We leave Preah Khan and continue on the Grand Circuit. Our next stop:
Each of the Khmer temples would house statues representing Shiva, Vishnu, and mates, and were intended to be a home of the gods, rather than a site of regular worship. The late 12th century Neak Pean makes that very clear.
There’s no ferry.
To get to the little site, you cross the tranquil-looking Jayatataka…
…no lake, but the 12th century reservoir built to supply the city around the Preah Khan temple.
Next, lunch, and then the small, attractively ruined Ta Som
We all like a good ancient passageway.
The last two temples are earlier, 10th century, and more in the “temple mountain” style that we saw at Angkor Wat. That means more climbing on the steep steps to get to various enclosures, which will be a challenge in my sandals.
For those of you who are flagging a bit through all these temples, hang on in there. The next blog post’s got tanks and rocket launchers!
First, East Mebon.
Not officially a temple mountain, inasmuch as the five towers are not mounted on a very high third enclosure. Still the second one was a bugger to get up.
After the slightly perturbing climb back down the ten steep steps back to the road, it was nice to know that we just had the one to go before we headed back to the hotel.
It was only when we got to Pre Rup that it became clear it was a real temple-mountain.
From second to top tier there must have been about 30-40 dizzyingly steep steps. You could either try your luck with the original stone walkway, or the newer rather rickety wooden steps. I went for rickety.
And survived. Like everyone else.
Well, it was hard work, but the stunning sights along the way made the Grand Circuit well worthwhile. Back to the hotel and to a contented evening, feeling a little cream-crackered.
orwellianTwo 