Deliciously Me

From the beautiful temple of Bayon, we walked on foot to another temple nearby, the Baphuon temple. It was a brisk walk, with many ‘opportunities’ to take pictures!

A big Buddha statue sitting on a hut – which drew a lot of tourists there. We didn’t stop by – don’t know why. So, I took picture of the statue from afar – counted as visited already gua... Lol!

Right after I took picture of the statue, I saw this!

Ya said that these feet belong to big statues (should be guardians of the temple) that were brought down by either the Khmer Army or the robbers.

As I occassionally stopped to take pictures of the surrounding area or things that fascinate me, I walked last among the rest. Luckily B waited for me – or else I’ll be left stranded alone there! *wuuwuu*

Climbing up the stone path, we turned left into another path that led us to Baphuon temple.

Baphuon temple, initially known as Treiphuveakchonamony, then Phounvan, then then Phuon. I realised the name got shorter and shorter and shorter! I guess people that time felt that Treiphuveakchonamony would be too long and hard to pronounce therefore shortened it to Phuon!

Imagine this.. in olden time, Auntie A was washing clothes at the river and she spotted her friend, Auntie B!

Auntie A yelled, “B! Where are you heading to?”

Auntie B yelled back, “To Treiphuveakchonamonyyyy…”

Auntie A yelled, “Trei phu what???!

Auntie B said again, “Treiii-phuu-veakk-chooo-na-mooo-neee”

Auntie A, “HUHHHH???”

Frustrated, Auntie B said, “Phuonnnn! Phuonnn!!”

Ok, I made up that story. Lol!

Now fact (got it somewhere) : The word Treiphuovan means someone who Puon in English means to hide.

Probably the temple is a hiding place/retreat for King and his people. That’s why it’s a called so – I think.

As we walked towards Baphuon temple, I saw a man selling paintings of various temples/sceneries of Angkor. And I wonder how much those paintings cost.

Compared to Bayon, Baphuon is in poorer state. I know that the temples are damaged/ruined, but I never expect it’s so bad until we couldn’t enter the area. Everyone was forbidden to enter the temple at all. What a fortune.

We walked by the temple. I took pictures as much as I can since I couldn’t enter the temple. And missed out all the explanations that Ya gave.

Built around in 11th century, this temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva until in late 15th century it was turned into a Buddhist temple! I guess that explained the statue of the reclining Buddha at the back!

Yes, I remembered Ya spoke about the reclining Buddha statue. He even asked, “can you see the Buddha sleeping there?“

Then we went “ohhh…..”

We then walked into the woods… where we saw weird things that we never seen before. Or should I say something that I never seen before.

Tree grown on stoneeessss! Or big bricks!

We were seriously bewildered with this matter. Luckily Ya was there to satisfy our curious mind. According to him, the tree sprouts on top of the stone. As it grows, the roots slowly covered the whole stones. At the same time, it grows up tall like normal tree. Thus, tree grown on stones!

Can you spot our cute friend there? Hehe!

The walk in the wood was a pleasant one. But I carefully walked on the trails where people walked on, not on the ‘grassy’ area for fear of stepping on landmine! What a paranoid person I am hor? Lol!

We crossed wall to find ourselves walking to another wall. The arch looks a bit scary with the stones stacked on top. But obviously, we didn’t look all the way up when we were there. We just crossed buta.

Crossing the arch will bring us to Phimeanakas temple which will be covered in the next post.