Sour sday!
There are so many things to do over here that I almost
forgot about my blog! Sorry!
But here I am with some amazing temple stories.
On International Woman’s day the 8the of march I left to
Siem Reap by boat. Siem Reap is the city near by the temples. So I started a
long weekend seeing a loooot of temples!
At 7:30 am my boat was leaving from the river side in Phnom
Penh for a 6 hours trip to Siem Reap. The view was wonderful! You could see the
life along the river, the small boats, the houses at the river side, … The time
was flying away with the sun on my face, the lovely breeze and the nice view. After
3 hours we came at the Tonlé Sap lake, the biggest lake of South East Asia. And
I have to admit … It is BIG!!! I had the feeling that I was on the sea.
Everywhere I looked I saw water.
Around 13:00 pm we slowed down to sail through the floating
villages. It’s incredible how they live over there! About 13:40 pm I was in a
tuktuk to the city center to meet Sophie (who was coming by bus) and find a
nice guest house.
The same afternoon we saw already our first temple on the Bakheng
mountain, we hoped to see a nice sunset but it was a little bit too cloudy,
anyway we saw some nice views. And … we had already a glimpse of the famous Angkor
Watt temple.
On our first day (Friday 9 march) we visited the most famous
temples. I’ll write them down in the way
we visited them, so if you want to look them up, or it can help
you when you see the pictures (below you can find the link to a few of
my pictures).
1. Preah Khan
2. Ta Prohm
3. Ta Keo
4. Bayon
5. Angkor Thom
6. Angkor Wat
Ta Prohm was the temple with all the trees around/
in/ through the walls of the temple! Really amazing to see what the
nature can do.
One of my favorites was the Bayon (the one with all the faces) this
temple was
so beautiful, I couldn’t get enough of him. So many different views,
every face
looks different!
In the afternoon we visited (and climbed) some temples in
Angkor Thom the walled city. And last but not least … Angkor Wat!! Angkor Wat
was really amazing to see, but it was pity that there were so many people. But
still it was a very beautiful temple. On Sunday I went back to Angkor Wat at
5:30 in the morning to see the sunrise!! AMAZING! After the sunrise I went in
the temple for the second time and he looked more beautiful than on Friday. The
light was different, it was so early in the morning, almost nobody … I loved
it!
On Saturday Sophie and I did other things, Sophie went to
the floating villages and the mangroves and I had a second day of temple
visiting!! The temples that I did on Saturday where a bit less famous and
further from each other so there weren’t so many people … that was much nicer!!
My motor driver wasn’t only my driver but also my guide and my photographer !
These are the names of the temples that I visited on Saturday:
1. Prasat Kravan
2. Banteay Kdei
3. Srah Srang
4. Pre Rup
5. East Mebon
6. Banteay Sambre
7. Banteay Srei (ladies temple)
Banteay Sambre was one of the temples that the king was building before
he build Angkor Watt, it was a kind of try out. These one was really nice!
The last one and the furthest one was Banteay Srei or the
ladies temple. Waw! Amazing! So beautiful, the color of the sand stone was red-
pink, the sculptures where so perfect, and beautiful, I have no words for it!
On the way back I visited the Landmine Museum of Aki Ra . It was
really shocking how many mines there were/ are here. We also stopped to see how
the people making the palm sugar and I both some delicious sweets.
Saturday night was our last night in Siem Reap so we had
some dinner and drinks (again) in Pub Street ;) where the nice Angkor What? bar
is :)
So on Sunday I woke up very early to see the sunrise after
Angkor Wat and to visit the third level of the temple. We couldn’t visit that
part on Friday because Sophie and I were too nude … :p At noon we had to take
the bus back to Phnom Penh :(
I’m really impressed by all the beautiful and amazing
temples that I saw. I’ll never forget these incredible four days!
Bye...
Angkor What? Angkor NUDE! :p