Coming in from the airport the other day was odd. It is down a long nice road that is flanked by 4 star hotels. We are staying on this road. Yesterday, we turned off this road and were on our way to the temples instantly. Never thought we'd see Siem Reap unless we went downtown on purpose. We went down towards downtown for dinner tonight. Siem Reap is nice and not at all the 'wild west' I had been told it was.
You didn't come here to read, so what pictures did we take today?
Nearly there, just one more day. These pictures are in reverse order of our day. The first temple is a mix of brick and stone, Hindu. It is much smaller, in entire size and the structures themselves. The carvings are very deep, some are almost full 'statues' with only their backs still intact, touching the structure stone that they were carved from.
The pillars are similar to those at all the other temples. Here though, we got an sense of Greek and Roman architecture as well. Ancient Aliens are obviously the only answer to any minute similarties.
Looks like the Balinese demon I had over my door for many many years. The demons in Hindu temples are way cooler than the good guys (except for Hanuman).
This temple was built a few hundred years before Wat and Thom (if we are recalling our tour facts correctly). The carvings are so deep and still stand out beautifully. Most of the carvings on all the other temples are faded/fading with bits and bops that still stand out perfectly, this one had very little fading.
I love these two pictures together, but no, I'm too lazy to GIMP-them together (photoshop-them as you may know it).
This was a hard picture to get (the one on the right) and I had been taking the same picture at a lot of places. The door ways to all the temples and cities (both Buddhist and Hindu) are oriented N/S/E/W with the doors built to give a mirror effect. It does give the double mirror - fun house effect, in person it is rad, in photos it is so-so.
Faded Buddha faces and a Mahogany(?) tree. Now dim the lights and wonder, is it safe or are the ancient spirits lurking?
Neak Pean, a man-made island was the center piece for a hospital. There are four 'fountains' at each direction, each with their own 7m by 7m pool. In the past (obviously) there were fortune tellers who would analize your astrological signs and health issues, then they would give you prayers to say and direct you to which pool's holy water you needed to bathe in....you stood in the center pool and the water from the selected pool was showered on you. But wait, there is more, the four elements, earth, wind, fire and water are vital to this process. Each pool represents a different element which will aid in your healing. Three times a day you would have your holy shower. The shower spout is the cool part. A different animal represents each element and to be blessed, the water needs to flow through the skull of each animal: horse, elephant, lion, and human. Sure, the skin, brains, lips and tounge are gone, but a human head as a shower spout isn't how I want to heal myself.
I love National Geographic's pictures. I highly suggest checking them out, my pictures are lovely representations of my time here. I also travelled light and took the pictures on my phone. This guy was not the only person to lug a tripod and big camera up here but he was bested by the camo covered 12 inch lense we saw at the Angkor Wat sunrise.
The red lichen adds a great element to the walls.
This temple (last few pictures, next few) was built by Jayavarman VII for his wife. He was the 'builder king' who built most of the temples, well, nicely asked a few million people to build them. After his wife died he married her older sister. The wife's relief image still has flowers and incense brought to it each day. Above is the relief of wife II, to get to it you have to duck down and climb over some fallen stones, I got that little taste of discovery as no other tourists were down where we were....for those five minutes.
These were little Buddhist meditation rooms. They have two small rooms within each free standing structure. The first 2m by 2m room is empty and the second has a water basin or phalic and yonic symbols, I couldn't tell which.
This started as a Buddhist temple, but was psuedo-converted to a Hindu temple. The Buddha carvings were almost all removed leaving a blank spot where they were. It reminds me of the history channel's x-ray images of the Shroud of Turin, like a ghostly Buddha had disolved back into the stone.
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