Does anyone know of any overgrown temples other than Ta Phrom at Angkor?
Replies: 19 - Last Post: Mar 30, 2012 8:07 AM Last Post By: Roadking95
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Does anyone know of any overgrown temples other than Ta Phrom at Angkor?
I'm working on a photography project featuring clowns, and I'd love to have a little shoot at Angkor. I've seen some pictures of the Ta Phrom temple and it seems amazing, but I've read that that temple (and pretty much the rest of Angkor as well I guess) is crowded with people. So what I wonder is if anyone knows about any slightly less popular and crowded temples that's kind of similar to Ta Phrom? I know I can't get away from everyone, but the less people the better.Also how far away is say Ta Phrom for example? It doesn't seem so far on the map but I've been fooled before. The reason I ask is because I'm thinking of renting a bike and bike there. If I leave my guesthouse around 6am do you think I could still reach some temples before the big hordes arrive?
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For uncrowded, picturesque, overgrown temples, I'd suggest Koh Ker, but it would be too far away to reach by bike in the morning. To get it to yourself, spend the night out there, then shoot in the evening and the morning. It doesn't get that many visitors, and the ones that come tend to just visit for the day, which means they arrive late-ish and leave in time to be back in Seam Reap by the evening.5
Ta som, just north of the eastern baray has a massive tree growing on the east entrance, and its much leas crowded than ta phrom. I saw it a few days ago and got a good picture of it. Its probably 2km out of the north gate but my guess could be a little off. I went by tuk tuk so im unsure about timing but it is relatively far from siem reap, which is closest tothe south gate.7
Ta Prohm is not far from Angkor Wat, south-east, check your map again. There is an outlying temple, Beng Mealea that is covered in jungle but too far by bike. The tour groups arrive about 9am and some temples are empty before that time, try Bayon, if you go at the right time it is possible to avoid the hordes and most only go to the main temples anyway.Edited by: Herbie47
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As mentioned, Beng Mealea is really overgrown but it's about 60km away so even in a tuk tuk it will take a couple hours to get there. It's become pretty popular these days and when I visited there was a steady stream of people but not large numbers and they moved thru fairly quickly. Plus they mostly stayed to the raised walkway so it's easy to find areas where you're completely alone. More centrally located is Ta Nei which is east of Angkor Thom and north of Ta Prohm. It's like a mini Ta Prohm with virtually no visitors, at least when I was there.I read that you have to walk 10 minutes to get there but our tuk tuk drove us which was good since there were a few forks in the road and no signs or people to send you the right way.13
I was reffering to ta som not ta phrom. Ta som is north of the eastern baray14
Thanks a lot for all the tips, Ta Som seems great (Beng Mealea seems amazing, but it's too far away). I went around the main temples and did the normal touristy things by tuk-tuk today, and there were actually a lot less people than I had feared (I guess it's not high season anymore? The nice green scaffolding at Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom might scare away a few tourists as well), the main problem doesn't actually seem to be people, but those ugly wooden pathways scattered all over the place. Drove past a few really small but very nice temples with tree trunks growing through them that seemed really nice as well, and best of all, no people, no pathways and no signs showing which way you should walk, so I think this might work out after all.You will need authorisation to take photos of this kind from the APSARA National Authority
Might be a photoshoot but we're not talking big scale or anything commercial. Simply just a crazy girl with clown paint in the face running around using the ten second timer, so I guess I'll be fine, never had any problems before (other than tons of people wanting their picture taken with me or my other random clowns, and that's not really much of a problem)
I am aware that it might be culturally insensitive (that's why I didn't have a clown shoot in the Buddha park in Vientiane, even though that would have been a great location), but most of the temples at Angkor are defined as ruins and not temples, especially the small ones, right?
