Ta Prohm, the temple in Tomb Raider

After stopping quickly for lunch and a short break in an air conditioned restaurant, our next stop was Ta Prohm in Angkor, the temple that is featured in Tomb Raider, which I have not seen. I feel like I should watch Tomb Raider now, just so I can say, "I've been there!" as I watch it...But I don't really want to watch it due a strong dislike of a certain actress in the movie.

The temple was built from 1186 until the late 13th century. It was also built by King Jayavarman VII. It was intended to be a monastery and university.

 This band was playing as we entered the temple.

That bridge was slightly rickety looking. Luckily, I did not have to walk on it.

This temple in particular was being taken over by the jungle. It was abandoned and trees had overtaken much of the temple and been allowed to grow for a long time! Entire trees were coming out of the stone. You could see the roots moving through the stone as well, which was amazing. It was definitely my first favorite temple.

It was abandoned in the 1600s. Restoration didn't begin until the early 2000s. They decided to leave the trees growing in the walls for aesthetic purposes. Maurice Glaize described it as "one of the most imposing [temples] and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it."

Apparently, there's a carving that looks like a stegosaurus. I did not see the stegosaurus.

 The usual several headed protector snake.

 This ceiling seemed quite unstable.

 Scarily unstable...like I shouldn't be walking underneath it.

 I love that you can see the giant roots through the brick!! The trees are silk-cotton trees and either strangler-figs or golden apple trees.

 Smaller plants were growing all over the place as well.

The roots lined certain parts of the walls as well. The growth was unrealistic looking, yet fabulously real!

This was one of the main parts in Tomb Raider...I think. I have no idea since I've never seen it!

 This tree was huge!!! So amazing

 

I love this picture! And all the pictures I took at this temple. It was just amazingly beautiful.

This little girl was begging. She was adorable and cheerful. It is so heartbreaking to see children who are taught to beg, instead of going to school.








After resting a little and hiding from the sun, since all of my sunscreen sweated off, I headed off to dinner by myself. At dinner, I met a very nice woman from Spain, who was working in Myanmar and Thailand. We chatted for an hour or so. I witnessed an American couple embarrassing themselves while dancing. One of parents were watching! Another girl was wearing a very see-through white dress and the teenager from the day before ran up to me and just said "Her boobs!!!" and ran away after said lady tried to dancer with her.

My dorm-mate was a writer for Archer, unless she was lying to me. And she was working on writing a pilot about a velociraptor married to a human who works at a gas station!? Apparently, if that pilot gets made and she wasn't a big fat liar, I will have met that person in Cambodia!