portrait

Tomb raider - Ta Prohm temple .. where the roots take over

Previous post in this series is here..

The sun was still coming out and we had already finished the Bayon temple. We drove past the elephant terrace where the elephant stables were and on to Ta Prohm temple.. aka Tomb Raider temple. The giant roots that take over the ruins of this temple are famous. We used to play a game in the early days of iPhone games where we had to run through the ruins of this temple and collect gold coins. It was called Temple Run.. while the adults used to huff and puff and struggle to get 1000 points, the little one who was probably 3 or 4 at that time would casually grab the phone and hit 100000 points and show it and go “what is the big deal?” We would all stare at it in disbelief.. We were thinking of our not so little one when visiting this temple.

The roots and ruins make an amazing backdrop. We also stopped by the victory gate if I remember it right and took pictures (including Yoga pics). Our driver was okay with me doing yoga poses as long as there was no risk. He also practiced some new techniques we had discussed.. I hope my suggested additions to his tool kit come in handy for future tourists.. The picture below was his idea..

Then he showed me a new trick.. made us walk through the temple and he took a pano shot.. froze in the middle and asked us to walk out and pose again on the other side.. now I have something added to my photo tool kit!

The photo galleries below. Yet again, these photos and videos do not capture the way nature has taken over mans creation when abandoned even for a few hundred years.. we as humans are insignificant.

Portraits gallery. Our driver was right.. This was magnificent and breathtaking like the Bayon temple and at places more interesting..

A video highlight reel..

After we finished this temple, we had one more temple to visit before hitting Angkor Wat. Given our speed, Saruk suggested we go see a bun tea kadai.. so I was thinking we were going to a shop to have some bun and tea and then go see a temple. I was in for a surprise.. that in the next post..

The magnificent Bayon temple at sunrise

When Brahma or Buddha or Shiva or Vishnu closes one door, he opens another..

The previous post in this series is here..

Our driver was good. He took us super fast to the south gate at Angkor Thom complex to see the sunrise above the forest and hit the statutes at the gate. It was an amazing experience. Got a lot of good pictures and got a timelapse of the sun coming up above the forest!

Then there was the short drive to Bayon temple. Every tower had faces of buddha on all four sides and there were 50+ towers. What a temple. What magnificence. There were buddhist monks still praying early in the morning.

Happy with the pictures but you have to be there to see it in all its grandeur. There is also a set of pictures of San that made my day while editing.. it reminded me of the little one from an earlier time..

The photo gallery in portrait format..

landscape gallery

A video highlights reel of this part of the trip..

Thoroughly enjoyed the sunrise over the forest and the light show in Bayon temple.. It was still early morning and our driver said it was time to go visit one more major temple in the area before the crowds moved in, and then we could go to Angkor Wat temple for the tour.

He said it would be “better” and that piqued our interest.. Better than this?! That in the next post.. There are 500+ photos from that stop.. will work on them tomorrow.

Watching the sunset atop the Pre Rup temple

The previous post in this series is here..

Our last tourist stop for the evening was the Pre Rup Temple. A magnificent temple built for Shiva worshipped as the god of death. A place where the royals were cremated at the base of the temple. The sunsets facing the temple. There are four shrines on each side with lingas. Our driver had already mentally composed the shot he was going to take with me doing yoga in front of Shiva with the setting sun in the background.. trying to bring all three together needed some angles and calculations in a narrow time window. He already hyped me for the sunset. San kept rolling her eyes as she knew that Saruk was mentioning all my drugs in one sentence.. yoga, sunset, photography, shiva.. she warned me that this had the potential to be a big disappointment..

We were driving fast and Saruk said the only way we make it to the top is if we went through the side entrance. So off we went. There was a person checking our tickets but no crowd. We walked up to the temple and saw each stairs was a foot or more in height and there were more than a 100 steps to climb.. machchu pichchu style.. San rolled her eyes again, but the Wagh Bakri chai was still flowing and with my SLR back on my shoulder, started climbing up the stairs. We made it in time for me to do a timelapse video of the sunset, Saruk to try his yogagraphy (he should have gone wide but got an A+ for effort again) and walk back down right when it was starting to get dark.

A video highlights reel..

Our sightseeing for the day was almost over. We were going to go back towards our hotel but stop in the night market area for us to find food. . .