Temples of Angkor
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
51
122
Trip End
Ongoing
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Thursday, March 2, 2006
We decided to start with a sunrise and got up at some ridiculous hour to meet our tuk tuk driver "Phe" by 5 am. First off we had to part with some serious cash to buy our three day pass for the temples - 80 US Dollars (ouch!).
Realising that this place was a tour group mecca, we decided to try out some aversion tactics as recommended by our guide book: to do the same temples as the tour groups, but in the reverse order.
So first we went to Phnom Bakheng for sunrise - usually "the" place to go for sunset
Angkor Wat (1)
. It was a pretty steep climb to the top over some fairly uneven ground, in the dark. Luckily we had our torches and made it to the top in about 20 minutes.When we arrived there was only one other person there, and we checked out as much of the temple as we could see while we were waiting for the sun to rise. After a while, another (Aussie) couple showed up with their tour guide. Their guide came up to us and told us we were very smart to come here first as it was usually only him and another guide that came up here at sunrise - so we felt pretty chuffed with ourselves.
The sun showed its face at about 6:30am, beautiful and bright red among the clouds, with a view of Angkor Wat in the background. It was a wonderful way to start the day.
After having another look around the temple and helping the other couples guide work out how to use his mobile phone(!), we started the walk back down to meet Phe and head for the next temple on our list, Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm is different to other temples in Angkor as it has been left to "be swallowed up by the jungle"
Angkor Wat (2)
. It is also known as the "tomb raider" temple as it was used in some of the scenes from the movie. We really loved this place, we were just amazed by all of it.Next we were off to the temple of Preah Khan, one of the largest in Angkor. Some of the carvings here were pretty amazing and it took some time to get through it all. By this stage it was getting close to the middle of the day and the sun and humidity were becoming unbearable - time to take a break.
After lunch we went to the area known as Angkor Thom, a fortified city. There are a few temples in this area, the most major of which is currently under renovation. For some reason we just didn't "get" this place, and along with the fact that it was quite open to the scorching sun which was literally melting us - we decided to move on to the nearby temple known as the Bayon.
The Bayon is unique because of its huge "faces" carved into the stone towers of the temple. The rest of the carvings here are also pretty intricate, so we spent some time here just trying to take it all in and appreciate it all.
By the time we had finished here we were pretty exhausted, but there was one more temple that we wanted to see in time for sunset - Angkor Wat. Poor Phe had been second guessing us all day. Every time he made a suggestion of which temple to see next, we would say no, we want to see a different one. But, after the Bayon we jumped back into the tuk tuk and Phe turned to us, with a big smile on his face and said "Angkor Wat?" - you got it Phe!
Angkor Wat (3)
!We pulled up just outside Angkor Wat to see a massive array of tour buses, tuk tuks and motos. It was what we were expecting but after a relatively tour group free day we felt a little jaded and braced ourselves for the onslaught. And boy we got it, as soon as we walked through the entrance.
As we walked in, we noticed that there was a group of monks visiting the temple. They seemed to be more of an attraction that the temple itself with people surrounding them with cameras, people wanting to have there photos taken with them, it was a total circus.
It was too much for us already and we tried to find a "quiet" spot to read up on the temple before we went in. We managed to find one, and it wasn't long before the monks found it too, along with a couple of other like minded travellers who wanted to read up on the temple. Of course before long the monks were spotted and the tour groups had their cameras out again. The monks looked pretty uncomfortable, so we were trying to have a bit of a laugh with them, telling them to put up their fingers like bunny ears behind the tourists heads. After the tour groups took their photos and left, the monks felt a bit more comfortable talking to us and joked that we looked like we were in school because we all had our books out reading
Banteay Samre (1)
. One monk came up to Glenn and asked if he would mind helping to practice his English. They had a chat for a while and we discovered that the monk was the English teacher to the students in his village. He then invited us back to his village so that we could meet his students and asked if maybe we could have conversations with them too. We happily agreed, and arranged to meet him at his village two days later.As the sun was getting lower we decided that we should make our way into the temple. It was quite large, and as we walked up the sandstone causeway to the main temple building, we were reminded a bit of the Taj Mahal, not that it looked the same, but just that symmetry seemed so important. We quickly made our way through the library buildings to the central temple, which was really tall with extremely steep but small steps leading to the top. To get to the top you needed to climb up the stairs with both hands and feet. We got to the top without any hassle and tried to take advantage of the sunset light for photos. Realising that the photo opportunities were better outside we decided to make our way back out to the front of the building. Only problem was that there was a massive queue for the exit! We did make it to the front of the temple for sunset but we were disappointed, not just with the light but with Angkor Wat in general - and we don't really know why. Maybe it was that it wasn't as grand or interesting as we had expected, or that there were thousands upon thousands of tourists, or that we were just so tired at the end of a long day
Banteay Samre (2)
.Today we decided not to get up so early and we met with Phe at 7am to see some of the outlying areas around Siem Reap. The first place on our list was Kbal Spean, not a temple as such, but a carved riverbed set deep in the jungle to the north of Angkor.
It took us almost two hours to get out there, and by the time we arrived we were ready to stretch our legs. The walk to the riverbed was really nice, lots of trees and vines and boulders - a pleasant escape from the weather, even though most of the walk was up hill. We eventually came to the riverbed where we found the first set of carvings in the rocks, all Hindu images. There was a family from Malaysia there at the same time as us, and being Hindus, they were able to explain some of the meaning behind it all (we obviously didn't learn enough in India!).
We made our way past most of the carvings and followed the riverbed down. There was a park ranger hanging out in one particular area, he was a cool little old Khmer bloke that obviously loved his job - particularly the part where he got to point out the carving of a crocodile - to everyone that went past. He would just keep on pointing it out with a big smile and a little chuckle.
We soon got to a waterfall which was the end of the area with carvings. Being the dry season it wasn't spectacular, but there was still water falling which was more than we expected.
After that we started the walk back to meet Phe and headed to our next destination, the temple of Banteay Srei
Banteay Srei (1)
.Banteay Srei was quite different to the temples we had seen the previous day, small in size, amazingly intricate carvings and all made out of a pink stone. There were some lovely Khmer characters hanging out at this temple too, cute little old ladies and curious little kids, it made for a nice experience compared to some of our temple visits the day before.
We began the drive back towards Siem Reap and decided that we would stop at one more temple along the way, Banteay Samre.
We enjoyed our time here, as there were hardly any other tourists around and we got to have a bit of an explore on our own. But by the time we had finished here we were exhausted and although it was only 3pm we were happy to call an end to the day and headed back to the guest house for a nice cold shower.
