Temple Trekking in Cambodia….Ta Prohm

We took our guides advice and went to this temple first in hopes of not meeting as many tourists.  We beat a whole lot of tuk tuks on the way out…..

Ta Prohm was built in the 12^th century but had been abandoned for centuries before it was discovered, having  become almost part of the jungle. It seems there are two suggestions as to why there had been no attempt to clear out the trees…….1)it is more emotive and 2) the buildings would totally collapse if they were removed….

I think I believe the second!

Same tree around the other side! 

This is apparently the tree which featured in Tomb Raider, a film with Angelina Jolie.  We wouldn't know as unfortunately we haven’t seen the film……... but will probably do so now!

Its amazing to see how the roots have intertwined everywhere with the buildings

 some, indeed, needed to be propped up….

 and one can see how they have been involved in the collapse of some….

The interior construction of the temple is interesting…….

Some of the buildings have either been reconstructed or remained intact.

There is however still an enormous amount of work to be done, as some of the buildings look in imminent danger of collapse…...

On exiting the temple grounds we were immediately surrounded by souvenir sellers….. we learnt to immediately say ‘NO’ otherwise we would be followed and hassled to buy…..anything

One sunset to another ….Thailand to Cambodia.

Unfortunately our month in Koh Samui came to an end and we had to move on…..but not before another great sunset on 'our' beach….

then on to Bangkok and Siem Reap…….

Traffic on the road into Siem Reap from the airport was not as chaotic as on Samui….

We checked into our hotel the Pavillon d'Orient….. who provided us with a car (and driver!) and english speaking guide for our time there……...

  We had a great pool just outside our window…..

 however I chose to have a quick swim in their smaller pool, before rushing out ..…..

……..to climb a hill and then a temple, Phnom Bakheng………to see another sunset! This is one of the oldest mountain temples in the area, from the late 9th century.We had to walk quite quickly as they only allowed a certain number of people to climb the temple each evening…..

Our first glimpse of the temple after a 20 minute uphill walk…..

We were happy to make it past the entry point...

these monks were not hurrying, presumably because they would be allowed up in any case….

we were not alone…..

 and were happy to finally arrive at the temple on  top…..

 and, of course, the monks followed us!

The view from the top was fantastic…….

But it was quite a steep trip down…...

We had a reservation for dinner at Cuisine Wat Damnak a restaurant opened by a french chef……

This was a superb meal and we can absolutely recommend this restaurant.

 They had just 2 tasting menus but allowed us to choose fish dishes from either….

 prawn and tiger eggplant salad...

 red snapper fillet...

Sanday fish with green mango…...

 and we did not resist the dessert, white chocolate granache with fresh mango. After all we had just spent an month without any dessert at all (apart from KitKats from the local Tesco!)