Kompong Cham to Siem Reap and Ta Prohm Temple
Early this morning, we set out our luggage and said goodbye to the beautiful ship that has become our home over the last week. Although the crew will stay aboard and move again downriver toward My Tho, we continue our expedition elsewhere. As the buses pulled away from the dock, the lovely crew, to whom we have become so attached, bowed and waved us on to our next destination.
We drove from the city of Kompong Cham toward Siem Reap, where we will spend the next few days. Along the journey, we passed multitudes of rice paddies, mostly all dry, which were harvested at the end of last year. The remaining straw is left a bit to decay, burned for compost, and also collected into large piles alongside nearly every house that we passed. We also saw incredible rubber plantations, with perfectly even rows of trees stretching for miles to the horizon.
As we neared the southern end of Tonle Sap Lake and crossed over the river, we began to notice that the cattle we were so used to seeing in the central and southern parts of the country were replaced by lumbering, gray water buffalo. These hardy and reliable animals are perfectly suited for environments dependent upon large amounts of water. Their wide hooves and sturdy stance make them excellent resources for the production of rice. Traditional houses and homes lined the highway and the majority of the locals seemed to be making their living off of the agricultural resources in the floodplain of the great lake.
We arrived to Siem Reap in the early afternoon, just in time for a short siesta at our beautiful hotel, La Résidence d’Angkor. Our afternoon excursion took us to what is perhaps the most atmospheric of the Angkor Temples, Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm was built by King Jayavarman VII for his family in the 12th century, and remains to this day one of the most beautiful examples of Angkorian architecture. Enormous trees of many varieties have taken root in the stones of the vast temple complex and now dwarf the structures that were once thought to exemplify the king’s power and glory.
We wandered around in the beautiful, soft afternoon light, enjoying exploring the fallen stones and existing walls of the current structure. Laterite, covered in sandstone, forms the basis for the temple and its outlying walls.
This evening, we returned to the hotel for a lovely dinner at the BBQ Restaurant Terrace, in the courtyard of the hotel. Candlelight, conversation, and Khmer cuisine were the highlights of the evening. Ta Prohm was such a fitting way to begin our forays into the vast Angkorian Empire, as it has been left much as it was when rediscovered by the French in the middle of the 19th century. It is a good reminder of the fact that nothing stands in the way of nature. Even the massive monuments of the incredible Khmer people were overtaken by the jungle for hundreds and hundreds of years.
