Neak Poan temple - An ancient hospital

The previous post in this series is here..

After walking through the Ta Som temple, our next stop was a short drive away. The Neak Poan temple.. I remember it being referred to as the Prasad temple! The temple itself is a small shrine on a side hillock. What is spectacular about this is the access to get to the temple across a bridge. The landscape with lotus everywhere is surreal. It was hot and humid and I was told not to stop for photos by my darling wife. Neither one of us had caps and the sun was really beating down on us.

Once we walked past the bridge, we saw what appeared to be a submerged temple. Turns out there are four pools on four sides of the tower and each had different medicines in it that were connected to earth, wind, fire and water and depending on the ailments, folks would have to take a dip in different pool(s). There were some high profile politicians with security forces visiting this temple to light agarbaththis.. so we walked around the pools real fast and got out before any further jam.

Our driver told us that he would wait at the parking lot nearby. When we came out it took us some time to find him. Then we told him that we needed a chai break. There were a few dhaba looking restaurants in the parking lot. So he managed to get hot water in one of those places. We paid them 2 bucks for the hot water and cups and they were happy to watch us make ginger tea and drink. Everyone at the restaurant spoke fluent English! There was a rooster making a racket where we were drinking tea that made this session memorable..

Here is a video highlight reel..

we had no clue that the temple was the four pools when walking through. There were no boards to explain this at the temple or we missed it! Had to come back to the hotel to wiki and understand what it was all about..

The reflections of the towers in the four pools were amazing.. I love reflections. got a lot of nice photos..

After chai we were recharged. So we told Saruk we were ready for the next temple…

The temple that kept going - Ta Som

Previous post in this series is here..

It was almost 4 PM. We had visited six places since morning. Given our schedule, our driver told us we had three more temples to see before sunset.

The next temple stop was back in the Agnkor complex or close to it. The Ta Som temple built by Jayavarman VII who appeased both Hindus and Buddhists by building temples for both. This one was a Hindu temple and kept going.. from one entrance to the other we walked past at least a dozen doorways and corridors.

At some point when it was a functioning temple, this must have been like the Aavudaiyaar kovil we saw in Tamilnadu two years ago. Just magnificent.

Our drivers artistic photography was taking a hit by now. We were tired. San managed the occasional smile. I could not carry my heavy SLR anymore and took only my iPhone with me. Not a lot of photos but the video tells you everything. Most of the temple was shaded and that was a big plus. We walked all the way to the other end to see the 4 headed Brahma on the gate and walked back.

Our driver had the right concept for this one.. he just had to get more depth to get me in focus instead fo the web.. still I give him A+ for effort..

The video highlight reel.. (the photos really don’t show the grandeur of the temple in terms of distance).

After this we were off to another temple…. the temples, they kept on coming..

Banteay Srei temple - a beauty that was ahead of the big temple by 50 years

The previous post in this series is here..

After our epic romantic lunch, we drove a short distance downhill to reach the Banteay Srei temple. This temple predates the Tanjore big temple by 50 years! It is a Hindu temple with a beautiful moat and carvings with separate shrines for most of the main deities. Sadly the French dismantled most of it and took it to France.. what is left is a fraction of the original temple and is still mind blowing. Humans don’t know how to leave a magnificent creation the way it is. Religiion, language, culture wars take a toll on beauty.

We walked around the temple. It was hot already. The restrooms here were really well maintained. The staff friendly but firm in enforcing people stay within the ropes. Was thinking “isn’t this a too little too late!”

Sarak of course was practicing photography the entire time. I should have spent more time teaching him how to use portrait mode better.. would have had more good pictures. In any case here are the photos..

after we had taken a portrait at every door frame and window frame we told our driver, all the pictures are starting to look the same. So we can finish this location and move. We did get to see the moon rise over the temple top when we went all the way to the back of the temple. It was beautiful!!

after the temple we drove past a market to our next stop. I got fresh roasted local cashews. They were amazing. San got jackfruit which she kept eating through the rest of the trip. I am very allergic to it so when she gets it already in a sealed pouch, I cannot complain. Just told her not to keep it in my suitcase and all will be well. Then she ate fresh palm cakes with jaggery and kept raving about it for the next two days. Apparently this is not something even the locals can make at home. They just buy it in bulk in the market.

The video highlights reel.. the interesting part is the way rice is harvested.. hopefully more desi kids see this so they know how rice gets to their plate the way it does!

Then we went towards our next stop. The sun was up and it was hot and humid. We had already seen 6 locations since 7AM. We were getting tired, but weren’t going to give up. So we tredged on..