21. Nov 18th Koh Ker, Beng Mealea Siem Reap

After the disaster of the night before, we start our drive talking about what happened last night to our guide Dalign.  He said he would talk to the Cambodia Selective Asia office.  He felt badly, but we assured him that there wasn’t anything that he could have done to fix the situation.  The hotel was clearly not suitable and there is no way that hotel should be used by the travel company.  Then I dozed the rest of the way (about 45 min) to our next destination.  

Koh Ker (Khmer language or Lingapura in Sanskrit).is an ancient capital built during the 10th century.  The capital area was quite large and records show it contained over 200 temples although just less than 100 have been found.  It’s part of the Khmer empire who also built Wat Phou that we saw in Laos.  We start with one of the temples Prasat Pram.  There has been very little restoration work at this site.  There are 5 towers or prasats on the site in a U shaped formation. Pram means 5.  The centre tower is a bit taller than the others.  These ruins at Koh Ker are some of the lesser visited places by tourists and today we had the site all to ourselves.  

These prasats were built under the rule of King Jayavarman IV who ruled from 928 to 941.  The towers are surrounded by a walled enclosure.  Two of the prasats are covered by tree roots.   Although the grounds have been cleared of vegetation, its an eerie feeling to see trees growing out of the buildings.  

Prasats covered by tree roots.  It’s not hard to imagine that the trees will one day destroy the buildings.  

A Prasat engulfed by tree roots.

Another Prasat covered by roots.

We left Prasat Pram and walked along a wide path that took us past other temple ruins.  Prasat Thom (Grand Temple) was started under King Jayavarman IV and was expanded under his son Harshavarman II.  The ruins are massive structures and are impressive due to the number of people it must have taken to quarry, transport and shape the rocks.  Theres’s so much restoration work that needs to be done, but with so many temples in this lesser known city of Koh Ker, where do you start? 

Some of the ruins.

More Prasat Thom ruins

At the far end of Prasat Thom is another temple, Prasat Prang.  It is a 35 meter tall, a pyramid shaped building somewhat reminiscent of Mayan structures.  There was a staircase around the back that you could walk up, but I didn’t go.  

Prasat Prang  

We finished at Prasat Thom and drove for a few minutes until we reached another temple site Boeng Mealea.  There was a large moat surrounding the temple site.  Once inside, we are reminded of the legacy of the various landmines and unexploaded ordinances (UXOs) that have affected the region.  

Sign indicating bomb clearing at Boeng Mealea.  To date 438 anti personnel mines and 809 UXOs have been found and removed.

It said that the bomb clearing was ongoing.  I thought there should be more clarification…

We walk along the procession path towards the temple site.  The original stones continue to cover the temple path.  

Large sandstone blocks 

The temple is pretty much unrestored with stones lying around in big piles everywhere.  As with the other ruins we’ve seen today there are trees growing up through the ruins as the jungle is trying to take back its land.  The history of this Hindu temple is unknown but since is in the same architectural style as the more famous and larger temple, Angkor Wat, scholars believe it was built at the same time: early 12th century.  The King at that time was Suryavarman II who rose to power although it wasn’t a direct lineage from  Jayavarman IV.

Boeng Mealea is still a big temple complex.  Many of the temples were looted by invading armies (around the 14 to 16th centuries, I think) so many of the previous gold and stones were taken long ago.  There was a significant amount of destruction during the looting which accounts for some of the damage.  

After the Boeng Mealea tour, we decide to break for lunch.  We drop into a family run restaurant (Rumduol Angkor II) near Boeng Mealea which had recently opened after being closed during covid.  We try a Khmer disk known as Amok.  Judith has fish amok and I order chicken.  It’s cooked in a large coconut shell that still has its green husk on it.  The meat is cooked in coconut milk with vegetables and seasonings and served with rice.  It was really good although in retrospect, we should have just ordered one and shared it because we both left most of it behind.  

After lunch we visit another temple:   Banteay Srei (Citidel of Woman).  Built in the late 10th century it differs from the other temples that we visited as it was made of red sandstone and the physical building dimensions are smaller than the others.  The red sandstone allowed the carvers to make very intricate carvings which still stand today.  This is a Hindu temple with some buildings dedicated to Shiva and others to Vishnu.   

Courtyard 

Scholars believe that  the building was constructed first and then the carving was complete.  

Detail carving on lintel above doorway

We’ve explored 5 temples today after a crappy sleep.  I managed to take in and see lots of information and wished I was more alert to do these sites a bit more justice.  They are all very fascinating and a mystery in terms of how and why they were built, how the community was able to support the number of craftsmen and labourers for these many temples to have been built, the ingenuity required to move these massive stones, why the kingdoms fell into disuse and how the jungle can take a disturbed site and take it back.

It’s about an hour’s drive to our hotel in Siem Reap.  I’m looking forward to getting a great sleep.  We pull up the Viroth Hotel and it looks great.  The staff are attentive as we pull up, we’re invited to sit at the check in desk counter where they do the paperwork (involves recording passport information and such), I’m admiring the lobby, our luggage gets brought in, we are given a refreshing drink of sweetened line and tamarind, etc.  At some point during this exchange Judith looks at me and says this isn’t the right hotel and she’s determined to play this out in case we get to stay at this lovely hotel.  But the desk clerk booking us in tells our guide that he can’t find the booking and that he’s called his manager.  Judith realizes the jig is up so she pull out our itinerary and shows our guide that we’re booked at the Lynnaya Hotel.  Ooops.  

Everyone is pleasant about the error and we get our bags and us back into the van and drive a few blocks to the Lynnaya Hotel.  It may not be as well appointed as the Viroth, but it seems to be pretty nice and I can tell it will not have any rats.  We check in, go to our room and I’m asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.  It’s around 7:30 pm.  We need to be up by 5:15 to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

Our lovely hotel room (before we messed it up)