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Kravan temple - a quick stop

The previous post in this series is here..

After going to the tea kadai temple, we were thinking our next stop was going to be Angkor Wat. It was still early morning and given our speed, our driver said we will most likely not need 3-4 hours to see the big temple. So we stopped at one more “must see” temple in this complex. It was a later temple (12th century) compared to the other temples that dated from 950-1100 time frame. It was the Kravan temple,

There were no idols left in the temple. They were all uprooted and taken to France apparently. Only the few murals on the walls remain. They were beautiful.

San almost fell down the steps and that got me worried. We were on day 4 of a 10 day trip and a wedding to attend. There was no room for injuries. There was a pond outside the temple that had violet lotus flowers. Have never seen that anywhere!

A short video highlights reel.

After we walked around this simple temple, we made our way back to the car.. next stop Angkor Wat temple..

The magnificent Bayon temple at sunrise

When Brahma or Buddha or Shiva or Vishnu closes one door, he opens another..

The previous post in this series is here..

Our driver was good. He took us super fast to the south gate at Angkor Thom complex to see the sunrise above the forest and hit the statutes at the gate. It was an amazing experience. Got a lot of good pictures and got a timelapse of the sun coming up above the forest!

Then there was the short drive to Bayon temple. Every tower had faces of buddha on all four sides and there were 50+ towers. What a temple. What magnificence. There were buddhist monks still praying early in the morning.

Happy with the pictures but you have to be there to see it in all its grandeur. There is also a set of pictures of San that made my day while editing.. it reminded me of the little one from an earlier time..

The photo gallery in portrait format..

landscape gallery

A video highlights reel of this part of the trip..

Thoroughly enjoyed the sunrise over the forest and the light show in Bayon temple.. It was still early morning and our driver said it was time to go visit one more major temple in the area before the crowds moved in, and then we could go to Angkor Wat temple for the tour.

He said it would be “better” and that piqued our interest.. Better than this?! That in the next post.. There are 500+ photos from that stop.. will work on them tomorrow.

The temple that kept going - Ta Som

Previous post in this series is here..

It was almost 4 PM. We had visited six places since morning. Given our schedule, our driver told us we had three more temples to see before sunset.

The next temple stop was back in the Agnkor complex or close to it. The Ta Som temple built by Jayavarman VII who appeased both Hindus and Buddhists by building temples for both. This one was a Hindu temple and kept going.. from one entrance to the other we walked past at least a dozen doorways and corridors.

At some point when it was a functioning temple, this must have been like the Aavudaiyaar kovil we saw in Tamilnadu two years ago. Just magnificent.

Our drivers artistic photography was taking a hit by now. We were tired. San managed the occasional smile. I could not carry my heavy SLR anymore and took only my iPhone with me. Not a lot of photos but the video tells you everything. Most of the temple was shaded and that was a big plus. We walked all the way to the other end to see the 4 headed Brahma on the gate and walked back.

Our driver had the right concept for this one.. he just had to get more depth to get me in focus instead fo the web.. still I give him A+ for effort..

The video highlight reel.. (the photos really don’t show the grandeur of the temple in terms of distance).

After this we were off to another temple…. the temples, they kept on coming..