Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm is a large temple complex which most people refer to – somehow it comes easier to the Wetsern-trained mind – as the Indiana Jones temple. It’s essentially being left in a state of continuing decay, moderately arrested and maintained. Here you see something of what the other temples must have been after centuries of the jungle growing in, over, on and around them – when the first French archeologists re-“discovered” them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. You may recognize some of this from any number of adventure movies which have been filmed here in recent decades.
These impressive four-sided Buddha (?) images guard the east and west entrances to the Ta Prohm complex; having not yet seen the Bayon, Steve and I were quite impressed and Steve was almost a mite freaked out, perhaps. They’re quite dramatic, the first time you see these big stone faces! 
Inside Angkor Tom
These are the elephant sculptures decorating the archway at the east exit from Angkor Tom – the long things are elephant trunks. So vast is the temple complex that the “inner circuit” driving route that shows you some of the most important sites is more than 30km long and the “grand circuit” is more than 50. Neither covers Banteay Srei or Kbal Spean, the Roluos Group or other outlying complexes often quite grand themselves.
Angkor Tom, which was the largest unified construction, was a massive city many times as large as Angkor Wat, which sits south of it. These photos show some of the temples and gates in and around Angkor Tom, with a side trip for sunset at Phnom Bakheang in the middle.
This one is the Baphuon under restoration; we were sad not to see the inside of one of the “top five” main sites from an art-history and architectural standpoint.
Immediately south of Angkor Tom’s southern gate, complete( as are all of Angkor Tom’s five grand entrances) with a bridge depicting the churning of the ocean milk story (with which we’ve all become rather conversant), is Phnom Bakheang, a hilttop temple that affords the most visited sunset views in the complex. As you see, it was quite the scene. Felt almost like Key West, though no one clapped for the sunset. Mercifully, we found a more peaceful vibe a few evenings later.
OK, OK, so this one doesn’t really fit here…but it’s an image from yet another massive, complex temple that Steve’s guidebook described as having “gone slightly pearshaped” in the execution stage. It’s massive, and just goes on and on and on and on. And oh yeah…sorry for the false advertising, but it’s not in Angkor Tom: it’s a complex all to itself, named Preah Khan. 
Sunset at Pre Rup
Steve and I spent the sunset hours of the final day on our pass for the archeological site at Pre Rup, a brick-built temple ruin that we’d passed several times, en route to and from Banteay Srei, Ta Prohm and all the others. Each time, we’d said “oh, we must spend some time there.” With Mom resting up after an adventuresome (let us not forget, Mom, the taxi zum klo!) morning at the Bayon and general Angkor Tom area, Steve and I enjoyed a much more peaceful and atmospheric sunset than we’d experienced at Phnom Bakheang our first evening.
Farewell to Angkor Wat & Siem Reap
I thought it would be nice before moving on with other themes to leave you with some parting images of Angkor Wat, which along with Banteay Srei topped my personal list of favorite places in the Siem Reap area.
Floating Village – Tonle Sap
After four days being overwhelmed by the sites and sounds of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei et. al., we opted for a quieter day: it was mostly spent by the pool and taking a veerry leisurely lunch, but in the morning we motivated ourselves to check out the “floating village” at the edge of Tonle Sap lake. Since the lake level rises and falls so often, those who live closest to it basically have no choice but to live in floating villages; those who live just a bit further way, as you’ve seen, raise their houses on stilts whenever they can in order to avoid the seasonal floods.
In the areas closest to what’s now dry land, we could tell the water was pretty heavily used and that the village seemingly has no sewer system. Our noses told us this. None of us was too happy when we were splashed by water from this part of the river, and reached for our hand disinfectant with images of typhoid and other water-borne nasties racing in our heads.
Overall the trip – though quite touristic and only partly “real” seeming – opened our eyes to the life on the water, and how hard it must be for some people. There are lots of Vietnamese in the village – witness the Vietnamese on the restaurant sign above. Interesting to think of these people navigating all the way up the Mekong from the Delta, past Phnom Penh, and up to the northeast corner of Tonle Sap lake – but I guess that’s what they had to do, unless the trekked overland and bought their boats once they arrived.
The floating village, though in many ways a tourist trap, still has all you need in a village: paddling peddlers pursuing tourist boats while holding up bottles of water and coke, schoolkids drawing on the planks outside their classroom, shops, churches…even the occasional floating pigsty!
Rollin’ on the River
We traveled from Siem Reap down to Phnom Penh by boat: the full length of the Tonle Sap Lake from northeast corner down to the point where it narrows to a river, then more or less the full lengh of the river, though our 
boat docked a km or two short of the point where it runs into the Mekong. This was another time I learned how differently Steve and I experience things: later that day, from the comfy ambiance of our lovely PP guesthouse, he commented that the boat ride had been “extremely stressful” for him. For me, it was one of the highlights of my time in Cambodia! There we were on a fast boat with a great view of this massive lake and river system I’ve been seeing on maps since I was a wee bairn, heading steadily toward a city whose name conjures a myriad of images for me – and I was with my dear family members the whole time! I truly don’t understand what stressed him out – sorry, Steve.
These shots: the fairly narrow walkway on our low-riding boat, on which I stood a lot of the time to take in the view; lots of people chose to ride on the top, but by the time I decided I wasn’t too scared to climb up there (and noticed a cute guy or two up there as well), it was too crowded. Plus I’ve always liked being at the front of a moving boat. In another, if you look closely, you can see a much less touristic floating village that’s down near the narrows where Tonle Sap becomes a river.
Royal Palace & Riverfront Scenes, Phnom Penh
The Royal Palace on the riverfront in central Phnom Penh is impressive and quite beautiful, and a monument to greed, profligate spending and waste of a poor country’s resources. It felt to me not unlike my disgust as a teenager looking at the opulence and wealth of the Vatican in Rome. One appreciates the art, but wonders whether the resources might be better spent educating and immunizing children, and building roads and infrastructure.
Look closely at the house on the left in this picture. This is what happens when you’re a French colony: Napoleon the 3rd “gives” you a used building, after he’s finished with it at the world exposition in Paris or wherever. Love the dynamism of classical Cambodian and French architecture blending so seemlessly, huh?
(so much world, so little time....) 