Stepping into another world: Preah Khan

As far as the temple experience went while in Angkor, Preah Khan was the best. It was my last day around the temples and after going to sunrise at Angkor Wat (a dismal failure) I went straight to Preah Khan, arriving about 7 am. The amazing part was that I spent 30 or more minutes wandering around the ruins: under arches, along dead-end corridors, looking through windows and endless doorways and being amazed at some of the spectacular carvings; all alone. There was not another person in the complex, not even the workers had arrived at that stage.

The ruins were splattered with blotches of white, light green and pink courtesy of the lichen growing on them while is dark corners there was patches of bright green - moss this time. Even other tourists arrived as I started to head back out. It was breakfast time!

Closely followed by . . . . . . Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom is an even more vast complex than Ta Prohm. It consists of a number of temples and terraces and even pools for the residents to bathe in hundreds of years ago. In between the souvenir stands and the hawkers trying to sell you silk scarves and bamboo flutes, the carvings on the structures are stunning and very ornate. The centrepiece in Bayon Temple, which is featured later.

The first three photos are off the Terrace of the Leper Kings, probably more aptly called a wall. But not just any wall, rather one that is covered in carved figures and carved faces. The next two photos are two of my favourites from the whole trip.




Bayon Temple could be better titled the "Temple of Heads". Once you head up the steps towards the centre and higher up part of the temple, there are faces looking at you from all directions - not the moving faces of the fellow tourists but rather the 173 that adorn the stone towers. Looking down, they face the four cardinal points. It is a bizarre, yet completely fascinating place. I went there twice and could still have gone back again. Se some of the faces and heads below -:

My favourite: Ta Prohm or the Jungle Temple

Ta Prohm is a wonderfully atmospheric place where the jungle trees are trying to take back over the land that in the 12th and 13th centuries was used as a place to build this rambling Buddhist temple complex. Tree roots climb over stone walls, surround doorways and push their way through crack in the walls. Further evidence of the age of the place (and the jungle humidity), is the splattering of pale link and light green on the rocks and stones courtesy of the thriving lichen. Follow the meandering corridors and get lost or retrace your steps after a pile of rocks block the way. Not surprising that is was used as the eerie backdrop for the Tomb Raider movie.

Here are some photos to show you why -:

Angkor Wat

This is what draws everyone to Siem Reap and the Angkor complex but it is definitely not my favourite temple complex there. It is spectacular both at sunrise and sunset but there are hordes of people. Considering I was there in low season I dread to think what it is like in high season.

The best time to go inside is straight after sunrise when hardly anyone is there as all the sunrise watchers go back to their hotels for breakfast. It was so quiet, serene as the sunlight gradually lights ups the walls and carvings.

Anyway, here are a few photos.

Oops . . .. an update

As I was so kindly reminded today in an email, I haven't added anything to my blog recently. The reasons:
1. at present at a workshop in Hong Kong for work - hopefully if I take some photos tonight and tomorrow then I will add them to my blog
2. Ten days ago I got back from a week in Cambodia - Siem Reap actually where I got to see lots of the temples of Angkor and took lots of photos, of course. When I was there I had trouble with internet access on my laptop, hence couldn't add any entries while I was there
3. Then in between, I arrived back from Cambodia late Saturday, had work on Sunday then Monday was a holiday but spent most of my time doing an online course that I was behind , then school Tuesday and Wednesday before leaving late Wednesday night to fly to Hong Kong (actually early Thursday morning).

So fingers crossed I will manage some entries soon!!

National Martys Monument in Savar

On the way to Dhamrai, we stopped to visit the National Martyrs Monument at Savar. It is a towering, concrete pyramid-like structure built to honour those who died in the fight for Bangladesh independence in 1971. More than 3 million Bangladeshis gave their life and today the monumnet is a place of reverence for them especially since there are mass graves for the unnamed victims located there.


It has a very neat and trim garden - an unusual sight in Bangladesh. Only the canal crimson water lilies were blooming.

Back to Dhamrai - Again.

For the third time, I think, I went on a visit to Dhamrai, a small Hindu village outside Dhaka where they make brass objects using the traditional lost wax method.
Here the earthen cast is being removed from one of the objects.


The other good thing when we saw when wandering around the village was the women in their brightly coloured saris moving the rice around and walking on the rice to help dry it. Oh SO photogenic.





Then on top of that there was a Hindu Temple as well with the opportunity to see traditional village life.
Here is the rickshaw repair shop.