The Baphuon is another big temple in Angkor Thom. It is a mid-11th century temple mountain originally built as the state temple of Udayadityavarman II dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. Then it was converted to a Buddhist temple, which is why they then built a statue of reclining Buddha on the other side of the temple. Of course by now, that reclining Buddha is almost invisible...
If you look at below photo very very carefully and very very focused, maybe you can still see the Buddha?
Near the Baphuon temple was where the Royal palace used to be, but because they built the palace in wood instead of stones like the temples, of course you don't see the palace any more lah! The only thing left is the big Royal swimming pool that used to be frequent by the King's many concubines, but now only filled with weeds...
Traveling further into Angkor Thom, we reached two famous terraces. The Elephant Terrace where the king used to sit to watch... elephant racing!
And then there is the Leper King Terrace. No lah, the king didn't have Leper lah, but because the Hindu god statue's fingers already disappeared by the time they discovered it, these smart alecs thought maybe the king got Leper lor! Some more this is not even the king's statue! It's their Hindu king of justice like our Chinese's Hell King to judge us after we die lah!
Below the Leper King statue is a series of bas-reliefs on the winding walls, machiam like a little maze below. It is said that this maze is meant for those people who passed away (choy!) and after they walked in the maze they'll become so blur they'll forget about their previous life. Even more efficient than our Chinese's Meng Po soup!
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