i had been looking forward to ta prohm the most since i did a bit of research on the temples. it's a marvel of man versus nature, as the temples made from carved stone seemingly lose the battle of their stability to the tree roots that intertwine the walls and building roofs.
even so, i had no idea what i was in for.
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of course alex and i, for some reason, thought it was necessary to wake up at 5am to see the sunrise. why? well because everyone said we should. alex has already tried to pull the "if-they-told-you-to-jump-off-a-bridge-would-you-do-it?" but we all know that doesn't apply to me anymore.
because i jumped too.
in fact, we had planned to wake up early yesterday, but as the alarm went off at 5am, alex rolled over and said "rachel, you wanna just..." and before she had finished her sentence i said yes. we went back to sleep. but again, the next day, we were told how beautiful it was and blah, blah, blah, that our trip just wouldn't be complete without it, our lives would never be the same, yadda yadda... 5am was painful, but we succeeded in waking up.
yes, it was well worth it. we just didn't quite make it to ta prohm in time.
..
but no worries.
as we were biking, we saw another temple. this one was long and flat, and it looked like the entire structure had been wrecked from the beautiful staircase that led to nothing. since we were really pushing time, we decided to watch the sun come up over the trees behind it, and unbeknownst to us, there was a lake as well. it made for some beautiful reflection pictures, and watching the sun rise was relaxing.
alex drank some coffee, and off we went again. we didn't get very far before we saw another photo opportunity. alex and i have been doing "mini-lessons" with our cameras. i like this picture of her on the bike, but if i were in scott's class, it would be considered a flaw because of the lens flare (yeah, i haven't forgotten).
however, alex is doing a great job. :) it was her idea to even stop at this place, a temple entrance, as she wanted to try some effects with the lens and such. but she wanted me to climb the wall. with spiky parts. i'm pretty sure this blockade obviously means don't come in here.
but where's the fun in listening?
yeah i paid the price. there were about a thousand freakin ants on the ground. i guess with buddah hanging out all over the place here this karma gets back around pretty fast.
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we continued on. prior to our trip to cambodia, alex and i learned about an orphanage that we wanted to make sure we could stop by. we wanted to have lunch with the kids and see what they were learning. on our way to ta prohm, we saw a sign for oda, an different orphanage, but since the other one had never gotten back to us, we agreed to try to stop by.
however, we often agree to do things that don't happen or work out as planned. like kuala lumpur. or a flight to kuala terengganu. or ten days at a monestary. or not get scuba certified. or get sushi in bangkok. or not overstay our visa in thailand. or go to hanoi. or not drink again.
so though we had mentioned it, i knew our day would play itself out, as we always lose the fight to planning out our own days. we rode by, and about a mile and a half later, pulled our bikes into ta prohm.
as we entered, we saw that there was construction going on in the outside, and i was a bit worried about the authenticity inside. but it turned out to be even better than i had expected.
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i'll do my best to describe this to you, but it's true when i say that words just can't explain it all. the atmosphere of the temple, the admiration i have for the architecture, the power exerted by mother nature, the awe of the intricacies, the beauty in the ruins, the amplitude and volumosity of the buildings, the accessibility through doorway, the sense of exploration... i could go on and on.
i absolutely loved this place.
before we walked in, we saw two trees growing over the shallow wall. the first building in front of us had a doorway and two windows. huge tree roots, bigger than my body, weaved in and out of them, between and behind the falling stones, up and around the rooftops. it looked like a snake that slithered where he could fit and just froze in time.
we walked through the temple, much more slowly here than the other two. there were no set paths, and many open spaces through which we could wander.
the trees were immense, and i thought that perhaps a picture just of the trees and the buildings wouldn't do them justice. i had seen some prior to this part of the trip and had no idea how exactly this all measured up. so, here's an example:
we continued on, walking slowly. i felt much more alive here, and this temple was more experiential for me than the other two. angkor wat was just so crowded it was difficult to enjoy, and i feel now that we walked around simply to see. but here, as i took in more than just the sights it started to have a bigger impact on me.
and i wanted more.
i walked to see, feel, note, touch, explore. every turn had something new, and alex and i took every photo opportunity we could find. we took pictures of it all: from piles of stones to roots, from carvings to buildings, from exteriors to interiors, from walls to rubble. from huge courtyards with beautiful early-morning lighting...
to ridiculous photo ops.
you know we couldn't resist.
as we wandered and admired, i started to become slightly restless and more curious. there is an extremely famous photograph that has been taken here numerous times, over and over by tourists. it's posted on google images, generally coming up as 30 different photographs that nearly look like carbon copies of each other. it is almost ta prohm's signature. we walked and explored, but i also searched. i wasn't sure how big the temple itself would be from start to finish, but i was determined to find it.
we reached the last corner at the opposite side of the temple, and there it was.
unfortunately now, it's been marked with a platform for tourists.
it wasn't until around the end of ta prohm that we realized what all the work being done around the temples really was. since cambodia is just now getting tourists, they are making the temples more accessible by putting up roped-off wooden pathways on which to walk, and building "photo-op" stops in front of certain famous sections. though it will be much easier for handicapped and elderly people to visit, it won't be 100%, as there are many sets of stairs that wouldn't accommodate everyone. alex and i were a little puzzled, troubled, and disappointed at this, but we were thankful for our timing on the visit a bit more. what we saw was mostly untainted.
the platforms really take away from the authenticity of the temples, turning them into a sight to see rather than a piece of history that dropped from of the sky to the middle of the jungle. we loved ta prohm mostly for its beauty, its awe, its mystery and its struggle, but partially because of the timing in our day. once there were more people, it subtracted from both our patience and not our appreciation itself, but our ability to appreciate what we were seeing. there were many times where we wanted photographs but gave up after standing in one spot for ten minutes, waiting for the crowd to clear or at least understand that we were trying to photograph.
it wasn't busy until somewhere around nine am, and luckily, we were on our way out. but we had great timing-- just as we were passing by this tree...
an english guide told his group that this area had been filmed in the most recent indiana jones movie. if you're trying to remember what it was called, look it up on imdb. you all know that i have no clue.
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though we had spent a few hours in this temple, i never really got bored of seeing the trees and the buldings interact. i had only expected to see this once or twice, and i'm not sure why, but though the other temples are only a mile or two away, they have nothing like this.
alex and i would just stand at the bottom and stare. again, the tree below is huge-- alex couldn't even wrap her arms around one part of the root if she wanted to. so how long did it take to grow? how old is the tree? and however old it is, the buildings must date back much farther than that. sure, we could ask a guide for a year. maybe the 800s for this one? even if we want to go back more than that, the 400s? but what does the number mean? when it was put into perspective by something much more familiar than time, say, it is older than the life of this massive tree, it just seems even more surreal.
i dont think i'll ever understand.
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after the two days of temples, alex and i began to realize that writing really helps us to process what we've done and seen. though the temples were beautiful marvels as we explored their grounds, it wasn't until we had left and reexamined our pictures that we could really grasp the immensity of their true size and the historical aura they present. prior to when we had gotten the chance to write, we found ourselves mentally exhausted, trying to process and fathom what we had seen and been through.
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Y rae. racho. d.
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