Hidden Temples of Angkor Wat: A Mysterious Journey

Yeah, it's when your tire goes a little bit flat. Your tire goes a little bit flat. Yeah. There, the guy there puts the air in from the tuk-tuk over here. So see that's also a tuk-tuk. So that's quite incredible. Good morning from Midlife Travel Tales. We're on our second day. What's it today called? The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour. So it's a whole different bunch of temples. And this is our first stop. And the name of the temple is, is Pri Roop Temple. And it was built in the mid-10th century. And it started off as a Hindu temple. Well, it is a Hindu temple. This was primarily a Hindu temple from the mid-10th century. That is a thousand years old. Look at this place. This is insane. Absolutely insane. How impressive this temple is. Pri Roop. Every time you think you've seen enough temples, you come across one. And then it's just amazing. The temple steps. And there's Cindy there. And the whole temple spread out before us. And here we are with the lovely carvings and symbols. More carvings. And then you come here. And look at that. Looks like lions on the side. The temple stretching up. There's a lion here. And these three lions guarding the entrance up here. It's so spectacular. You wouldn't believe it. Absolutely. So we found the remains of a statue. Two little feet. Or two big feet. Quite incredible. Mee Bon temple. Also built in the 10th century. By the same king as the previous temple. Also a Hindu temple. So there's Cindy. She really loved the previous temple. Wandered around it by herself. Got her moment of silence away from her husband. Where the previous temple seemed to have magnificent lions. This temple seems to have some beautiful elephants. Bit scared to go in front. Stand right by the side of the wall. Don't want to fall off. It even looks like he's got some tree or some grass in his trunk. The way it's grown. It is just amazing. So blessed to be here. Mahani, how are you doing today so far? You got a bit tired at the end of yesterday. Well yesterday we saw, I think we saw what? About eight temples. Eight or nine temples. Yeah. And today we're on our third one. So, so far so good. You're hanging in there. We'll probably do a coffee break after this. Yeah, we'll definitely do a coffee break after this. But these temples seem to be quite close to the road than yesterday. Somewhere yesterday we had to walk for miles to get to the temple. Yeah, these ones seem quite close. And this one we're at now is called the Taosom Temple. Taosom Temple. It is the late 12th century. It is a Buddhist temple. And so let's go and have a look. You can immediately see the difference in styles between the 10th century Hindu temples and this late 12th century Buddhist temple. Quite interesting the difference in styles. Just as we're walking in we're noticing the intricacy on the on the walls of the entrance. Just absolutely beautiful. This particular temple Cindy was just telling me was in ruins from about the 14th century, eh Mahani? And just left in ruins for many many centuries. Just look at these carvings, quite incredible. So at the exit on the gatehouses often and sometimes on the temples you see the four faces facing the four different directions and they we believe it's like watches, like guards guarding the temple, keeping watch making sure everything stays out. But absolutely I love them. I love all the carvings. Hey Mahani, love all the carvings. Love all the elephants and the tigers and the intricate carvings. Like even here just below that I'm looking at the face and there's just some more beautiful carvings here. Just quite sad in a way. Not neglected by the day. You can see they're getting less and less. Wow look at the entrance to the the temple here with the tree and everything growing over here. This is quite incredible. Every time you think you've seen more of the temple you see something more, more and more and more. We're at Nekphoen temple. It's also a Buddhist temple and it was built in the 12th century and it's out on an island so it looks really beautiful. Cindy just getting her tickets checked. So we're starting to encounter the crowds but this temple's built on an island in the middle of the lake. There's Cindy with the umbrella. I think she's the only clever one. No one else has got umbrellas. Hey Mahani, you're the only clever one. And it really is beautiful. It's built in the lilies here and all on this side. Look at that. The little white flowers, the pink flowers, the trees. Wow this is lovely, hey? No, it's just a lake or a dam that they've built. It's amazing, hey? We've come across the bridge, across the lake and there's people making offerings at this little in here. You can see the offerings, the incense being burnt and the offerings. Something in here. There we go. There's a little temple, part of the temple sitting in the middle of the lake and look how beautiful it is. There's a lot of people around here. It's Sunday. I think a lot of the Cambodians are also looking at things. There it is being on the water. When they're playing the music, they're victims of landmine abuse as well. So we're at Prekhon temple. We believe it's quite a big temple complex. It's also built in the 12th century. Originally a Buddhist temple as well. So here's my beautiful wife. She's had her iced coffee with lots of sugar. A little bit too much sugar. A little bit too much sugar and I had a coffee shake which was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Yeah, you just ask Dr Kravat to take you and get coffee and he finds your spots. I'm sure he gets a kickback somewhere along the way. I think they do. They get free something if they bring you coffee. But that's great. Always good to help them out as well. Here we are at the entrance. This looks to be the entrance gates. A big tourist party coming up while we're going in. Cindy's getting ready to put up her umbrella. The briley is up. Thank goodness for the briley. At the entrance as you cross the bridge, you cross the moat into this temple complex. Some lovely, must mean the guardians, sculpture image. And here is the temple. Just a beautiful example of a Buddhist 12th century entrance with the lions and the snakes and the lion over here. Just look at that. Yeah, so this guy lost his head. Look at that. And his hand. And his hand. Look at the size of his feet, Cindy was just saying. Look at this. This really is a great temple. Just so much to see, so much to wander through. I really recommend. This is just the outside. Out here, if you look up here, you can see the Buddhist wheel. Incredible.