I would like to share some photos of Banteay Kdei in the Angkor Archaeological Park, taken in December 2009. On the day I took these photos, I was returning to the city from Banteay Srei and still had some time before heading back to Bangkok. So I asked the driver of the tuk-tuk I had chartered to stop by some temple ruins, and he brought me to this site.
Since this visit was an unplanned “extra stop,” I honestly entered the ruins thinking that I would not see anything particularly impressive. However, the site turned out to be unexpectedly large, and the wall reliefs were so beautiful that I even felt they might surpass those of Ta Prohm. The scale of the ruins was far greater than the amount of time I had left before my departure, which put me in a difficult situation. I ended up rushing through the site to the limit of my physical strength, and I even found myself irrationally blaming the driver for not including such an amazing temple on a day when I had more time (laugh).
Because of this hurried visit, I was unable to confirm the name of the temple on-site, and I learned that it was called Banteay Kdei only after returning home. Compared with Angkor Wat, Bayon, or Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei seems to be less well-known, but it is a temple with a level of visual appeal comparable to Ta Prohm, so I recommend it to anyone who has enough time.
I also have a large number of photos of Banteay Kdei in my archive, and I hope to share more images of its wall reliefs on another occasion.
