Amazing Angkor!

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Hi Everyone,

Apoligies if this blog is written a bit weirdly but we have decided to write a bit each day while we are in Siem Reap as we have free internet at the hotel. Also we don't want to write about Angkor all in one go because I think we would forget a lot of stuff! (We also have to download the pictures to Deans gadget everyday because there are many!!!)

So I think we last wrote about Battambang... we left early in the morning to get on a five hour bumpy bus journey to Siem Reap. The road was pretty awful in parts as it is being re-built which is why it ended up taking so long to do quite a short journey. When we finally got there we stumbled across another really good bargain place to stay called Bakong Hotel. Upstairs smart room are like 15 dollars but he had 2 cheap rooms for five dollars a night out the back, and it's right near all the stuff to see in Siem Reap too, including bar street where we will be sampling some cheap beer/cocktails at some point after seeing Angkor..........

Our first afternoon was spent looking around, it's pretty touristy as you would expect but it has a really good atmosphere and I think we are lucky because it seems like it is a lot quieter then it normally would be this time of year. On our first night we ended up having dinner at a place called Amok (that's the name for Cambodias national dish which is soooo yummy!). It turned out to be a bit more pricey than what we have been eating lately but it was well worth it and it was still only six pounds for everything, bargain! We also found a really good little place to eat and drink. Its down the lively little street opposite and is a true bargain as most drinks are 2 for 75p and Dean's double happy because the deal includes a long list of world beers! Think we will be coming back a lot before we leave here! We ended up trying a couple of cocktails as they were two for 1.50 so we could't resist and due to us not having a drink for rather a long time I was pretty tipsy and Dean well.... We ended up walking right past our hotel on the way back and had to back track, whoops, we did stumble across the night market though which is pretty good.

Our first day exploring the Angkor Temples started off really well. We found a great guy to cart us around in his motorbike tuk tuk for 15 dollars for the day, so off we went. First stop was the main ticket office to get a three day pass so we could see everything properly and not rush around just seeing the main sights. We decided to save the 'best until last ' (xmas pressie theory!) so our three day intinery will be to take in the remote smaller temples and then work our way up to the bigger more impressive ones. Banteay Srei was our first and furthest temple which turned out to be a pretty good start. It is about 30min drive from the main sights so we had a pretty ride through little villages, paddy fields and of course tourist souvenir stalls along the road (there is so much stuff we would love to buy out here, if only we could afford a truck to drive it all home). Banteay Srei is a Hindu temple cut from stone and was constructed in 967 (i.e. VERY OLD!!!) It features what is said to be some of the finest ancient stone carving seen anywhere in the world. It was definately worth the trip out as the detail was amazing. It was a really pretty little temple as the rock has a pinkish colour to it, along with the very intricate well preserved carving it really was something.

After an impressive start we headed back towards Banteay Samre, which has had extensive renovation work done so its in a remarkably good state. There are so many children, as well as adults, trying to sell you stuff and it is so hard to say no, especially to the children. At this temple there were two little girls trying to sell little brass figures, unfortunatley a lot of the children are pushed into selling instead of going to school, you could see these girls dads sleeping in the bushes behind them. It's not the best situation but when you visit countries as poor as here you have to understand how desperate they are just to put some food on the table. Anyway the little girls, Layer and Nang, were so lovely they said they wanted to sell stuff to get pens, paper etc for school. In the end I thought the best thing to do was search my bag for pens and paper to give them. It was so lovely as they were so delighted with them. I tried to teach them how to play naughts and crosses under a tree for a while and failed as I left them scribbling zeros and crosses across the page. They were happy enough though, two big smiles on their faces :-)

We spent quite a while exploring Banteay Samre. It was so much more impressive than the write up in the book. There are four wings surrounding the central temple and it generally felt near to what it might have been like back in its time. We were also really lucky because there was hardly any tourist groups around today, just a few couples, which made it feel much more special.

After that we went to see Banteay Kdei via Sra Srang. Banteay Kdei is a massive Buddhist Monestry with a huge entrance gates (North, East, South, West) all of which are topped with the four faces of Avalokiteshavra, Clare and Si would really love it here, huge faces EVERYWHERE!. Like Banteay Samre, it was the kind of place that you could really let your imagination go on what it must have been like back in it's hay day, again it was brilliant. So far we really couldn't believe how impressive these 'minor' temples were.

The last temple of the day was the one we both were looking forward to the most, Ta Prohm. It was so atmospheric because it looks like the jungle around it has slowly crept in over the centuries and swallowed large chunks of it, leaving big exposed roots and ruined stone walls. The surrounding trees made the sun more bearable too and it there were great views of the huge temple complex with the sunlight filtering through the leaves. There were loads of courtyard spaces and tiny corridors to explore with rubble and vegetation everywhere. We were again lucky enough to somehow visit when there was hardly anyone around so it just added to the whole Indina Jones type experience. I had the Indiana Jones theme tune stuck in my head all afternoon! You know how it goes :-) Incidentally part of the Tomb Raider film was made here, theres even a Tomb Raider Tree, Dean was disappointed there was no Angelina Jolie though!

Sorry this blog if this blog is like reading a history book, but Angkor is the place for history! We asked our tuk tuk guy to pick us up at 5am the next morning because we wanted to see the sunrise at our first temple of the day, Bayon the Temple of Faces!

Our tuk tuk driver was ready and waiting ready to go so off we went in the dark. As we went past Angkor Wat there were hordes of tourists scrambling towards its gates, but we decided to keep going as we heard good things of Bayon and intend to see Angkor Wat at sunrise the following morning. Bayon is within the huge ancient walled city of Angkor Thom. The south entrance to Angkor Thom really impressed us, a sight in its own right. We pulled up to all the giant stone faces of Bayon subtley smiling out in all directions in the morning light. There were so many standing towers (apparently thirty seven in total) and most of these had carved faces on all four sides. Clare and Si would really appreciate the amount of talent and work in creating such huge sculpture in ancient times (you 2 have to come here one day!) As the sun came up the faces started to light up one by one, which made it all quite magical, especially because again somehow we were the only ones looking around (bar another couple we saw walking to the other side when we left). It was so beautiful that we decided to sit on a huge boulder in the middle of the courtyard and have a Bayon breakfast of fruit before we had a proper nose around.

We walked around the ground level first before going up to face the faces :-) It's so good to be able to get so close to all the amazingly detailed sculptures. On the next level you could have touched the faces if you had wanted to. Another good start, I don't think you could beat it!

After Bayon we carried on to explore the rest of Angkor Thom. First was Baphuon a huge temple mountain and again there was not another tourist to be seen. However, there were hundreds of Cambodian people there lined up ready to see the king - we reckon he is following us! It was great to see everyone out with all there flags and pictures in a scene reminiscent of Phnom Penh. The entry gate and elevated walkway to the temple were particularly impressive because you had a better idea of what it must of been like back in time with loads of people either side as there they were, waiting for the king! Dean thought it was nice of them all to show up just to see us! The main area is not open to the public yet, that's why the king was visiting today. We had a good look around the outside though and you could see all the construction that was going on, another impressive temple!

We walked along the Terrace of Elephants which must have been over two meters tall which featured loads of, you guessed it, carved elephants. They were all very finely sculpted and after looking around the area we went onto our next temple called Preah Khan.

Preah Khan was like a huge maze and was full of corridors and passages to different chambres and hidden carvings. Again it felt very adventurous because spookily again we were the only ones here (until just before we left). It used to be a Buddhist monastery and after looking around it seemed quite different to the other temples we have been to so far. There was also a roman column type building amongst it all which looked completely out of place.

By now the temperature was really starting to hot up (10am!) and we decided to head back to town via a couple of smaller temples near Ta Keo. The smaller temples were really well restored so we decided to take in the towering Ta Keo aswell. It was a plainly decorated temple after seeing the others but it was still made up of huge sandstone blocks. Apparently it was never finished but if it had of been it would have been one of the finest structures in Angkor.

When we got back to town we needed an early lunch and after walking past a nice looking place called Blue Pumpkin I finally got Dean in :-) It was a weird place because everything was bright white and the seating was either on a long settee type cushioned bench along the walls or a weird sixties type plastic chair. It was ultra posh and is the kind of place youd find at home (well London). We planned to meet our guy again at 5am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Our driver (keep forgetting his name as it's quite weord) was there ready and waiting again. Angkor Wat was well worth leaving for our last temple seeing day. It was very picturesque (pics!!) and was deinatly worth getting up so early for. We sat on the front wall watching the sun rise and eating out breakfast while a few tour groups carryied on in like there was some kind of rush. Again we seem to be really lucky because there were hardly any people around! Seem to have timed it really well.

Angkor Wat is unique and more so than some of the other temples it takes your breath away some how. It is surrounded by a huge moat which forms a giant rectangle around the perimeter walls. Most of the tourists were heading in to the central temple for sunrise. We opted to sit of the banks of the moat and watch the sun come up over the water. A good decision in retrospect as it was waaaay quieter and still beautiful (see dawn pictures!). After this we walked down the main entrance causeway, through the courtyards and towards the main central structure. The huge sandstone blocks that make up the mighty wat were painstakingly rafted from a place 50K away and then carted here by elephant (beat that Stonehenge!). It must of been tough all those years ago to do something as difficult and complex as this before they even started construction! I won't keep on with the history lesson because the pictures show it all better than I can explain (plenty of pics as you can imagine!). Angkor was so huge and in such remarkable condition we spent most of the morning looking around. To cut it short we saw the tall central temple complex first and then went around the surrounding outside walls covered in Bas-Reliefs (which are very intricate pictorial carvings of various stories of battles and myths). These were equally as impressive and it is definately something that you have to see if you visit. From here we headed back to Siem Reap to catch up on some much needed sleep! All in all it justified is status as a reason in itself to visit Cambodia.

After so much overly mature temple touring we decided to act our age again and hit Bar St for a true friday night out. We had a lovely meal again at Amok (why not? Its that good!!!) After dinner we (un)wisely decided to try and do a cocktail offer bar crawl. Essentially the idea was to have one of the promotional cocktails at each bar. Needless to say we didnt make it round all of them and ended up getting way way to drunk! So not for the first time were both hungover today, though we are in a smart hotel fr our last night though (5 quid). Dean says to Russ and Marc (and all the men) beer at 33p a go is as great as it sounds, you even get free peanuts! We took a little video to give you an idea of the vibe on the streets in the evening, not what you would think Cambodia would be like. Great fun!

Anyway off you go to tawl through the endless photos!!! In other news Dean went to get a haircut on the back on the Hotel managers motorbike one night. What with the language barrier and general confusion of the word short he came back with his head completely shaved!!!!! Haha itll grow back soon enough! Also Clare and Si I found the choc bar from the Goonies in the corner shop here, it actually exists! Check out the picture of it!

Speak to you all soon hopefully later if we can work the phones!

Loads of love,
Sar & Dean.

PS Dean asks if stuart is looking forward to seeing England in Euro 2008? Oh wait they didnt qualify!!! 😊 He is miffed though as there is much point in following it now. But more importantly best of luck to ales today against the South Africans in the rugby! Come on Cymru!

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