Cambodia: Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm, nicknames the 'Tomb Raider Temple' was hands down, my favorite temple. The crumbling towers, the walls being overtaken by huge roots, the vine covered stones and the pure jungle look of this temple was mesmerizing.  I felt like I was an adventurer archeologist in a movie as we walked around, in and through this temple.

Some parts of the temple were off limits, such as the area were there was massive amounts of stones piled high and covered in moss.  The tour guides were constantly yelling at people to get off the rocks.  This particular temple is being preserved as-is.

Other then supporting the structure to make sure it doesn't fall, the rest of it is amazingly overgrown by trees and roots.  We went at a time the there weren't very many tourists, so it truly felt like we were the first to find this hidden jungle temple.

We walked along the outer wall for a while before we walked through a walkway to a courtyard.  This particular building was not safe to walk in, and to preserve the integrity of the structure, I am assuming.  It was gorgeous! Every turn we made and every new corner we came around was my new favorite view.  It just kept getting better and better.

We made our way through a small archway deeper into the temple.  The trees were especially loud and proud here.  They had overtaken, buried, destroyed and crushed so much of the temple.  It was almost mystical, a feeling like you had shrunk and were looking at the world a way an ant would.

I think the reason this was my favorite temple is because other then the ropes to rope off unsafe territory, the temple was open to wander and explore.  We could walk up to these hundreds of years old crocodile trees and brush them with our hands and hear them whisper about the sights they have seen and the history they have witnessed.

I loved walking inside the temple.  We could look up and see tree roots as they were creating their way in through the stones.  It just shows that no matter what man makes, God always has the power and will to move even mountains and stones.  The roof above us was parted, as if through time it has been slowly pulled apart.  It was scary and beautiful all at the same time.  My favorite part was how Monster found a perfect racing rock in the middle of the ground, and decided he would race his cars right there in the middle of a temple surrounded by jungle.  He stayed and raced his cars and let me explore the rooms around us.  It was perfect.

All the walls, buildings, archways and walkways lead to the huge popular crocodile tree and its roots that strangle the opening to the most eastward pavilion entrance.  This is the reason the temple is nicknamed the Tomb Raider Temple.  This spot makes an appearance is the movie Tomb Raider.  I totally understand why a director would want this tree in a scene of a movie.  It was so gigantic and crazy beautiful, that it's honestly one of those, 'you have to see it to believe it'.

It was so great to share this experience with the Fillmores.  I am so glad we came to Cambodia at the same time and made it work to go on the tour together.  It was wonderful having friends to share this with.

Cambodia: Banteay Srei

We had to take a little drive to get to the next temple: The Banteay Srei.  This temple is about 30 minutes north of the main Angkor temples.  Our tour guide told us this is the woman temple (The Citadel of Women) and also known as the "precious gem" temple. He kept joking with the men that they couldn't go because they were not beautiful women. 

The coloring of this temple is a deep pink color, made from red sandstone.  There isn't any red sandstone native to this area, so the locals don't know where the stones for the temple came from. The detail and the precision of the stone work was something I haven't ever seen before.  It was so rich in color and the designs were timeless.

I didn't realize before I came to Cambodia, that a lot of the temples were still in the process of being restored.  The stones were still being placed and unburied.  This temple especially still had stones around the edges and unfinished walls.

The main entrance into the Banteay Srei was an outer wall followed by a walkway leading to the main area.  There were so many neat doorways.  The kids had fun going through the empty doors.

After walking through two main door ways, we got to the inner enclosure where we were told there is a sanctuary and two libraries.  We were not allowed inside any of the buildings, due to the fact that this temple has had a strong history of thieves and looters.  We were still able to see the beauty of the sanctuary and the carvings.  The charm of this temple came from the miniature size of everything.  After seeing the gigantic Angkor temple and Bayon, this temple seems so small.  The entire inner sanctuary and libraries seemed almost fairy like.  It was absolutely stunning.

Cambodia: South Gate & The Bayon

This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about my experience of the South Gate and The Bayon. The South Gate is one of the four gates that lead into Angkor Thom. The South Gate was the most and best preserved gate that leads into Angkor Thom. This was a very popular tourist spot, so there was a lot of traffic. 

We divided to walk and meet our driver on the other side of the gate. After getting out, we were standing next to tons of carvings of people. The people were an old Cambodian story of when warriors faced a giant snake and carried it with 54 men to slay it. There were 54 men and it was interesting to see their expressions. Most of the faces were in ruins but some were taken and restored. 

As we were about to walk through the South Gate we noticed a small walkway directly to the right.  We went right and were able to see the last statue in more detail and see the river that the road runs over.  The last statue had more than one face.  We were able to take lots of pictures than walk through the gate to meet our driver. 

Our next stop was the Bayon. Our tour guide told us that there was 49 towers in all in the Bayon. The king ordered that 49 towers should be built to represent his age. The Bayon was finished in his 49th year.  The Bayon was absolutely huge.  It was unbelievable how big the Bayon was.

When we first walked into the Bayon we were in a large courtyard there were doorways and a better view of the towers.  It was different then Angkor Wat.  It seemed less restored and more rough. 

We also learned that there were about 200 faces in all in the Bayon too. There was originally 216, but they collapsed and now about 200 remain. We were able to take lots of cool pictures of the faces everywhere. 

The Bayon was neat because we were able to walk in all the archway, walk up all the staircases and just explore everywhere.  There were some really cool awnings and some crazy steep staircases.  We weren't able to go in the highest tower, because I'm too young and you had to be 12 or older, but by this point we were all very hot and there were so many people at the top of the Bayon, so we decided to head back.  Mom and Dad said they really wanted to come back and explore the Bayon more, but we never had a chance.  I'm glad we were able to see what we did.

Cambodia: Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Welcome to one of the major highlights of our trip to Cambodia! Day one of our trip here was one of the most overwhelming of our entire trip, and honestly couldn't be topped. Today was a 4am wake up call to travel to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. I was personally worried that waking up the kids that early would be a bad idea, considering that little Monster and Little A are not morning people, but they surprisingly did so well with the early wake up. Furthermore, the hotel didn't offer breakfast that early in the morning, so we had to wait until almost 9 before we ate.  

So we feasted on memories instead! Our driver picked up the Fillmore's and us and we drove out to first go and get the tickets. The lines were insanely long, but luckily we had a hook up with our driver that made it easier. When we arrived out there we could barely seen the outline of Angkor Wat, which at first glance you can tell is absolutely huge. 

Angkor Wat means "Temple City" and has been in existence since the 12th century. It was originally constructed as a hindu themed temple, but was transitioned to a buddhist centered temple as the kingdoms religious affinity changed. You can see themes of both throughout, which was amazing. 

We decided to limit the tour length to just the highlights. We stood out at sunrise to see the sun come over the east of the ruins, which brought with it a since of serenity and peace. Everyone was so quiet and calm, just soaking in the perfect reflections on the pool and the cool air. Monster was periodically grumpy, but who can blame him. 

This sunrise was breathtaking, and for the first time my family and I looked upon something 800 years old! It was interesting because our tour guide told us that the majority of the tourist leave right after the sunrise to go home and sleep some, and sure enough it was a mass exodus of people leaving, which opened up the place for us to see. As we started to the walk the grounds, he took us down some of the outer halls, showing us the intricate stone work. The sun broke through the pillars in such a majestic way. 

It's hard to picture, here, the size of this place. It's amazing to think how many people and time it took to be build something so large and expansive!

Our tour guide would take the time to tell us little nuggets of knowledge. One of them was the search for this sacred amulet (like on Big Hero 6: The Amulet was green). In the process of stone work they  periodically would chip away stone accidentally, and then have to repair it. The legend was that they hid this sacred amulet of limitless power within the walls of the temple, and the country was overthrown again and again, different rulers would punch holes in the walls to search for the amulet.  The legend says that the amulet was finally found in this hole that our tour guide showed us.  He said that since there was a small hole that went behind the stone, it was where the amulet was hidden.  We all took turns reaching our fingers in to feel a small stone size hole.

Down the vast corridors the entire walls were carved with religious figures, in what appears to flow in a continual story, all carved by hand. Now, the areas "darkened" as you can see are areas that people have touched so many times that it was become smooth.

The halls were head to toe carved with the most intricate of designs, built to last as they have being fully exposed to the elements for 800 years!

As we rounded the halls we then came across the location where the King would arrive to the temple. I must say, kings back then (and probably kings now) have such a pride complex and a completely wrong and ridiculously perspective on life. Case in point was this: Multiple locations in the temple were for the King only. He would arrive on an elephant, his entrance would be higher than every one else, and he and only he was allowed to the go through the center of the temple into the main area, when all others had to go around, signifying his superiority and access to the temple was his alone. Barf! But it made for good pictures despite being the most incorrect and ridiculous perspective on life.  You can see here how high these elephants were to drop off the king into this entrance. 

These were the other entrances for the servants, off the side, out of sight, to remind them of their inferiority. Barf again...

As we entered into the central area of Angkor Wat, we got a chance to see perhaps the best picture we took of size comparison. On the west side of the inner temple is found the "stairway to heaven." Once again, only the King in all of his glory had sole access to this location, and representing the highest point of the temple grounds he was only allowed to be the one closest to God. Lame! The stairs were crazy steep, super thin and small, but my little rock climbers started up, and naturally, Heather went as she is in our family the nearest to the quality of King, so it was only fitting! I had little Monster on my back so that ascent didn't sound rather safe. It was amazing thing to behold, however.

From there we made our way through the rest of the temple grounds, seeing the height and expanse of decades of work that was built to last throughout time. 

Next we saw that these areas had built in baptismal fonts. There were four in this large temple, each one representing a different element of the earth. Now I know you may think that you can progress from one baptism to the other, but no, you were branded a certain element and allowed only one baptism in that font. If we were elements back then, I would put Heather as Fire because she's smoking hot, and I wouldn't mind being baptized by that fire! You can see M & M standing by these fonts, much similar to the ones we use in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only missing the authority to do so. 

So at this point we were spent and starving, so we headed out to go to one of the local restaurants to get breakfast, which was amazing! Lo and behold though, on the way out was the realization that this place is covered with monkeys, and they were cheeky! 

We seriously had the best tour guide.  He took us to amazing restaurants, he made sure we went when it wasn't crazy crowded and he would tell us the neatest things about the temples.  Our guide was Kamsan Sreng with bestangkorguide.com.  He really was so amazing and took such good care of us.  I can't praise him enough.
-Kevin