Day 9 - Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm Temple and Tomb Raider

I slept well last night.  I was tired and so turned off my book just after 8pm and slept until 6am when I heard Mom in the bathroom (but I was ready to wake up).  I got up and did some work and then we went to breakfast at 7am. We had commented yesterday that it was busy just after 7am and we would like to try to get there earlier to beat the crowd.  Mission completed - it's a very expansive buffet with not a lot on it that's appealing so I had a couple of little croissants and a lot of fruit.

Jay called while we were in the lobby waiting for the shuttle, so just before 8am.  He got home from swimming, let the dogs out and then smelled skunk immediately.  They cornered a skunk between the house and the hot tub (yikes) so the house and tub got sprayed, the dogs got sprayed and the whole place stinks.

Our first stop today is Angkor Thom.  The temples here with smiling faces were built in the time of King J #7 (as Nin calls him) a very revered King who the people still look up to.  He became King of the Khmer Kingdom when he was 55 and ruled until he was 95.  During that time it is estimated there were 22M people under his rule because it also included Laos, Thailand and part of Vietnam.

Each of the towers feature 4 faces which represent Equality, Charity, Sympathy and Impartiality

There are 5 Gates at Angkor Thom which is also unique because most temple cities only have 4, one on each point of the compass.  This has 5.  The North Gate was only for monks.  The South Gate was for welcoming royal guests, royal court and royal family.  The West was for local residents and farmers to use.  The East had 2 gates, one for the army and soldiers to enter the city (called the Victory Gate) and the other for bodies to leave the temple city for burial or cremation (called the Death Gate)

The left and right side of the Gate each had 54 statues lining the entrance over the water.  9 is a holy number so 5+4 = 9 and total of 54+54 = 108 = 9

The left side of the entrance was demons (sad or angry faces)

The right side of the entrance was soldiers (calm or smiling faces)

The entrance was originally designed for 
elephants and chariots to enter

 

This is hard to see but is elephant trunks out of stone

We saw some monkeys and our Guides were very aggressively ensuring we did not engage the monkeys.  Binh said they'll steal your phone and go up to a tree and they're smart they'll trade it back for a banana.  But do you have a banana?  No, so no more phone.

The City was rediscovered in the late 19th Century by the French.  Cleaning it up of the jungle caused damage to the towers.  There are only 32 remaining, 17 collapsed when the jungle was cut back.

So about this time Jay tried to FaceTime me so I sent him a note saying I can't talk, this is where I am right now. lol.  

This tree is 300-500 yrs old

This photo on the bottom left you can see a reddish stone - in addition to sandstone there is lava stone used in this temple city.

It's so hot.

It's hard to tell but these reliefs were chiseled onto individual stones approx 1' sq.

Reliefs depict daily life. The Army is marching
on the Ground, long ears represent long life (and 
if you were born with short ears then they would weigh
them down with weighted earrings)

The lower and upper reliefs depict the same stories of the Khmer people.

Starting a fire in a cooking pot

A battle with the Chinese who's commanders ride horses,
have short ears and long hair with a knot on top.

In 1937 a French archeologist discovered a bronze Buddah riding a 7 headed
serpent buried 17m below the centre tower (which is 45m tall)

The Chinese mercenaries found Cambodia to be easy to farm, 

easy to build and Cambodian women "easy to convince"

so there are approximately 12% Chinese/Cambodian today.

In Cambodian culture, and depicted on a stone, when a daughter turns 18 the family presents a flag or curtain outside the home in pink or red to let suitors know they have a daughter who has come of age for marrying. Even now this happens and if you see a ragged old pink curtain the daughter might be 45 and still single lol.

There are more than 300 Temples in the park but there are likely a few hundred more not yet discovered.  The most recently discovered temple was just in 2025.  They used Lidar (light radar) to estimate where a temple might have been based on patterned locations of other temples and discovered one.

We got on back on the mini bus for a brief reprieve from the heat and less than 10 minutes later arrived at Ta Prohm Temple.  It was built in 1186 and was home to 79,000 people.  This is where Tomb Raider was filmed.

The rubble to the left is what most of the temple looked like.
Then they took each stone, analysed it and rebuilt this whole area in 
just 3 years!  Including the hallway below.

A "before and after" photo of the rubble to completed hall and entrance.

Tomb Raider entrance

We got back to the hotel and did a quick change and headed to the pool to try to secure a spot in the shade.

We were lucky and got one right away.  We decided to order lunch here to our seat.  I had a pina colada and a club sandwich.  Both delicious - I got dark rum and said to my Mom "looks like its the right colour" - beige is the baseline for a good pina colada.

It was hotter today than yesterday I think but we have gotten SOOO lucky with the weather.  Sunshine and heat is better than rain and heat any day!

After an afternoon spent by the pool relaxing we went back to the room, showered and got ready for a private show in one of the hotel meeting rooms.  Cambodian music and dance.

Most of the music and dance was good - there was one I didn't take a photo of and it seemed each of the musicians was playing a different tune, very chaotic.

After this we got a little briefing for tomorrow as we leave Siem Reap and drive in the busses to the Mekong River for the river boat portion (the next 6 nights).  Some people are regretting their life choices because they have to do the ATV tour tomorrow at 7am.  Sounds like a lot of fun but will be HOT and dirty and it's early (though we're awake anyway).

Dinner was set menu family style, I didn't take a picture of every course but it was all really good.  Annette didn't like it, said it was "the worst meal she's had this whole trip" but she's self proclaimed "not an adventurous eater" but this one she just didn't like anything.  She had had a late lunch on pub street though, a mixed grill plate it included a steak, chicken and a rack of ribs for $11.50.

Now we are back in the room, it's just before 9pm.  Mom is organizing for leaving our luggage out by 8:30am (luggage makes the trip before us, I think with Binh so that he can get all of us organized and settled when we make it to the ship), I'm finishing up the blog and will pack in the morning because even though we have to have luggage out by 8:30 we don't leave until 11am tomorrow.