bantey serai

yes, another temple ...there are over 250 of them around... this is supposed to be the one which has the most intricate carvings surviving.... the caretaker tells us its a bhrama, vishnu and then a word i have hear for the first time a shiva biddha in the main centrum... though there is talk about hindus, the local guy asks me the difference between hindu and buddha and i said that buddha was part of hindu... though it is something that is rarely talked about ...bu how about shiva buddha?

1000 lingas

After a longish drive we reach the bottom of the first hill we have seen in cambodia...there is lush forest all over and a pathway with big stones and roots of trees forming steps going up up up... a tough climb of about 2 kms till we reach the river where they are these small lings in the water and some sculpturs carved onto the rocks... t\some monks are doing a small ceremony there.... there is this interesting combination of buddhist and shaivite mixture

 at the entrace there is a animal conservation and endangered species centre.... we go through and see animals which were kept as pets till the owners could no longer look after them.... 1000 of birs have been looked after here and then left out in the wild...

in most of cambodia we see hardly any birds at all...even by the sea there are no birds at all.... asked someof the guides.. they say they have been asked this but noone knows why no birds.... did all the bombings kill them all????

bayon... faces faces over 100 giant faces

the entrance has these figures pulling something it seems

 the entrance to bayon... these four faces on each side and i think one above... the all seeing...

 the first look

 lots of carvings

 sleeping vishnu? buddha??

 you climb up 3 florr to come to these big big heads...each tower with 4 and about 26 columns...guidebooks have all the figures but as you walk around you can feel faces looking down at you everywhere

at bayon there is some worship going on... i burn an incense and sit next to this image for a long while....lovely the feeling of old stone all around, aroma of incense

Ta Prohm ... or Laras Croft or trees and stone

Ta Prohm, or the place where Laras tomb or some such movie was shot is an amazing temple which has been left primarily as it was found.... with only some places being restored...as you enter we found out that the restoration of this site is being done by the Indian Archeological Department, and we went into the enclosed office arrea where we met the 2 archeological people in charge (one from Maharashtra one from chennai) who were most thrilled to show us how restoration was done...

 the entire area is covered by stones like this which have been numbered a b and then numbers to indicate where they go

 The 2 showing us the various stages that the restoration goes through

 the map which was developed after years of work to show the basic outlay of the temple

 One of the scultures being redone as the various stones are found

 cranes involved in the resoration work

treesgrowing through the various stone walls ... there are at least hundred of these ..... some photos of some

the exit...... we have probably walked over 2 kms up and down big stones big steps.... tired, but we still have one more to go before we can end the first day.....