cambodia

As the plane landed at the Siem Reap international airport my first impression of Cambodia was a fantastic one.The airport, in my opinion was truly unique and I knew I wasn't nuts to go gaga over an airport since several co-passengers promptly whipped out their cameras to click away! That afternoon we went to the Angkor wat and explored the site till sunset. Although i can go on about each of the temples of Angkor for hours, I have no doubt that my skill with words is insufficient to do it justice. The temples are something that need to be experienced...not something that i can describe. Watching the sunset at Angkor wat ....sigh....simply put - breathtaking! After a wonderful meal(no we didnt try the spiders!) at bar street (?i think!) we called it a day. The next morning we drove down to Phnom kulen - which in Khmer means mountain and saw the 1000 lingas.... quite unique, and the waterfalls nearby is quite the picnic spot for locals! The next stop was Bantei Serai -the woman's temple - a temple with carvings so exquisite the khmer people believe they could have been carved only by the dainty hands of a woman....A quick pit stop at Pre Rup with a climb up the steep steps (since your ascending to the heavens its only right that you earn it!) was truly worth it since from the top you get spectacular views of the temple as well as the surrounding landscape....the temple itself made of lavastone and sandstone glows almost red in the evening sun.The next temple in store for us was Ta Prohm a.k.a Tomb raider temple. The temple had been left to the mercy of the jungle for a while until they finally cleared it up to enable tourists to visit. The large Spung trees which are hollow on the insidide have literally grown on top of the temple and its tower the roots seeping into joints between stones. Although they have tried to clear the temple it is not possible to remove many of the trees as they have woven their roots so firmly in place that any attempt to remove them can cause the whole structure to collapse. At sunset we made a visit to Angkor Thom where i obsessively took pictures of every one of the 216 faces of Brahma at Bayon:) Quite a good looking guy I must say! The next day we spent the morning at Beng Milai which is named after a tree of the same name.. This is like a bigger and better version of Ta Prohm. The jungle has truly overrun the temple and many towers and other structures have crumbled to the ground...to make your way through the temple from below to the highest points and backout the other side you have to climb over piles and piles of stone blocks that have collapsed... it truly is an Indiana Jones experience and i thoroughly enjoyd myself. The journey through really lets you get upclose and personal with (what remains of) the temple and the jungle that seems to be fighting a battle with it. Landmines in the region were cleared just a couple of months before our visit (lucky us!). We went back for another look at angkor thom in the evening and I took another bout of pictures ofeach of the 216 Brahma faces :). Siemp Reap is one of the best experiences I have ever had and even as the flight landed in Phnom Penh (our next destination) my soul craved the company of the great Angkor temples. The sheer scale of the temples along with amazingly intricate carvings and all the history that stands behind it made them unforgettable. Even now if I close my eyes and i breathe in deeply I can almost smell the air that flows through the vens of the Angkor temples - ALMOST!! Cambodia was absolutely and completely amazing!!!! The people - so friendly!! always a smile on their face :) ....all in all truly fantastic!! sigh....I LOVED IT!!!!