Today we went to see the famous Angkor Wat and other temples built in the 1100s and they spread across kilometres.
We took a long tuktuk ride to these temples. My (Paddy) favourite one was Ta Prohm – it reminded Ellen and me of Cair Paravel Cair in Prince Caspian when Lucy and Edmond etc came back to Narnia after 1000 years. The temple was covered in moss and really tall trees with the roots of the trees growing down through the temple’s huge building stones. The roots of the trees were immense knobbly, dragon-like claws, metres long above the earth, growing in between and over the huge blocks of sandstone into the centre of the temples to create a jungle like effect (says Ellen). This particular temple had been left alone to the elements to decay naturally and that’s why Ellen and I liked it. It was used as a location in the film Tomb Raiders.
Ellen also liked the one with 200 Buddha faces carved into the stupas (Bayon inside Angkor Thom). The faces were metres big and although some were worn away and more decayed than others, probably because of the way the wind was blowing, others were still sharp. Dad liked this one the best too. He always takes so many photos, and obsessively framing the photo perfectly means it takes him much longer than it does other people.
The Angkor temples are one of the seven man-made wonders of the world according to some lists. These were built at the same time as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
By the end (it took all day, 9 – 5) I was tired and sick of it all but Ellen was still hanging in there and we all got an ice cream.
- Patrick and Ellen
