Wednesday, April 24, 2013

April 2013 Siem Reap trip : AAP 2nd day - Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei.

Ta Prohm

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Traditional musicians of the land mine victims
Now we are at our second temple of the day, which is Ta Prohm. It is built by the king Jayavarman II for his mother. For those who are not familiar with Ta Prohm, this temple is famous since for the temple used in Tomb Raider. The drop point from our tuk-tuk to the temple is quite far and we have to follow the path which is not covered in stone for walking as in Angkor Wat, I wonder how it would be like to reach here in rainy season especially after our guide told us that in rainy season it sometimes flooded on this path. On this path as well there are musician playing the traditional music, it really cools the air (as the time we reached here it was very hot) and they are not just regular musician, they are the victim of the landmine.

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Ta Prohm temple entrance - uneven floor and big trees
We were showed by our guide that the floor of the temple was uneven and this was due to the absence of drainage system at the time of making and now they are trying to make that. At the time of our visit a big part of the temple is under construction even we can't enter from the main entrance since it is closed for renovation, and the most famous point of taking pictures by the tourist is under construction as well. There are some big trees being cut too to preserve the temple. 

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Ta Prohm temple with it's huge trees
But you can still enjoy the beautiful temple, especially since the time Angkor was discovered again Ta Prohm was made to be kept in the way it was found, this is why we can still see the big tress growing around even on top of the temple, sometimes it looks like some part of the temple are being entwined by trees like an octopus or snake, or even an elephant trunk. It's like the temple is supporting the trees, but the trees are supporting the temple as well. It's really is a different experience.

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A Statue pick-a-boo behind a tree
Sadly we saw some tourist are not showing respect, they climb on top of some temples which has been restricted with rope and warnings for no climbing, not only they put them self in danger but they also show no respect. Finally after other tourist were shouting and snapping at those 2 grown up acting like children tourist to come down, finally they came down.

Banteay Srei


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Local housing
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Banteay Srei information board
Done exploring Ta Prohm we went North to Banteay Srei, it took around 45 minutes and the road going there we can actually see the local housing, paddy rice field and passing through the landmine museum. Seeing these houses we can see that humanity still works, there are signs of some of the houses are donation from personal people or humanity project for water etc. Going with tuk-tuk there and small soothing wind on our face really made me sleepy on our ride, and this is a bit dangerous, since there are no seat belts to secure our position, thankfully hubby was there to keep me safe :)

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Banteay Srei temple entrance & road path
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Banteay Srei temple
Banteay Srei is known or could be translated as the "Citadel of the Women". Why women? Because in the Khmer they believed that the women work will have the best result and the carvings at Banteay Srei are exquisite that made them assume that the women are making the carvings, but this is not really true. Banteay Srei is also known because of it's pink color stone which comes from the local stone available there, just as you can see the road path has the same color as the stones to build the temple.

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Libraries inside the temple
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Sanskrit inscription
It is not built by the king but by a counselor who was also the teacher of the king Jayavarman V. As I said before, the carvings here are exquisite, it's like every inch where they intended to carve no area is bare. There are also inscription carved in the pillars in Sanskrit (letter used in Hindu time here before Pali being used as a sign of Buddhist time) here and there are warnings not to touch the carvings to preserve it.

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Excuisite carvings in Banteay Srei
At the time when Cambodia was still in turmoil and the Khmer Rouge still exist, Banteay Srei was filled with landmines and there were crossfire happened here, you can still see some of the bullet holes causing some damage on the ruins and the carvings. But rest assured said our guide that they have cleared the landmines here now and I do believe him (but personally I won't stray away from the usual path).

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Carvings with bullet holes at crossfires
Still being in the APP complex, we don't have to pay extra fee to enter this temple, just make sure you have your AAP pass with you to show the ticket checker.

Art Center Night Market & Dinner

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Madam Sachiko's cashew nut cookies
Reaching downtown at around 6 PM we decided to go back to our hotel as it is too early to have dinner directly, wash up first then go downtown to have our dinner. But before that I ask them to make a stop at Madam Sachiko cookies, as I heard from reviews it's quite good. I finally bought a medium sized box which cost USD 10 for 20 pieces of cashew cookies. I guess it's really a tourist price.

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Art Center Night Market

After telling our tuk-tuk driver to go to the Art Center, we decided to go around first looking for our dinner place since we don't have the exact address.
We read about Ponleu Chan review at a site and was curious to try as it said to be tasty and cheap. But we just can't seem to find the place which said to be opposite of terrace des elephants and another person saying it is opposite the moon villa & spa. Gave up after looking all over for it, we finally decided to try Father's restaurant (as we remembered there were some good review as well for this place).
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Father's Restaurant
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Shrimp Fried Rice - Tofu soup
That night I was just in the mood for a normal fried rice and a plate of veggies, luckily they have what I wanted, I ordered shrimp friend rice and stir fry kailan (chinese broccoli), hubby ordered tofu soup with rice. Hubby's soup was quite ok, but that night was not my lucky night, the shrimp fried rice was a bit different from my usual fried rice, they cook it with lots of ginger so it tasted a bit funny to me
and the stir fry kailan was a bit too salty. Maybe I just didn't order the right course which suppose to be their specialty.
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Angkor Beer
But that night we finally taste the Angkor Beer which I was curious for, 1 can for both of us, it tasted ok just like bir bintang, our local beer. The dinner cost around USD 12.

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Art Center Night Market
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Art Night Market shops - Apsara painting
After dinner we decided to go around the Art Center Night Market. Mostly the goods are almost the same at each night market, you just have to bargain for the prices you wanted, but we just haven't found the Apsara painting as beautiful as the one we saw last night. I bought some scarfs there for souvenirs back home, it cost me USD 10 for 6 pieces, I ended buying 9 pieces :) They are closed at 9.30 - 10 PM, so it is almost their closing when we reached there.

After buying some mineral water bottle and bread for tomorrow trip we go back directly to the hotel exhausted but with a happy smile on our face :)

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