Tag Archives: Temples

Sunrise

Week 49 – Temple Raiding – Siem Rep, Cambodia

‘Lord, I can’t say it in words…can you please just listen through my heart?’

[How this works is, each week, I will write to someone on my list, picked randomly and I will post it online on this blog – just in case the letter doesn’t reach its destination.  The letter includes a card with a random quote, which I hope you will enjoy (at the top of this blog page).]

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

This week has just flown by.  We’ve been raiding temples in Siem Rep, it’s like a huge temple historic park.  More temples than we could possibly cover in our time.  These are just the ones we saw – something  like 17 to 20 temples over 3 days, plus a sunrise at Angkor Wat – the biggest and most well-known.  We’ve learned that there are temples all over Cambodia, it’s just mainly concentrated in Siem Rep and surrounding area.

Phare

Phare – the Cambodian Circus

Our week didn’t start out with temple raiding, we started slowly and went out to a local physical circus troupe (Phare).  It was a high energy show.  Then we went off to some local Artisans d’Angkor to see how they are training young people in the local arts and crafts – some really nice stuff, but some of it you need to have a container to carry it.  These same artisans are the ones working on repairing a lot of the temples, so they are going to be busy for quite some time.

Artisans d'Angkor

Artisans d’Angkor

Then, we went off to a local jazz night which was nice.

Jazz Night

Jazz Night

After that, it was raiding temples time.  Don’t worry, I didn’t ‘raid’ the temples, it’s just one temple was made very famous because of a film that was done here – Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.

Te Prohm

Te Prohm Temple – Tomb Raider was filmed here

This site is really mind-boggling as to how much can be seen.  Temples are over 1000 years old! The sun rise over Angkor Wat was a beautiful way to get the day started.  We’ve, also, learned the secret juice of coconut is the best thing to drink to renew all that is lost in the heat.

coconut juice

Coconut Juice

It’s just about to be their rainy season, it’s a little late, but great for us to see these ancient sites without getting caught in the rain and mud. I can’t possibly explain all the temples I’ve seen or the history I’ve learned in this short letter, suffice it to say it’s been a joy and a real adventure (more photos of temples at end of blog).

Today we went to a temple (Ta Nei Temple) tucked away from all others and we were the only people there, so I did one of my singing videos.  It was so atmospheric!

What wild and crazy things have you done in an unfamiliar place on holiday?

Ta Nei Temple

Ta Nei Temple

Love Debx

Angkor Wat Photos:

Bayon Temple: