Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm was something that stood out when I flipped through my free copy of Siem Reap Angkor Visitor’s Guide from the airport; we had planned to spend the whole day at Angkor, and I was a little uneasy at having only two sites that I wanted to go to. Ta Prohm, a temple overrun by enormous trees, was the very portrayal of the transience of power, and immediately became third on my list of must-see during our trip. (First was the Angkor Wat & Bayon, duh!)

The degradation of these structures under the toil of time and unbending nature of well, Nature, is astounding.

Bas-reliefs among tree roots and ruins.

Mr. Meng playing his erhu. We sometimes lost sight of him while exploring the ruins and all we had to do was to follow the music. :D

Ottie and I underneath one of the iconic structures which was engulfed by a tree. The place was actually cordoned off, but we climbed over to take this photo anyway (with Mr. Meng’s encouragement).
^{Photo taken by Ross via Ottie’s phone.}

An ongoing restoration project to stabilise part of the structure.

Black doggy! It’s so hard to photograph one.

Woman selling woven bangles.

A bored child tending to a souvenir stall among the ruins.

Ottie standing on top of the ruins. We saw quite a number of people climb over rocks, possibly as a nod to the Tomb Raider movie that Ta Prohm featured in, but mostly because those jagged rocks and low arch ruins were just too tempting I think.

Ta Prohm was so beautiful that Ant, Dar, Chris, Ottie, and I went back again another day just to revisit the site. Note that my outfit remains virtually unchanged, but personal qualms on hygiene have to be compromised when one goes on an eight day trip with as many clothes as can be crammed into a laptop haversack, after half of that space is taken up by a dSLR.

Also note Ottie’s flair for only managing to take a photo of me in focus only when I’m being derpy (while Ant photobombs). WHY.
^{Photos taken by Ottie.}

And here’s me in my main temple outfit to cap off my temple adventure! :D

^{OUTFIT
K Petit dress
Moda at George cardigan
Hue argyle socks
Rubi shoes}