Beng Mealea

Monk outside Beng Mealea
Originally uploaded by toy ghost.

I can attach any number of superlatives to Angkor Wat, and i did turn the water works on more than once, but my favorite of all temples in the Angkor area is Beng Mealea (Water Flower). That puts it in the running of coolest place on Earth, in my book. It is an hour and a half from Angkor by motorbike, in the middle of pretty much nowhere.

The best things about Beng Mealea is that 1) it's totally untouched, and 2) there's nobody there. No one has cleared anything, or attempted to reconstruct anything. And you can climb all over it. There's no liability here, and Cambodia is so happy to get your money, they let you do whatever the hell you want. Me and my guide crawled through tunnels, climbed up fallen stones, scrambled up vines and trees to get on top of and down walls, and squeezed through gaps in the masonry to get to otherwise inaccessible chambers and subtemples. When my guide left, i explored the place for hours. It's just like Tomb Raider. And i love it.

It's a good thing though that the place was cleared of landmines by the Cambodian government. The Khmer Rouge Used Beng Mealea as a stronghold during the eighties, and the perimeter was heavily mined. My guide showed me holes in the ground that were caused by exploding mines. People hunting or foraging had set them off.

I have a bunch more pictures, but i will upload when i get to Phnom Penh.