Temples of Angkor

Trip Start Sep 01, 2005
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Trip End May 11, 2006


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Sunday, April 23, 2006

Using words it's hard to convey how massive the temples of Angkor are, and without actually going there -which everyone should- it's hard to imagine how utterly amazing they are. The temples are mind blowing in every way. They're huge in the area they cover-some 65 kilometres around Siem Reap, and astounding in the scale and complexity of the architecture-Angkor Wat is 170 metres wide by 6500 metres long, Preah Neak Pean is a monument within the centre of a series of raised artificial lakes themselves surrounded by a 900 metre by 500 metre man made reservoir.

The mind boggles at the man power than must have been required to erect or excavate such ambitious designs. According to inscriptions just one of the temples is said to have taken 80,000 men simply for maintainenance. The temples were built nearly 1000 years ago and a lot of them still stand to this day-genius, probably more would be upright if it weren't for the encroaching jungle 01-Angkor Wat from the top of Phenom Bakheng
01-Angkor Wat from the top of Phenom Bakheng
 . It's hard to stand amongst the masonry and not feel a sense of awe for the men who managed such an amazing architectural feat for their time.

Tickets for Angkor come in the form of 1 day, 3 day, and 7 day passes; 1 day is barely enough to take in just a couple of the temples- there are 9 in total. I bought a 3 day pass, which at USD40 is comparatively darn expensive. On my first evening in Angkor I went to see sunset from the top of Phenom Bakheng. Sunset was obscured by cloud on the horizon. My intention was to come back the next day for sunrise at Angkor Wat but I ended up going out with a few guys from the hostel so it never happened- I still got to see some temples the next day though. On Sunday I made it for sunrise at around 6am, which well worth the early rise.

On Saturday evening I went to see a Cello concert at the Siem Reap concert hall. It was a free concert and the cellist, Beat Richner, turned out to be a Swiss and a doctor at the next door children's hospital. He talked more about Cambodian paediatrics and Western neglect than he did play Cello, but that was interesting anyway. I changed my bus ticket for Monday so I could donate blood at the hospital, which is one of three children's hopitals set up in Cambodia by the 49 year old Swiss.
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