Vellarimedu-2024

 From what was planned as a trip with four of my friends, it ended up with almost a dozen guys. It was real fun all day with the group of friends, but the place failed to impress with nothing much to do except for some beautiful Palakkad outback's. 

There is a not so bad waterfall up in the mountain. We chose to be less adventurous and did not trek up there.

This is one of the few times when I get to be on the other side of camera, thanks to my friend who insisted that I should also be in the frame.

This house and the Indian equivalent  of a barn with thatched roof caught the attention of everyone passing by.

Angkor Temples-Day 1- Neak Poan, Ta Som and East Mebon

 From Preah Khan, I continued my visit to Ta Som. This temple sits in the middle of a large lake, filled with water lilies.

There were many devotees offering prayers in this temple, many of them in their traditional attire. 

Next stop was at Ta Som. This temple was not in its pristine condition, with minimal restoration work visible.

From Ta Som, we went to East Mebon. This is a much bigger temple compared to earlier two. The construction style and the stones used are also not the same as earlier temples.

There is a small Buddha statue inside the main temple building

Angkor Temples-Day 1-Preah Khan

 It took 3 years for me to finally travel to Siem Ream, where the famous Angkor Wat and other temples are located. 

Reaching there on Saturday evening and first day of temple visit falling on a Sunday, I thought it would not be a great idea to visit Angkor Wat in that day, being a holiday. I chose grand tour of five other temples nearby for day one. 

First on the list was Preah Khan. This place did not fail to impress me and gave me a taste of what to expect on coming days. 

The temple gate is just magnificent. 

The temple doesn't look that big from the entrance, but as we start the tour, this temple is quiet big, not very tall though!

                

Found remains of what looked like a "Shivling" inside.

There are certain parts of the temple that struggled to stay intact

All this was made possible because I had the best companion Vichhai during my visit. He is a tour operator who was graceful in accompanying me on almost all of the 8 days I was in Cambodia.