Tomb raider eat your heart out!

Time for another travel post!!! This time we are making our way to Cambodia, just outside Siem Reap (famous for the group of temples at Angkor) to a temple a little off the map but one that no true explorer should ever miss!!

Beng Mealea

ប្រាសាទបឹងមាលា

Beng Mealea, which means lotus pond in Kmer (Freeman 2006) is a temple from the Angkor Wat period (1100 - 1200ad) and is only a 70km Tuk Tuk ride away from the main group of temples. For years this temple has been difficult to reach due to lack of infrastructure and unfortunately mines 😔 however, there is now a road!! and most of the mines have been cleared which means sure, getting there is not as easy as the Angkor group but you can hire a Tuk Tuk for a day. Ok the journey is … bumpy but can lead to some great stories ;)

Like Peru's Machu Picchu, Cambodia has Angkor Wat. Now don’t get me wrong Angkor Wat is 100% worth a visit however… if you like to get off the beaten track and want that true “Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones” experience you need to get yourself to Beng Mealea!

This is a true Jungle temple, one where you can run around on the tops of ruins, climb giant tree roots, swing on vines and be rewarded with a spectacular temple truly left to let nature run its course.

As soon as we entered we found ourselves scrambling over mountains of finely crafted sandstone blocks before battling dense foliage and cracking out the head torches for the long dark chambers. Although there are lots of collapsed sections, if you look closely and don’t mind getting stuck in, you can pick out incredible carvings and surprisingly intact architecture!

Its worth mentioning that we visited this temple around 5 years ago, and even then they had removed a lot of the foliage - I just hope they have kept some, its incredible to see how 1000 years of nature left to its own devices can run wild over civilization

Photos all taken on a Cannon S95