The Temples of Angkor
23rd February 2007
The name ‘Angkor Wat’ did ring some distant bells in my alcohol impaired, culturally starved memory, but until we arrived here in Siem Reap, North Eastern Cambodia, I had no idea of the wondrous nature of this historical site, that rightly represents a source of national pride for all Khmers (and the centre piece of the national flag!).
The temples of Angkor were the capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer people. There are over 100 temples in the area, built between AD 800 and 1400. Each ruling King strove to improve on his predecessors efforts by building larger, more elaborate, perfectly symmetrical temples that culminate in the world’s largest religious building, Angkor Wat. The temples were abandoned to nature during the 1600s and were effectively swallowed by the surrounding jungle. As the area has slowly opened up again in recent years (following the return of peace to Cambodia), the temples have been cleared to different extents, making for a real ‘tomb raider’ style exploring experience (although sadly lacking Angelina Jolie!).
We had grand plans of heading to the temples for sunset on our first evening in Siem Reap, but unfortunately, an over running afternoon knap put paid to that idea! Eager to make up for lost time, we headed out early the next morning with our new found friend / guide Cobb, and his trusty Tuk Tuk. Our first stop was Angkor Wat itself, the big daddy!
As we approached Angkor Wat, we were both awestruck by the size of the surrounding moat! At 190m wide, the moat forms a perfect rectangle measuring a mere 1.5km by 1.3kms! After negotiating our way through the dozens of Khmers selling refreshments outside the temple (a welcome opportunity to re-hydrate, this place is so hot it hurts!) and the seemingly billions of Korean tour groups, we made our way onto the causeway and across the moat. Crossing the moat felt to me much like walking down the mall on the approach to Buckingham palace, although in a more spectacular setting! When we entered the temple itself, we were simply blown away (thankfully not by a land mine – see next blog!). The temple is constructed of HUGE sandstone blocks, and is in surprisingly good condition. We spent the next 3/4 hours wandering around the place, trying to take it in (and navigate the dangerously steep steps!). I can’t possibly begin to describe how special this place is, Angkor Wat is simply awesome!
After a spot of lunch, our next stop was the temple Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is very different to Angkor Wat, much smaller, but having been left to its own devices alongside the advancing jungle, equally impressive. Ta Prohm was used as the set for some of the scenes in the film tomb raider, and after our obligatory shots by the ‘tomb raider’ tree, we spent a couple more hours wandering around the ruins, almost in isolation (thankfully the Korean tour groups had gone back to town for lunch!). The trees really are swallowing this temple up, and the huge roots intertwined with the stones of the temple make for some awesome sights!
Next up was Angkor Thom, a huge walled city in the heart of the site. Here we leisurely wandered around the ‘terrace of the elephants’ and the ‘terrace of the leppar king’, before heading down to Bayon temple. Bayon is unique among the temples of Angkor, made up of 54 huge towers, over 3 levels, each topped with 4 enormous smiling faces carved into the stone. That’s 216 smiling faces, enough for everyone to grab a quiet moment, and a photo with a smiling face, despite the return of the 12 billion Koreans!
To end the day, we headed up the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng to take in the sunset with Angkor Wat in the background. As the sun set in the hazy sky, we reflected on what had been a great day. In my view, the temples of Angkor are on a par with Machu Picchu in Peru, but there are so many more, totally different sites to explore, and they are all in really close proximity. It would be possible to walk around the sights in a couple of days, but thankfully we had Cobb and his Tuk Tuk to ferry us around and save our legs for the exploring inside the sites themselves.
Next morning we were up at 4.30am, to grab our spot at Angkor Wat for sunrise. Despite the early start it was definitely worth it, the sunrise over the ancient temple outshone (sorry!) the sunset of the previous evening.
From here we headed out to 2 of the more remote sites. As you move away from the main temples, the crowds quickly diminish, but unfortunately so does the paved road! Still, Charlotte and I still managed to grab some sleep, despite being thrown around in the back of our Tuk Tuk!
Our first stop was Banteay Srei, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. The temple is cut from a pinkish stone, with some of the most unbelievably detailed carvings you could imagine! From here we headed out to the even more remote Kbal Spean site, which involved a 2 mile trek through the jungle to reach an intricately carved river bed, also known as the ‘river of a thousand lingas’.
We had a 2 hour return journey to Siem Reap through some beautiful country side, where unfortunately, the local Khmer people are struggling to exist in extremely poor conditions, and work the land which is still plagued by mines. To their unparalleled credit, the Khmer people always have huge smiles on their faces and love to interact with tourists, not surprisingly enjoying the peace after so many horrors in the last 30 years or so. Cambodia is an amazing place!
Tags: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, New Zealand, Siem Reap, Temples, Vietnam
Chris and Charl
Think this country needs to go a wish list, you both look so happy in the photos.
Mum
Cambodia is definately one of our favourite countries from this trip…..largely due to the people we have met.
We are both having a wonderful, but somewhat emotional, time here. So much so that we are intending to extend our stay by a few days in order to travel North to see some more of the less – traveled areas of the country.
Missing you all loads
Lots of love
Us two