Ta Prohm & around

Today we went to Ta Prohm - also known as "Tomb Raider" temple, as this is where they filmed it. It was very different to the temples we saw yesterday, with much of it still in ruins and still undergoing restoration. They are working against the clock, as the trees and roots grow through the temple stonework and the jungle tries to reclaim the land. On the one hand, it is a real shame to see the already precarious structures being damaged further but on the other hand it has a strange beauty about the place. We all really enjoyed exploring the ramshackle temples and, if it weren't for the dozens of other people milling around, we could easily have believed we had just discovered them! The first 3 photos here are from Ta Prohm.

Afterwards we went to the nearby temple complex of Banteay Kdei (photo #4). This was a better preserved site than Ta Prohm but not as well preserved as Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom that we saw yesterday. It had great long corridors of doorways, that you can see all the way through. It also has high vaulted towers between the corridors and many of these were homes to colonies of bats - which we could both smell and see! We also loved all the many brightly coloured butterflies we saw fluttering around at this site - we must have seen at least 6 different species just during one 10-minute rest stop. Slightly less welcome wildlife were the ants - we were reading an info sign and didn't notice until too late than Solana had stood in an ants nest - they were all over her foot and she got bitten several times, bless her. After much screaming, lots of cold water and a carry back to our tuk-tuk, she was OK....

We managed to see Sras Srang (photo #5), the royal bathing pool (more like a large lake!), before we headed back to town. Cambodia seems to be a big fan of hammocks, in the same vein as Costa Rica. It is interesting because we didn't see any hammocks at all in Vietnam, until we reached the Mekong area where they started to make an appearance, but here they seem much more popular. Whereas in Costa Rica there were plenty of hammocks for the tourists (as you saw from our photos), here they seem to be reserved for the locals - many of whom appear to be quite fond of a siesta! The last photo shows Solana with Sing, our tuk-tuk driver for the past 2 days - she is quite taken with him and keeps asking us where he is.

Finally, for those of you who were wondering, I have now seen my cherry tree in blossom to remind me of Springtime at home - thanks to Gemma for the photo of our garden. You can all sleep soundly in your beds tonight now!Read more