ANGKOR WAT
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
69
319
Trip End
Sep 02, 2009
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Friday, December 5, 2008
So disappointed that I lost the last of yesterday.
We went on to Bayon. There are 37 standing towers and most of them have 4 faces on them looking down at all of us exploring the ruins. It is amazing how each and everyone is made, so different from the one before. The reliefs here show every day life, sea battles between the Khmer and the Cham. We enjoyed the walk up and down and in and out. At times I felt like I was back climbing up the steps towards Namche as they are about 14 inches high and some are very narrow so I put my foot down on the side as straight forward would not fit.
Friday.
Our driver came and picked us up on time. We went back to the same area as Bayon, this is part of Ankor Thom. Just after entering the park we saw elephants, about 12 of them with people on their backs being taken from the outer entrance to just by the temple. If we had known I think we would have taken an elephant ride here. I am sure we will find one somewhere along the way.
Ankor Thom was the last capital of the Ankorian empire. This was built in 1181, it has some of the greatest temples including Jayavaman's state temply Bayon which we seen yesterday. There is a lot of restructuring being done here. They have taken apart the whole centre temple and are in the process of redoing it. This has been going on since 1970?. They took it apart, numbered each piece, then there was the wars, rains that partially destroyed the foundation. So we learned how these were built, with sand in the centre, then large sandstone blocks outside and the finished blocks they carved on the sandstone. Then the plants grew in and screwed up all the drainage systems. So now they are back to work. They found that some of the pieced were taken and a large reclining Buddah was made with them. So they are now making new stones to complete the temple. We then walked along the elephant walk way, reliefs of elephants along the wall below and elephant statues on the corners. This is so massive it is hard to comprehend who made these Angkors, designed, constructed, labour force, and where did the materials come from. Found an English guide and he told us the labour was paid, or slaves, or volunteers who did it for the King. The blocks came from a quarry about 50 kms from here.
We then went onto several smaller ruins along the road and just when you think you have seen it all there is something unique about each one. One was a temple surrounded by 4 moats. The next one was one of the oldest ones and had very small bricks and was part of the aquaduct system. We finished about 3:30 today. I was pretty tired as we did more climbing up and down today. The ruins cover an unbelieveable large area. For travellers coming here pick up a Siem Reap Visitor's Guide at any travel office. It is free and has a map of the Wat area and a brief description of each one.
So our tour here is over and we catch a 12 hour bus into Bangkok tomorrow. Should be fun!
Meant to say if you go to an ATM here to take money out you get US dollars! Not Riels the local currency. There are 4,000 Riels to the dollar so really easy to mix and match payment at stores and restaurants.
