Temples of Angkor, Day 3 Afternoon

Srah Srang Lake -- we passed by this man-made lake (baray) the day before when we had our lunch. Horn even joked that maybe it's a swimming pool for the King. The lake was on the other side of the road from Bantay Kdei. Not much to see here, although a nice place to stop if you need a cold drink as it's lined up with stalls.

















Pre Rup -- in summary, is my (k) favorite temple!!! It was a challenging one to climb, but the sweat was worth it.

The beauty of this temple comes out early in the afternoon due to its reddish undertones brought about by the laderite/brick material that its made of. This is actually the first temple we climbed wherein we experienced vertigo when looking down. It is THAT high. There is a view of the East Mebon temple upon reaching the top of Pre Rup.

They say that it was used as a funerary temple.






















Reddish sand in Pre Rup:
















I was pretending to hang on for dear life, Pre Rup was steeeeep!!!:






















The rich detail and built of Pre Rup:
















East Mebon -- another quick stop that we took. While on this temple, you can actually imagine water all around it, as this was once built in the center of a baray. Elephants guard each corner of this temple, which are still well-preserved to this day. Also notice the character of the stones:

















Today, wooden stairs were built to go up to the temple, as the stones are probably deemed unsafe to climb.


















Ta Som - is a very small temple complex in need of restoration. We almost didn't go down to this temple since it had a very unassuming gate. Little did we know that this was one of the best temple complex we have visited and SHOULD NOT BE MISSED AT ALL COSTS!

Upon entry, we noticed that many parts of the temple have wooden supports to prevent it from collapsing. Quite noticable also are the fallen blocks that have codes written on them with white paint, probably for some future restoration...
















Rich and beautiful carvings on Ta Som:











































Ta Som is also home to some overgrown fig trees...

Me looking up a giant tree:






















The famous strangler fig of Ta Som:






















The unrestored rubble:
















Preah Khan - in our impression, is like a mini-Angkor Wat. It is a wide and flat temple that has many passages and interesting carvings.


It required us to walk for a few minutes before reaching its entrance:
















Inside Preah Khan:






























More overgrown roots:






















Detailed carvings:
















Inside this area, was an eerie silence:




































These posts used to have carvings of Buddha which were removed during Hindu re-emergence, it was where we exited:
















Phnom Bakheng -- our last stop for the day to catch the sunset
















View of Angkor Wat while on Phnom Bakheng:
















It was 5:30 in the afternoon when we climbed Phnom Bakheng. We had to hurry up the mountain to have a glimpse of the sunset. Little did we know that it was a moderate (difficult for me) hike up the temple-mountain. I have never felt my legs strain so much!!!

Phnom Bakheng is actuallly the temple wherein you have to climb with both your feet and your hands. It is IMPOSSIBLE to go up without using your hands. Just imagine your regular stairs at home, double the height, and the width cut in half. It was hard climbing up the peak because so many tourists were already sitting on the steps, or many of them already going down. It really took a great sense of balance to get to the top.



This was me, sideways, on the way down:






















Dinner - Guess what? as the Cambodians would say... SAME SAME! ;)































:)