My Favourite Temples

Preah Rup

Climbing up towards the central platform in the evening, and finding myself in the company of nagas, sentinels staring silently at the horizon, and a cluster of temple-towers with strands of stray grass growing out of the roofs. The evening atmosphere was magical - the crimson orb of the sun casting its fading light over the temple compound, illuminating everything in a tranquil, warm orange glow.

While everyone rushes off to the circus at Phnom Bakheng, you'll be amazed how peaceful and beautiful it can be atop some lesser known temple awaiting the sunset and just talking to the kids that try to sell you little trinkets like bamboo flutes and post cards.

Ta Keo the tower of glass

Ta Keo is an enigmatic, unadorned temple that rises some 50 metres high, and apparently construction stopped due to an inauspicious lightning strikes, as some theories go. Some of the sandstone blocks transported down the river for its construction still lay unused along the outer passageways, showing how abruptly construction was halted.

What i liked about Ta Keo was its sheer scale and grandeur, being one of the largest Angkorian temples, and the somewhat menacing and eerie enigma that surrounds the sudden halt in building work. There was this Khmer guy who showed me around the compound, pointing out facts and little bits of trivia, and i quite enjoyed his company as we strolled down the deserted passageways and he showed me the supposed easier stairway to the topmost landing, 50 meters or so up.

I had an aborted attempt to reach the topmost tower, stopping about halfway up, seeing another traveller already on the ledge and looking on with envy. I remember thinking i don't want to die in Cambodia, it was that scary, and real, a fear, which saw me crawling bravely over to a ledge where the guardian lion sat and joining it for some company.

Neak Pean the coiled serpents

Unique is the best word to describe Neak Pean, a large pool with a central island shrine encircled by the body of 2 serpents (which lends the name) surrounded by four smaller pools that flow into it, once filled with water and reachable by boat, but now dry. The four chambers that allow the smaller pools to feed into the large one each has a different spout in the shapes of a lion, an elephant, a human and a horse