Templing II

Prasat Neak Pean – This temple is what Mr. Bobo called the “hospital”. It wasn’t really a temple at all, but a clearing in the jungle that had one central structure inside a pool surrounded by four other pools. Each of the four side pools represented a natural element and depending on when you were born you would go to your birth element’s pool to be healed of any illness you had. You would be dipped in the pool and blessed by a priest with water from the central pool, which was considered holy water. Each of the side pools had a little cavern in which you would be blessed with a statue representing that pool. If I remember correctly, Earth’s pool was a human, Fire’s pool was lion, there was a horse, and I don’t remember the fourth statue. Originally there was a moat surrounding the hospital temple so sick people from all around could come via boat. Picture: The central structure; all the grass would have been covered in water.

Pre Rup—This was a mountain temple that my mom and I climbed up to watch the sunset on our second night there. Dad stayed behind as he had had enough templing for the day. You had to climb some pretty steep steps to get to the top, and my mom is deathly afraid of heights. I tried not to laugh as she inched her way from the narrow pathways along the side of the temple (no railings!) to the larger landings, but it reminded me of a few years ago when my parents and I hiked up the mountain beside Machu Picchu in Peru. It was one of the steepest hikes we’ve ever been on and the path were so narrow at points that my mom faced the rock wall instead of facing forward and shuffled sideways rather than walking like a normal person. My dad gave her the nickname “Granite Magnet” and she definitely lived up to her nickname atop the sunset temple. By the time she had to sit on her butt and scoot to the edge for the climb down I couldn’t contain my laughter and we both had a good chuckle getting down to solid ground. Picture: Sunset at the temple. Video: The granite magnet climbing down.

Banteay Srei—This is the last temple we went to. Mr. Bobo claimed it was designed and constructed entirely by women (although my mom read otherwise in a book she had) and it definitely looked like women had made it. It much smaller in scale, and must more detailed than the other temples we visited. It is made of pink sandstone which is more durable than the kind of sandstone the other temples were made of, so the carvings are still very detailed and seem as if they were done yesterday. It was ornate and beautiful, but it was so hot, the sun was so strongly beating down on us, and there were so many Korean tourists there that we only spent about 20 minutes strolling through the temple. Picture: Some of the carvings on above a doorway.