Today's a big day, because it's temple tour time. Our tuk-tuk is early, waiting for us, and we leave around 7:30 am. We head straight to the reception area where we pay for the day pass, $20 per person . They check our tickets; without them, it's impossible to go any further down the road, even if it's just to admire the scenery! And off we go. We start by visiting the temples furthest away, about 40 km from Siem Reap , and given our driver Sokna's average speed, it makes for a nice, leisurely drive before we arrive…
Small view from a hotel balcony on our floor (not from our room).
As we pass temples, our driver tells us the name of the place (and in this case I didn't write everything down...)
Full throttle! Well, almost.
Small “store” on the side of the road.
Local tractor.
Ahead !
The first temple is Banteay Srei (thanks Jitima!). It's already very crowded at this early hour (of course, everyone's doing the same thing before it gets too hot), it's already 8:30 am. Located 35 kilometers northeast of Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei, the "Citadel of Women," boasts bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the Ramayana, a great Indian epic that heavily influenced artists of the Angkorian period. Hundreds of people and animals populate the temple's perimeter. The material used in its construction, laterite, gives it its pink hue. It's difficult to choose from the multitude of photos, but at the same time, it would take too long to include them all, and also, it's important to leave some room for discovery, otherwise it would make you less inclined to visit... Okay, maybe not quite, but I think you'll understand that the best thing is to go and see for yourself.
The supervisor.
Typical Cambodian (or rather Khmer style) windows, all the temples around Siem Reap have them.
A photo with just one tourist, quite an achievement!
One dollar, one dollar.
Cambodia's Children at "One Dollar":
A little explanation about the photo above, in many temples and around there are often children, their hobby: having their picture taken by tourists, then asking for "one dollar". Around tourist places, it's systematic, if a child sees you taking a picture of him, he will come and ask for his due... Sad poverty... I'm the first to think it's nice to take portraits of children, but the government had a poster saying not to play their game, because obviously, it's encouraging them to continue and not go to school...
There are a lot of Chinese or Japanese (busloads of them... and always organized!)
Many decorations and details adorn each temple.
I am always amazed to see monuments so well preserved, of course there is often renovation behind them but still, seeing these temples still there after more than 5 or 6 centuries, it is not with our modern buildings that we can claim such longevity….
Souvenir photo before leaving.
Series of roadside landscapes, scenes from Cambodian life.
We stop at the temple that we had seen on the way there, we cannot enter because it is not included in our pass, this is not a big deal because it seems less interesting, similar to the Khmer temple that I saw in Thailand, it is not that it is not interesting in fact but it is a bit of a feeling of déjà vu and we can see the whole thing well enough from outside the enclosure.
The guard, hard at work...
We leave closer to the center, close to the famous Angkor Wat where we will go last to end this day.
On the way to the next temple our tuk tuk is waiting for us on the other side because apparently there is an entrance and an exit. We meet children again, asking us to buy bracelets or other small souvenir items. Further on other children have found in my eyes a much better technique, in fact instead of sticking to the tourist (who inevitably ends up irritating and therefore does not buy…) they were singing nicely on the side of the road, and well their basket was full of money, some were even generous because there were several 500 or 1000 baht notes (as a reminder it is respectively about 10 and 20 euros, which is huge for them!)
Children singing along.
One dollar, one dollar, again!
Ruins at the Ta Prohm temple, known in particular for having served as a filming location for the movie Tomb Raider.
It's pretty impressive.
But where are the tourists? You have to be patient to get such a shot…
Nature lives in harmony with temples.
The trees are gigantic.
Nature has reclaimed its rights.
Trees hold up temples, without them everything collapses, hence a certain symbiosis.
Landslides…
A “supervisor” surely with her son.
A dinosaur??
Unique thing, unique to this temple and to all the others combined, a sculpture strangely resembling a Stegausaur. For the little anecdote, the first time Jitima had come their guide had shown them, so she had shown me photos and I wanted to see it with my own eyes now. Problem is that it is well hidden so she could not find it…. Even by asking several official guides they did not even seem to know of the existence of this representation and seemed surprised when we spoke to them about dinosaurs… Finally a guide showed us the location that he knew.
But what is this strange insect?
The answer is: a stick insect, an insect that looks like a tree branch, if people hadn't all been looking in the same direction I would never have seen it because it was quite high on a tree trunk on the way out, and yet it's quite big, I would say around 30 cm long! At the exit our driver Sokna is there. As we tell him that we have done this one takes us to a small local restaurant that he knows well (I don't know if it's family or just an errand...) not far from where we are. Knowing that even at the table the children come to beg... We were the first to arrive. After insisting a little girl finally gets me I buy her book for $5, after negotiating because at first she tells me $8! I told her no way, your colleagues at the temples are selling it for $1, she told me "yes but they are liars, they say that to attract but then they change", it didn't sound wrong but $8 was still too expensive in my eyes (even if the original price, new, marked on the back is $25).
The said restaurant.
And meanwhile Sokna, our driver, was resting!
There was nothing to complain about in this restaurant, the prices were reasonable and the food was quite good. And to help you digest, what better than a good walk? We refilled our water (it was very hot and in the morning we dropped our bottle from the tuk tuk…)
Hot in front hot!
Children play in the water features along the path leading to the temple.
There's not much left here...
The climb is tough!
Now it's my turn, here I am in full action.
Oh yes it is tough, I did not even have the width of my foot that passed on the steps, forcing to climb, sorry to climb literally with feet and hands. The goal being to force the "faithful" to stay facing the steps therefore facing the temple and therefore facing the divinity, it is a mark of respect. Jitima not feeling too much this climb preferred to stay down to wait for me. Once at the top I look down and seriously ask myself the question, how am I going to go back down! Taken a little dizzy at the moment I decide to take a look at what is happening at the top.
I arrive in the middle of a prayer session at the summit.
Nice view?
A mother and her daughter.
Meanwhile, the miss took a nap!
At the foot of the stairs the lions keep watch.
A door.
Imagine this same place 500 years ago…
The door seen from the front.
Jitima and “his” elephants.
View of the plain from the ramparts, 1700 meters long.
Representation of an ancient king, Jayavarman VII
More one dollar kids…
We started to give them 500 riels (9 cents of euros) well aware that their currency is worthless they pretend that it is not enough and refuse the money. Because in addition they are difficult! We started to leave and one of them ended up saying "give it to me anyway" and finally took the note...
And yes… another dollar… but here it’s Jitima who pays because she’s the one taking the photo.
Are you coming here, yes! Stubborn as a mule…
