Siem Reap

In fact, we actually did have Wi-Fi for the past month or so. We’ve just been lazy in posting, so now we are blasting through a flurry of updates to get y’all up to date.

Two countries ago we were in Cambodia. On its flag, they have blue and red stripes, and a temple complex on it. The temple is Angkor Wat, located next to the city of Siem Reap, and that’s the only place we went.

Angkor Wat

On the 14th of February, we rode into the city by Minibus after a grueling journey. (We’ve had a lot of those recently) We got a Tuk-Tuk to drive us to the hotel we wanted, Shadow of Ankor I. Fortunately, it was full, so we had to go to its much more high rise counterpart, Shadow of Angkor II. It may or may not have been cheaper, but we sure got a great value. A nice, classy room with wood floor and a hot shower, along with Wi-Fi in the room, for nothing but 35 dollars. It was probably the best value we have gotten so far.

We hired a Tuk-Tuk driver to take us out among the ruins, for three days. And we needed three days. The Temples were huge, and pretty far apart. It was also incredibly hot, and we needed the cool breeze we got from taking the small car. The first day, and first stop, was the famous Angkor Wat. It was supposed to represent the universe; a moat surrounding it, the different passageways being mountain ranges, and the giant tower in the middle represents mount Mari, the temple of the gods. Around the outside of the temple, in a passageway, was large carving after large carving of battles and a few other scenes. Mostly battles though.

Murals in Angkor Wat

That that the most interesting part, but the enormous, steep tower in the middle was also intricately carved and had great views.

Angkor Wat Tower Steps

Next on our Tuk-Tuk driver’s grand tour was Angkor Thom, an even bigger complex with more empty space.

Elephants!

The central temple complex was smaller than Angkor Wat’s, and a bit less well kept up, but still very nice. Giant serene heads dominated the temple. It was more ruiney and less people, so it felt a little bit more like you were exploring it by yourself. Kind of.

Serene faces at Angkor Thom

We moved on to see the Leper king and Elephant Terrace. By then we (mostly meaning Emma and me) were tired and hot, and so Emma and I didn’t have as much fun. The elephant terrace was a bit repetitive, but majestically carved, and the Leper king terrace had dozens of small figures, but was a little bit smaller.

Oddly enough, the Terrace of the Leper king had nothing to do with Leprosy. They had only found a large statue of a king, with so much moss and lichen growing on it that it appeared to have the skin disease. The statue is in the museum somewhere.

After the Terraces, we managed to convince our Tuk-Tuk driver that we actually were finished, and didn’t want to spent the entire day there, and No, we did not want to visit the Floating Market. We made it back to our hotel and rested the rest of the day.

The consecutive visits were of small, slightly unmemorable temples which began to look the same and blend together. It was also very hot in the middle of the day, making us tired, and when we got up early to miss the heat, I was tired from lack of sleep. They were still interesting, and an overgrown one was fun to visit to see what the temples were like without much restoration. The whole place was full of supports and rope to keep the temple from collapsing.

Overgrown temple

We visited the museum also, which was really great and air conditioned. It had an interesting and detailed history of Cambodia, and also educated me a lot about Hunduism and the Cambodian version. I really enjoyed it, and would easily recommend it.

That was the basic overview of our stay in Angkor Wat.