Home » Cambodia » Angkor Two: In the footsteps of tomb raiders

After the vague disappointment of Angkor Wat, did Ta Phrom live up to my high expectations? It did and more - absolutely magnificent!... The temple itself was impressive enough; mighty stone structures covered in delicate carvings of flowers and seductive 'apsaras' (heavenly nymphs), carved balustrade window frames (designed to look like wood), arched passageways, and so on. But what makes this temple such a special place is that the whole mighty construction is being slowly but inevitably reclaimed by even mightier Nature. Deceptively fragile tendrils caress the walls & buildings, slowly wrapping around them and gently fingering at the crevices, opening up the cracked stone with infinite patience. Maybe the heat got to me a little, but after an afternoon spent exploring this amazing temple, I started to get the vague impression of a moss-green hand, ancient but still devastatingly powerful. It was almost as if Nature herself was slowly reaching out, grasping at this glorious example of man's hubris and literally pulling it back down to earth. But there is no sense of malice or violence, (or even of destruction), in this gradual reclamation. Rather it's as if Nature is fondly restoring the right order, overseeing the jungle's inevitable return, to flourish amidst the ruins of an ancient empire. I couldn't help wondering which modern landmarks, (which currently seem so invincible), would one day lie in ruins, amongst which tourists would wander in the same way, thinking similar thoughts... Yes, the heat was definitely getting to me. =Pvv

Angkor Two: In the footsteps of tomb raiders

Michael Meadows
2006-11-13 10:18:26

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example, the drugs supplied by the WHO to Cambodia are often banned in Western countries due to unacceptable side effects... apparently not unacceptable when Third World kids are in question though?!). It was a sobering and depressing evening, but with a faint flicker of hope when you consider the work Kantha Bopha are doing there and elsewhere in Cambodia, (Beat was working with Cambodian kids even before the Khmer Rouge took over and shows no sign of giving up any time soon).

Day Five
The ride home was long, bumpy, uncomfortable, sweaty, dangerous and exhausting. Apart from that, it was great. =) We were lucky to pass unscathed through quite a bad accident though, along the dirt road from Siem Reap to the border. A black sedan, trying to overtake us, pulled out right into the path of an oncoming truck. Hearing the sedan's wheels lock up as its driver braked, I looked up from my book (I'm getting good at reading on even the bumpiest of public transport now!) and out the window to see the
Getting around the old way on the road to Beng Mealea
Getting around the old way on the road to Beng Mealea
head-on collision just a couple of metres away. Our driver didn't even slow, which was probably a good thing, as the entangled sedan-and-truck mess swerved wildly into our dust-trail just as we passed. It was a surreal feeling, peering out the back window, to watch the accident unfold: the truck plowed right through the sedan, crumpling the bonnet like tissue paper and pushing the car back for quite a distance, before suddenly spinning it onto the shoulder of the road. Totally out of control now, the truck swerved off the road and down into the huge pool of water that lined it. The water reached above the cab windows but, as the truck faded into the dust-blurred distance, I could make out people climbing frantically to safety and think everybody made it out. I hope so at least.

It was a sobering reminder that these uncomfortable roads can also be very dangerous. But then again, these kind of accidents can happen anywhere. And it was entirely thanks to the miserable condition of the road that it hadn't taken place at a much higher speed. At any rate, it was good to reach the Thai border, get a delicious bowl
An old care-taker wanders around the Beng Mealea, in the of som tam (spicy papaya salad - I'm hopelessly addicted), and then board a comfortable Thai government bus back to Rangsit. The time away had been good for me and it felt good to be home...

(By the way, you may have noticed some changes in the way photos are displayed on Travelblog lately. As far as I can tell, if I put up 27 photos or less, all of them will be displayed on the one main page for each entry. Any more photos, and you'll have to click a 'Next >>' button to see the rest of them. Anybody have a preference - a maximum of 27 photos up but with the convenience of having them all on one page? Or as many photos as I like, but the inconvenience of having to click for new pages to see them all? Let me know.)