On the trail of lost temples in Angkor Wat In Siem Reap, Cambodia 3/2023 (Stop 10)

8-11 March 2023 I was eager to get to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. Don’t ask, Angkor what? It is the world’s largest temple complex, made up of many temples, of Hindu but later became Buddhist. When it comes to the best and the largest, I could not wait to see it. So, from Vang Vieng in Laos, I charged southward. I did not stay more than a full day to see Vientiane, Laos’ capital. Instead, I took a torturous 3rd class night train to Bangkok, then another train westward to the border, crossing the border into Cambodia before arriving in Siem Reap at 1 am. I must be mad.

After a day of recovering from the punishing journey, I spent the next 3 days riding a rented motorbike treasure hunting. I headed for Angkor Wat.

Then I found Bayon, Baphuon, Phnom Bakheng, Prasat Kravan, Prasat Banteay Kdei, Prasat Ta Prohm, Prasat Takeo, Prasat Preah Khan, Prasat Preah Neat Pean, Prasat Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Prasat Pre Roup. I found them among the trees, in the jungle, just as they were deserted and re-discovered. They looked old, some looked smudged and moldy. They looked incomplete in many places, their body parts amputated. In the jungle, many carved rocks remained piled up and strewn around the temples’ compounds, as though they had just been shaken loose by an earthquake. Some walls and roofs were overgrown by enormous tree roots that were about to swallow them up.

If you came only to see the temples, you are missing the point. I was following the trail, on a treasure hunt, for the lost temples.