temple is not as huge as Phnom Bakheng temple but had similar structure and similar shades of gray. It had 3 tires with doorways at every entrance and huge lion at each corner of the stairs. Only on the third tier stood the similar four mysterious smiley face gopura. To me it looked more like Buddha. There were about 12 four faced gopura all around the summit. Each with perfect carving, perfect smiles and perfect eye contact. My eyes never left the sight of the beautifully engraved face where else my fingers never stop touching and feeling the beautiful carving of apsara and devatas on the wall. The place looked like god’s playground and I felt like a little child running and climbing all around temple playing hide and seek with god. Similar to Phnom Bahkeng, the peculiar feeling was lingering in my heart. Hence, we sat at the temple top enjoying the breeze and the calmness till it was bustling with tourist once again.

We then proceed to our second temple, the famous Bahpoun. After walking for about ten minutes, did I realized I have left behind akka’s lonely planet book. I ran inside the Bayon temples going in circles but failed to locate it. Sigh! So careless of me!

The Victory Gate Entrance at Angkor Thom

The Gods...

...The Demons!

Me Cheek to Cheek with the Lovely God.

The beautiful Four Smiley Face Arch

The Mystical Bayon

The entrance of the Mystical Bayon

One of the Mysterious Four Smiley Face Arch at temple top

ME Sitting at one of the Window Frame

ME with the Still Standing Carvings of Apsara

The Secret Door to the Shopping Paradise.

We then headed to Bahpoun. Since we took the wrong path, we skipped the linked Elephant Terrace walkway and headed straight to Bhapoun. However, the temple was closed for restoration. Thus, we continued our journey following very blurry signage, to a narrow allay that leads towards a secret door of every woman’s happiness, shopping ground!

The moment we stepped in to the door, kids and adults rushed toward us, selling various things from guidebooks, to shawls, beaded bracelets and so on in US dollar. The magic mantra was once again heard and was clinging to our ears for sometime. Everything is rated in US dollar. Small item are about US5, medium about US10 or US15 and huge one goes for US20-25. Spellbound by beautiful painting of Buddha, Apsara (the dancing figure) and the Angkor Wat, we managed spend a little fortune on painting. The longer we stood there, the more we bought and more annoying kids approached trying really hard to sell their things. After a long harassment by a boy, I managed to get Cambodia guidebook for US 3.

Tired of bargaining and harassment from kids, we decided to continue our journey taking more short cuts and were once again lost till we reached Phimenakas, a not so huge but tall mountain temple building in shades of orange. Nothing exciting about the temple except for its narrow scary stairs that eventually tempted me to climb up all by myself.

The Legendary Bhapoun is closed under Restoration by the Japanese Government

The grand long walkway that links the Bhapoun to Elephant Terrace

Not so sure which temple it is!

The Secret Door to Every Women's dream - Shopping Paradise!

US Shopping for Beautiful Paintings!

The Scary Stairs of Phimenekas

The Terrace is Which Way?

Taking more short cuts, we got lost again and ended up at the Terrace of Elephants. Just like its name, the wall was carved with elephants all along its 350m walkway till it ends at the entrance pathway where 3 huge elephant, standing side by side plucking lotus on the ground at each corner of the stairs. Climbing above the stairs, there were similar statues of nagas and lions. The rustic orange hue gave a beautiful touch to the structure. The terrace despite being 700 year old stood strongly for many years. It was used as a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies and served as a base for the king's grand audience hall. Grand indeed!

Beside the Terrace of Elephants, was the Terrace of Leper King, in a lighter rustic orange hue. Though they are built side by side, it was built in different period of time. The structure looked like a maze. Despite being old, it still had clear carving of Vishnu’s avatar. But the place was so muddy and crowded with tourist; we opt not to proceed inside.

We came to end of our visit at Angkor Thom and headed back to the rest area to find Sokphal. The moment we step into the rest area, once again we heard the sacred mantras form the locals. Thank god, Sokphal was already out waiting for us. We drove out of Angkor using similar four mysterious smiley face gopura arch. However, the gods and demon’s statue here were all ruined.

The grand Elephant Terrace

ME hugging the 3 elephants

The beautiful carving of Vishu Avtar at Terrace of Lepar King

Small ruin temples at Angkor Thom

The Tree Temple.

Our next destination was Ta Prohm, located 10 minutes away from Angkor Thom. King Jayavarman VII built Ta Prom in 1186. This temple is famous for it ruins and is one of kind, where the trees have grasped almost every part of the temple wall. Huge piles of blocks collapsed and scattered all around the temple ground. However one would not see beauty of the temple unless you step into that magnificent silver shaded ruin temple to view the huge signature tree growing in the middle of the stonework. One will be amazed with the way the tree has intertwine into the temple rather then to admire the beautiful structure of the temple nor the still standing carvings of apsara or devata on the wall. The beautiful combination of wood and stones make it the most popular photographed temple in Siem Reap.

As we walked out, we noticed that the huge signature tree was growing in the middle of the temple structure looking like gopura. It reminded me of a story that I once read as a little girl. The story is about a little naughty boy that has accidentally eaten the rambutan seed and was afraid a tree might grow on top of his head. That’s what the temple looked like. It has accidentally ate the seed and a huge tree grew on top of its gopura. Hmmm…yummy

The entrance to the Ta Prohm

The outside of temple structure

The tree is bending down the building

Dont you thinkit looks like cave entrance? The roots has covered part of the building

More roots

3 Trying to squeeze into the window frame

Omm.. me meditating! Cool window frame picture

The Invader of Killer Tree Root - Picture Perfect:

Burp....! .The tree is Yummy

Nightmare in Ta Prohm!

We headed out of the temple form different exit as explained by Sokphal. What he didn’t explain was the massive harassment of the locals from young to old persuading, begging and even crying to sell their product. The awful mantra was heard once again, over and over as if we were being hypnotized. We tried our best to avoid eye contacted but to no vail as everything sold was cheap. The temptation to linger and buy the product was so high but the harassment was far beyond it. Mok was extremely afraid and was rather annoyed when a little boy started to hold her hand and cried. He, along with his friends followed her till the tuk-tuk. The longer we stood there the more approached us. Even at the very last moment the bargaining continued and Ramanh managed grab her birdie just as Sokphal drove away. Sigh!

Finally Angkor Wat!

So tired with the kids harassment, we decided to eat before proceeding to Angkor Wat. Sokphal suggested a place just around the corner but unfortunately, it turned out to be damn expensive. Instead we requested him to take us to Angkor Wat. The food served here was extremely cheap but the toilets price was rather costly. It cost us US1 dollar for four people (RM0.90 per person) for unflushable toilet with no light. Thank god they at least had water inside.

We then went straight to the temple walking on the pathway. Every part of the temple has been crafted with beautiful 3D figurine of apsara and devatas, each with its own layout and with its own meaning. Along the main wall was the exquisite bas-relief carving of historical event of the famous Mahabaratha and Ramayana.

The Memorable Climb

We then climbed a small stairs to the second level to the main gopura, which was surrounded, by four basins. A narrow, tall step was located at all 6 or 8 corners of the wall. Despite being only 11 meter high, it stood steep at about 50 degree, compare to other stairs. Below, there was the sign, “climbing up at the own risk”.

Wanting to experience the true way of climbing the stairs, we avoided the newly built stairs. Akka and me raised up and I won the race, while Ramnah and Mok took their own sweet time and were practically crawling upwards as it was indeed a difficult task.

There are all together 3 gopuras rising high, connected to one another, making it possible to walk around it. Similar to the entrance, every corner of the wall was engraved with exquisite carving of devatas and apsara. The walkway is so huge we have pass by at least 2 door to reach the middle portion which was then linked with 4 huge dried basins. Between the doors, in the middle of the walkways, stood either the statue of broken Buddha, by parts of the body, sometimes the body, and sometimes the legs or at times the symbol of Lingas, all ruined. The temple structure, layout and Lingas once again indicate that it was indeed a Hindu temple but unfortunately it was the mighty Buddha that once again conquered the gopura.

Similar to Bayon and Bakheng the sense of sitting at the top of the temple ground was very nice. Some even took the opportunity to sleep, read book, simple relax or even dating! We sat there simply admiring people.

The entrance

The Gopuras

The steep tough climb!New stairs are built by the side!

Ramnah and MOk taking the challange to use the traditional way!

The view from the top. Damn Scary!

One of the dried basins (pond)

The Different Carvings of Apsara and Devatas :

The walkway linking one door to another

The Return of the Monsoon and the Climb Down!

Suddenly at about 3.30 p.m., the wind was blowing really hard and followed by heavy rain. Sitting inside a ruin temple, high above the ground listening to the loud shattering sound of rain against the wall of the temple, feeling the cold wet wind against our skin was most amazing experience we had. We just simply refuse to get down till it was about five. Everyone was rushing down using the modified stairs while akka and me took the risk and headed the traditional way. We competed again and I won again. Finally after waiting for along time both Mok and Ramnah managed to come down safely.

Due to heavy rain, the clouds have once again blocked the sun and we were unable to see the sun set. Feeling disappointed once again, we headed back to our guesthouse to dump our bag and headed for dinner. Our very first stop was the usual Blue Pumpkin bakery. We then walked around the market finding best place to eat and ended up in Angkor Famous, which not only served cheap delicious food but also served free water, fruits and nuts and friendly staffs. Feeling so stuffed, we walked around the market finding out rooms from other guests house. It all turned out to be costly. So we decided to stick to Shadow of Angkor. Save money for shopping!

The pouring rain filling up the basin.

The Angkor Famous Restaurant, the interior was good, food was cheap, served fruits, water and nuts for free and friendly staff!