in search of lara croft

I'm not a morning person, but was told that I needed to at least do a sunrise or sunset at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After a 4:45am wakeup call, we set off for the biggest religious temple in the world. Although it was originally built as a Hindu temple, it was eventually converted to a Buddhist temple. The day we went happened to be a Buddhist holiday so portions of the temple were used for ceremonial purposes. Dusk looked promising until Murphy's Law reared its ugly head when a big mass of clouds decided to mask the sun when it was waking up. Despite the initial disappointment, the lighting and reflection lake of the massive temple were still worth the trip.

Of all the temples though, my favorite wasn't the largesse of Angkor Wat or the many faces of Bayon Temple, but rather the small ruined temple amongst the trees, and what is commonly referred to as the Lara Croft temple since scenes from the movie were filmed at that location. Ta Prohm Temple is about as old as Angkor Wat (~ 200 years), but because it was built deep into the forest, trees have infiltrated throughout - it is unclear whether the temple is keeping the trees up or vice versa. These massive trees had roots that were embedded deep into the temple corridors and in some case, grew from the top of the temple. The tree that was at the spot which was featured in the movie turned out to be two separate trees, with a decrepit one underneath another weblike tree that had taken over the original's spot.

We did come back to trek the steep hills and stairs to catch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng, despite the sweltering heat. It was both breathtaking and peaceful (once you got to the point of ignoring the droplets creeping down your back and the 'swamp ass'). Although we didn't get to catch a glimpse of the sun rising, it blessed us with its presence before it turned down for the evening. Chithin the elephant, who represented his ancestors before him that were used to carry the large blocks that built such temples, escorted me down from the mount.