July 13

Siem Reap - Angkor Temples:

Banteay Srei & Taphrom

From the very beginning we knew that there was a very good chance that our final day on board the ship might be replaced by a flight because typically water levels of the Tonle River and Tonle Sap Lake are low between December and August.  I was hopeful that maybe we'd get to cruise because our ship is specifically built for the low water level, but we were told early in the week we'd be flying out of Phnom Penh today instead of cruising.  So we left the ship at 8 am, drove about 40 minutes to the airport and flew the brief 45 minute flight to Siem Reap.  

We loaded on the bus and went to lunch, then drove out to the Angkor Temples for an afternoon of exploration.   Certainly THE highlight of the two weeks will be the visit to Angkor Wat tomorrow, but today we got to see two of the smaller temple complexes.  The first was Banteay Srei which is considered by many to be the "jewel in the crown of Angkorian art."  If you google the temple complex you'll see that it is considered to have some of the finest stone carving in the world.  It's a small temple complex, but the colors in the sandstones are amazing.  The carvings and temples date back to the mid 900's AD.  

After about an hour here we loaded up for about a half an hour drive to Taphrom.  Before we left South Florida we'd checked the weather and it looked like nearly every day there would be torrential rainstorms and certainly we'd get soaked.  But so far EVERY day the rains come - and trust me they ARE torrential - but they come before or after or between our excursions.  We've been so lucky.  Today was no exception as it poured down rain as we left the airport, but by the time lunch was over the skies had cleared for our visit to Banteay Srei.  But now as we rode on the VERY bumpy dirt road to Tamphron the skies looked ominous.  Yet again, as we pulled up in the parking lot the skies parted and the sun came out.  We told that this complex is known as the "jungle temples."  And what is so astounding about them is how the banyan trees have grown right through the stones.  Unlike the first complex where we walked largely around them, here we toured in and around the complex ducking in and out of several passageways and dark corridors.  

In an interesting side note, the 2000 hit adventure film, "Tomb Raider" starring Angelina Jolie was shot here at Taphrom!  Like the first set of temples they were amazing, and we so enjoyed walking through the many passages.  And we kept remarking that as cool as today was, tomorrow promises to be even better.