Day 8
Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia
So we began our temple tour with what they call the “Grand Tour”. All in all we saw 5 different temples and it took us from 08:30 til 14:00.
Banteay Kdei – built in late 12-13 century, in some respects it is a smaller version of Ta Prohm (where Angelina did her stuff).
Pre Rup – built in the middle of the 10th century it boasts 5 imposing brick towers which dominate the surrounding plains. There is a beautiful harmony of colour between the laterite, brick and sandstone.
East Mebon – also middle of the 10th century is built on an island and in it’s day the temple was surrounded by a reservoir of water capable of holding 55 million cubic metres of water.
Ta Som – one of the smaller temples and it owes its charm to a combination of remoteness, semi-ruined state and face-towers. The semi-ruined state of the buildings inside the small enclosure and the jumble of masonry blockes makes an attractive scene completly isolated from outside and perfect for Theo’s imaginary games of hide and seek from the warriors!
Preah Khan – this was my favourite of the day – it was simply stunning with doorways going as far as the eye could to see. It is much more than just a temple with over 1,000 teachers it appears also to have been a Buddhist university as well as a considerable city. It was absolutely massive.
We came home earlier today from the temples as the kids need to have a sleep in order to be well awake tonight for the shadow puppet show. Beside we have an early start tomorrow morning at 05:30, the kids and I are having a ride in a hot air balloon (Khmer style) – Tim is afraid of heights so he has opted out and instead he will enjoy the sunrise at Angkor Wat from ground level.
