Upgraded to a van this morning as it was clear that the tuk-tuk would not make the 80km to Beng Mealea. The distance means that it is much less visited but it’s also interesting because its been left relatively untouched since it was discovered. While we wait we push our guide into an impromptu tour of the vegetable and meat sections of the market, looking for explanations of things we don’t recognise.
The transport cuts through more dry farmland. Many of the houses have donations credited on boards outside, where individuals or tour companies have donated a water pump or a house. We pass people steaming tubes of sticky rice and beans in reed tubes for sale by the road. Women tip out measures of fried grasshoppers for drivers wanting a snack.
A clogged moat at Beng Mealea. Across the causeway on the temple island, big notices say that the area has been cleared of mines two years ago.
The temple has a recognisable layout and shape – we’ve now seen enough to recognise the features. But it’s impossible to enter; all doors and galleries are filled with huge stone blocks. Many of the towers have become tumbled piles of dark grey stone. Carvings and the occasional intact aspara show on some of the blocks.
A rough wooden walkway has been built to take visitors up and over the walls. At points it brings you up to the top of the half-fallen galleries. Because of fewer people, more trees and many more animal sounds; the place is even more atmospheric than yesterday. They should have filmed Lara Croft here rather than at Ta Prohm.
In the afternoon we head back towards Siem Reap to visit some of the first temples to be built. These date from the 10th century and – like the others – have some incredible reliefs and carvings that look brand new rather than 1000 years old. Again lots of Hindu symbolism; causeways to separate the spiritual from the profane, towers to represent Mount Meru, lots of geometric and numerical metaphors. Much more brickwork and patterned lime plaster.
