APOPO Hero Rat Centre

The APOPO Hero Rat Centre is a training and education centre near Angkor Wat, Founded in Belgium, the APOPO program uses giant rats from Africa to help locate land mines in Cambodia and around the world and has already helped clear over 33 million square metres of land of land mines and unexploded ordinance.

Some examples of the mines that APOPO's rats have located in the past.

Our tour guide explaining some of the history of the APOPO program.

Explaining the procedure used to clear an area of landmines.

A trip wire mine, and this one is not even hidden.

This mine is designed to target vehicles, and as you can see would be quite difficult to spot in the jungle.

One of APOPO's rats and its handler, ready to give us a demonstration of their abilities at detecting landmines.

The rats are tethered so that their team is able to map out cleared areas.

Mel holding one of APOPO's retired rats. The rats take about 9 months to train and work for 4 to 5 years before they are retired.

Lori and one of the retired APOPO rats that live at the centre.

My turn to hold the rat and he decided to run up my arm and perched on my shoulder for a bit before heading back to the staff member that was here with us.

There is a gift shop here as well, and the proceeds go towards funding the APOPO program. We picked up some shirts and stubby holders and I bought a money clip made from spent bullet casings, as we were working mostly with cash in Cambodia and the money clip I'd brought with me didn't hold enough bills.

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Ta Prohm aka. The Tomb Raider Temple

After Angkor Wat, one of the first temples in Cambodia that springs to mind is Ta Prohm, known by many as the Tomb Raider temple. While some claim that one of the Indiana Jones movies was shot here as well, there is no proof of that.

Built in the 12th century and abandoned in the 15th, when the temple was rediscovered in the early 20th century, several large trees had set roots through the temple walls. Early restoration efforts mostly involved clearing the scrub and making the temple accessible, but the size of the roots and how they had grown between the sandstone blocks of the temple walls made removing them impossible.

As you enter Ta Prohm from the east, just before you get to the main temple area, you pass a Dharmasala, or firehouse (literally a house with a fire where pilgrims can rest on their travels).

Ta Prohm is famous for it's trees, such as this one that featured in the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie. While much of the vegetation has been cleared now, quite a few of the larger trees were deliberately left to give an impression of what the temple looked like prior to the last 30 years of careful restoration.

As with some of the other Angkor temples, Ta Prohm is quite the labyrinth of passageways, with some amazing interior decor to be seen.

Apsara dancers decorate the walls of this hall of Ta Prohm.

While there are not as many of the story telling bas reliefs as there are at some other temples, there is certainly no shortage of carvings on the walls, such as this multi headed naga serpent.

As with many Angkor temples, works to restore Ta Prohm are ongoing, with the Indian government working with Cambodian locals in this case. That said, Ta Prohm is intended to be carefully restored, leaving some of the ruins as they are.

The restoration works have included laying timber walkways throughout Ta Prohm to make the temple safer for tourists.

These temple ruins may look neglected, but that is intentional here, with much of the restoration work focussing on stabilizing the ruins of Ta Prohm as they are.

There is no shortage of discussion about what the animal in the centre carving here is. There is no definitive answer as to why there appears to be a stegosaurus carved into the walls of Ta Prohm.

Part of the beautiful, and still standing, exterior of the Ta Promh temple building.

We visited Ta Prohm in the afternoon in late September, and while there are less tourists than you would find earlier in the day, and in the drier months, Ta Prohm was still quite busy. If (or when) we come back to Cambodia, I'd love to get a 7 day Angkor pass and spend another hour or 2 just taking in some of these temples as even though we did not rush through them, it still seems there is much more to be seen here.

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Royal Enclosure and Phimeanakas Temple

After exploring Bayon and Baphuon temples, we were nearly ready to find somewhere to cool off and have some lunch, but first, we had to get back to Sophorn and his air conditioned van. Simon lead us on a little loop through the ruins of the outer walls of the the Royal Enclosure, past the Phimeanakas Temple pyramid, a smaller three tier temple with the remains of a gallery on the top tier and out to the main road, through the centre section of the Terrace of the Elephants.

The outer walls of the Royal Enclosure have long since been overgrown by jungle, making for some amazing scenery as you follow the trail through to Phimeanakas Temple.

As much as I really enjoyed the restored temples we saw, seeing these walls, still standing after nearly a thousand years, but now covered in greenery was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

The Royal Enclosure was once home to the Royal Palace although these days there is not much left aside from Phimeanakas Temple and a couple of sandstone pools, but it must have been an amazing site when it was home to the kings of Angkor.

Phimeanakas temple is another of the pyramid style temple, meant to represent an eartly embodiement of Mount Meru. The temple is currently off limits and there are plans to restore some of the upper levels.

Approaching the Terrace of the Elephants from the Royal Enclosure, the terrace was used for public gatherings and royal displays.

View through a missing section of the Royal Enclosure wall to the centre section of the Terrace of the Elephants.

Standing on the Grand Entrance at the Terrace of the Elephants, this gopura served as an entrance to the Royal Enclosure and the Royal Palace.

These stairs lead up to the Grand Entrance part of the Terrace of the Elephants, named for the carvings of the grand elephant parade that adorn most of this 350 metre long terrace. This centre section however, is decorated with garuda and lions and topped with statues of lions and naga.

There was certainly plenty to see here, walking through the jungle, past temple ruins and former palace grounds, and just like so many of the other temples we visited during this trip you can't help but feel that a second, third or fourth visit may be needed to fully explore this area.

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