Lets start this day with waking up early, have a shower and breakfast and wait for my next booked trip. While waiting I had time to say goodbye to the people from yesterdays tour and the hostel I stayed. After they left, the tour company picked me up. We drove to their office, only to find out I was the only costumer that day. Private tour and guide for me it is then! While we drove towards Angkor Wat we talked a bit and I got some more insights about politics, past and culture from Cambodia. Our first stop was at East Baray. This was quite a big temple. I love the doorframes. They look like the stone version of the frames you would put paintings in. There were two small buildings inside at each side. They used them from cremation of their dead people. In the middle was a small square with a high steep stair to the square on top of the temple. I dont have to tell you how stunnings the views are from this heights. The top platform is decorated with beautiful towers. This visit took about half an hour and we drove off to the next stop, Eastern Mebon. Compared to the other temples this one isnt high. The greatest part of this temple for me is the 8 stone elephant statues that are placed in each corner on two levels. Very nicely decorated. Apart from that this temple hadnt much to offer, so we only spend about 20 minutes. During our drive to the next temple I asked the guide about Koh Ker. This was something I wanted to visit in Cambodia but.. the cheapest I could find online was 100 dollar. Which seems a lot in this poor country. He asked me if I wanted to go there and called his agency for a cheap price, since I was alone with him. They agreed on 50 dollar, 15 dollar entrance included.
But first we had to continue the normal tour. We drove towards the next temple, Preah Khan. This one was another beauty in the way I like them. A massive temple hidden in the jungle, this used to be for the samurai and had samurai swords inside, well.. a long time ago that was. I loved exploring this temple with all its dark hallways, its ruined state while being overgrown by the jungle trees. In the middle there was a stone statue and if you look from the right direction the sunlight makes it look like a torch! I spend around an hour here and could spend easily all day. Reality is that we had to see a lot more so on the way to the next stop, the temple of women, Bantaey Srei. This one was build for and by women. I must say this is a masterpiece left in a perfect state, the decorations in here is from another level. The whole temple complex is in a dark red color. Honestly it looks almost to good to be real, like a postcard but sadly enough full of tourists. This was a wonderful ending from the normal tour I booked!
Now its time for the extra part. This is a 100km ride away from Angkor Wat and Siem Reap. We drove thru the countyside which was a wonderful experience. All those people living in their bamboo huts, the beautiful green nature, farmer life,.. I dont mind driving 100km at all with these views. Halfway we stopped at the ticketoffice where I bought the tickets. Its quite strange, they dont sell tickets at the temple entrances. The ticket office looks like a gasstation shop next to the highway but only sell tickets. Just behind it we stopped at a local restaurant to grab some local food. Half an hour later we continued. Since we were only half way I had a lots of beautiful sights to enjoy along the way. The road changed in a sandroad and I knew we were getting close to Koh Ker. I really wanted to see this place but gave up hope with those internet prices and never expected to see it but here I was! At the Koh Ker entrance. The first impression was pretty ruined. Wooden pathways because the king visited last week. All pictured of statues but all of them long gone but still a mysterious way to the main thing and there it was, the first glimps between the trees on the thing I loved to see. Koh Ker aka Thom Temple. This is a temple looking like a step pyramid in the middle of the jungle of Cambodia.
The great thing about this pyramid is that there are no tourists at all. My guide asked if I wanted to climb the pyramid, ofcourse! He wasn't up for the climb and told me I could go by myself. I walked towards this lovely structure and pass 3 Cambodian people, the girl asks if she can have a picture with me. She took about 10 pictures with me and thanked me for it. Funny because it was as fun for me as it was for her. I walked to the back of the pyramid and climbed the wooden stairs all the way to the top. I understand why the guide didn't feel like it, this was an effort in this heat. The original stairs were in the front but the tourism of climbing them completly destroyed them so they made this wooden structure. The view at the top is unreal, such beauty, everywhere I can see as far as I can see, just trees and jungle. Loved this view. There were also two Cambodian men at the top, they asked where I was from and welcomed me in Cambodia. Super friendly people. I climb my way back down and walk to the guide, its there that I noticed this place is full of malaria mosquitos. Since I'm saving my malaria pills for later, I didn't feel very safe with them around me. We walked back thru the ruins to the car, took a short toilet stop. I meet the same girl from the pictures there and we had a small talk until my guide was back.
We started driving and a little further we go offroad and end up at another magical place, Pram Temple. This is a small temple, basicly 5 towers but in a very mysterious condition. We were the only people here, surrounded by jungle and those 5 towers are completly overgrown by trees and jungle. There is not much to see but what there is to see is just magical. The stuff for video games, adventure movies,.. I keep stumbling on very unique and special places. I climbed a bit of the trees growing on the buildings, had a look inside and got a free photoshoot from the guide. I only spend 20 minutes here but its been worth every second. Since its also full of the malaria monsters we went back to the car.
We drove halfway back to Siem Reap to stop at our last destination, Prasat Beng Mealea. I'm sure this name doesn't ring a bell for any of you but most of you have seen him. This is the Temple of Doom from the Indiana Jones movie. I didn't know I was going to see this temple and thats how I meet 2 Indiana Jones movie temples on my travel. This is a big temple hidden in/under the trees. He used to be in the same state as Angkor Wat 15 years ago but he now he collapesed for a big part and has been ruined covered with trees. Its sad for the building but it made it more mysterious for me. We climbed a bit of the entrance, walked around to walk inside a small door opening into a dark hallway, just wonderful! After that we end up in the square in the middle, I needed to stay on a wooden walking path because of the bad state but even then its full of wonderful ruined views. I'm not sure but a part of this temple was also used in Tomb Raider, they released 2 tigers in this temple for a movie. Don't know if it was Indiana Jones of Tomb Raider. I will have to watch both movies when I get back home. Anyway visiting this magical temple took more then an hour and was a perfect ending of my exploring day. We decided to drive back to Siem Reap after this because darkness was slowly falling and so as my energy level. We had some interesting talks about Cambodia until he dropped me off at my hostel, time to close my eyes and wake up tomorrow to a new destination.
I am running behind with my blog stories and I'm already more then 1000km away from Siem Reap but life has been busy and I hope I can keep up with this stories.
This was my experience, until the next one folks! :D
