After a quick lunch we proceeded to the last capital of the Khmer empire, Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is not a single temple, but an entire city; surrounded by a large moat and an 8m tall stone wall. The city walls are each 3 km long, and enclose a 9 km squared area. Each wall has a fantastic stone entrance which you drive through in order to enter the city. At the centre of the complex is the Bayon temple, a 43 m tall stone temple featuring over 39 enormous stone heads, each with 4 faces, looking in all directions. This three-tiered temple provided us with many photos. It is believed that the faces are either a portrait of the king who commissioned the complex, or a combination of his face with the face of Buddha. The temple still shows a number of intricately carved murals which were neat to explore.
The next temple in the Angkor Thom complex we visited is called Baphuon. It is a three-tiered temple which has a long causeway leading from the front of the temple past a pair of lakes to the road leading to Bayon. The Baphuon temple was recently restored, but many of the murals and other features did not survive. It provided a good view out across the complex, we took several photos, the proceeded on.
The next structure we visited is called Phimeanakas, another temple shaped as a three-tiered pyramid. We climbed to the top and took several photos, but much like Baphuon there was little in the way of sculpture or carving to experience, so we moved on to the Terrace of the Elephants.
The next stop in the tour of Angkor Thom is called the Terrace of the Elephants. This 350 metre long terrace was used by the Ankgor king to review his army after victory, and is named as such due to the large number of elephant carvings made in the foundation. Our guide also informed us that the terrace was also used to mount the elephants of the army, since it is at the correct height to reach the top of an elephant. We walked up and down the terrace and took photos of the carvings, statues and the overall structure. We also got a look at the twelve towers of Prasat Suor Prat across the royal square. Apparently the purpose of these towers has been lost to time, but they were impressive to see none the less. By this point in the afternoon we were starting to get quite hot, so we took a quick break in Bunleat’s Jeep, then left the royal city of Angkor Thom.
Our next stop was a return to Ta Prohm, also known as the Tomb Raider temple due to it’s presence in the 2001 Angelina Jolie movie of the same name. While all of the Angkorian temples had a large number of trees growing in and around them, the Ta Prohm temple is best known for the massive trees which appear to be growing out of the walls of the buildings; the roots sprawl across the temple walls and appear to engulf smaller buildings. These trees give the temple an interesting, back-to-nature sort of feel, but unfortunately the roots are slowly destroying the stonework they are growing around. The walls of the temple have a number of carvings in them, much like the other temples we visited. One carving in Ta Prohm is different from the other temples; it appears to be a stegosaurus. It is likely just a horse or a boar with leaves in the background, but it is still interesting to see. After we toured the temple Bunleat took us for a walk on a path which wandered through the jungle surrounding the temple, and after about 10 minutes of walking we came upon a large stone gate standing in the middle of the jungle. There used to be a large wall which encompassed the complex, and this gate was one of the entrances. We returned to the jeep having completed touring the last of the temples for the day.
The only part of the day that wasn’t perfect was the climate - the temperature was easily 35℃ and the humidity was close to 100%. The sun was very strong, and while we did our best to remain in the shade there was only so much we could do, and so we both got a lot of sun. We were touring temples from about 7:30 AM until about 3:30 PM, and we logged around 24,000 steps each, so it felt good to sit in the jeep for a bit and cool down after finishing up at Ta Prohm.
The tour concluded back in Siem Reap. Bunleat had arranged for us to receive foot massages, which felt fantastic after spending the day walking through the ruins of the Angkor temples. We spent an hour relaxing indoors while receiving our foot massages, then Bunleat drove us to the airport. On the drive to the airport Bunleat drove us past the front of the Angkor Wat complex to give us a final view of the structure. After taking a few last pictures, he drove us to the airport so we could catch our flight back to Bangkok.
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare; in fact we had to wait at the airport for about an hour before the gate would open. We had an uneventful flight back to Bangkok, but having spent a full day in the sun touring temples I’m sure Todd and I were both a bit gross and weren’t the most pleasant people to be sitting beside. We arrived back in Bangkok around midnight, checked back in to the GLOW Trinity Silom, and found our suitcases waiting for us. We got to the room, both had a quick shower to clean up, then fell into a deep sleep.
