I hope so, as I still have a few more to share....
Built around 1190 AD by King Jayavarman VII, Bayon is a Buddhist temple, but it incorporates elements of Hindu cosmology... and is famous for its massive, serene stone faces.
Do you see what I did here? Faces? Can you face more photos? Never mind...
Bayon Temple
The temple is also known for two impressive sets of bas-reliefs, which present an unusual combination of mythological, historical, and mundane scenes.
A scene depicting a naval battle
Fishing scene
A Ray of Light - smoke from the incense burners, reflecting the sunlight
It should not be forgotten that the temples are still places of worship for devout Cambodians.
Hope they don't mind all these annoying tourists!
To conclude my series of Cambodian temple scenes, here are a few more photographs of Angkor Wat temple, that I showed in an earlier post on here.
These are all words that sprung to my mind when exploring the jungle temple of Ta Prohm, by far my favourite of the temples around Siem Reap. Unlike most of the temples of Angkor, Ta Prohm has been largely left to the clutches of the living jungle, making it a dynamic interaction between Nature and man-made works of art, and a photographer's dream location.....
Construction on Ta Prohm began in 1186 AD. Originally known as Rajavihara (Monastery of the King), it was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother of King Jayavarman VII. Sadly, Ta Prohm was looted quite heavily in recent years due to its relative isolation, and many of its ancient stone reliquaries have been lost.
Visitors to Ta Prohm can't help but feel a little like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft (which was filmed here) as they pick through the rubble of the ruins....
We tacked a two-day excursion to the Angkor Wat temples at Siem Reap onto the end of our tour of Vietnam in April, flying there directly from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It’s a very popular route with travellers, so anyone planning on making this trip should book their flights well in advance, and get to the airport in good time as the flights are almost always overbooked.
The guide books warn you to avoid Angkor Wat during the months of March to May, unless you enjoy spending huge amounts of time in steam rooms. They use descriptions like ‘stifling heat’ and ‘sapping humidity’. They are not exaggerating! I grew up in a hot, tropical country and I have visited a few more in my time, but I can safely say that during those months, Cambodia has the hottest, stickiest, most uncomfortable climate that I have ever experienced. On the plus side, at least it was not raining.
Given the unpleasant conditions, we should have more or less had the place to ourselves.... but we hadn't realised that our trip coincided with the Khmer and Thai New Year festivities. Or that Thailand's fugitive former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, would be holding a mass rally for his "Red Shirt" supporters in Siem Reap that weekend.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra - Photo source
An estimated 50,000 Red Shirts made the pilgrimage from Thailand to Siem Reap to catch a glimpse of the one-time premier, who has been living in a kind of self-imposed exile for years. As a gesture of friendship, the Red Shirts were all given free admission to Angkor Wat by the Cambodian authorities.... all 50,000 of them!
To be honest, I am not particularly clued up when it comes to the politics of the situation... all I know is, Siem Reap was heaving!
And that security was very tight.....
And that loads of people wearing red shirts can really spoil photographs of ancient temples! It was already a huge challenge just trying to capture the temples, without passing out from heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Angkor Wat is one of those places that I had included on my bucket list of Places I Hope To See Before I Die. Looking back on the experience now, I think perhaps I did not truely appreciate the magnificent temples. The intense heat, the crowds, my tiredness after a fortnight of touring Vietnam and the slightly 'edgy vibe' in Siem Reap just got to me that weekend.
Angkor Wat
The inspiration for the title to this blog post is Kim Wilde's "Flying to Cambodia"... I absolutely loved this song as a teenager (and still have it on my ipod today). Cambodia seemed such a mysterious, secretive place, almost fictional. I was blissfully ignorant of the country's tragic, and still so recent, past...
You can read more about Cambodia's history over here.
I will post more photos on the temples shortly. This post is just to set the scene for my time in Cambodia...
Three years on, and astonishingly, I'm still regularly knocking out this complete drivel highly intellectual, thought-provoking prose, as well as the odd photo or two.
I've racked up 372 posts, had around 10,000 views of my blog and received over 2,000 comments. A huge thank you to my fabulous readers! I hope that you will stick around in 2012, as I have quite a few things in store....
Most excitingly, I plan to travel as much as possible. So far, I am booked to go to Lille (North France) for a weekend break later this month, then there's the biggie of 2012 - the fortnight in Vietnam and Cambodia in April, plus a short break in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in June... to take advantage of the Diamond Jubilee weekend. Yes, she's giving us a holiday... 'cause she can!
God save our gracious Queen! Thanks for our 4-day weeeekend! God save our Queen!
Wonder if that counts as treason? If not and I'm still a free woman in October, there are plans afoot for a trip to New England and Canada to coincide with the autumn (sorry, I mean Fall!) foliage. We shall see...
This year I am determined to shift some weight by making some permanent lifestyle changes.... such a New Year cliche, right? Never fear, faithful readers, I will not be boring you with nonstop, tedious calorie-counting tales, but I may be sharing some new low-fat-but-still-easy-and-delicious recipes.
Otherwise, expect the usual, completely random nonsense that a year in the life of Nat brings....
Hang in there dear readers.... there's loads more still to come!
