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Published: January 15th 2006
Roots and temples
Just call me Harrison!Better than Egyptian ruins, ancient Greek ruins and Roman ruins are the incredible ruins of the ancient Khmer at Angkor. They are amazing. I had read quite a bit about them before going in but nothing could prepare me for what I saw. We woke up at 430AM so as to watch the sun rise over the massive temple of Angkor Wat. We hired a "tuk tuk' driver the day before. It is quite incredible but you pay $12 bucks and someone drives you around the entire day in one of these tuk tuk's. Tuk tuks are those two wheeled contraptions that are attached to the back of a motor bike. Sort of like a carriage for a motor bike. They are everywhere in Asia, and they are absolutely mad. It is such an experience driving with these guys. So sunrise was awesome. Just sat in silence and watched as this great temple was illuminated. These temples (of which there are over 100) were built by the Khmer nation back in the 11th century AD. We then walked around Angkor wat for about an hour. I was blown away. This temple is massive and the attention to detail is unmatched compared
Always watching
One of the 80 or so statues guarding the entrance way to Bayon temple. to anything I have seen. They had a 800 M long carved wall so intricately that you would not believe. It seemed as if every square inch of that temple was carved. This temple is the pride and joy of all Cambodians, it is even featured smack bang in the middle of their flag. We then went to Bayon temple which was actually my favourite temple. The entrance was is wicked! The road is lined by about 80 of these huge carved statues that lead to this brilliant archway. This archway was my favourite thing about the entire day. It was incredible. Probably about 40 meters high, made out of massive blocks and carved to perfection. The coolest thing was that at the top of it are four massive faces put together with these blocks, each one looking in the opposite direction. I would love that to be the entrance to my driveway one day!
We then went to a whole lot of temples, really amazing. Something you would expect to see in an Indiana Jones flick. The one was dubbed the 'Jungle Temple' because it was overgrown by these massive trees with roots going through walls and roofs. One
That archway!
How cool is this thing!! thing that was a bit annoying was all the people that follow you around trying to sell you anything. It is really tough. The kids have all the capital cities memorized, so you can imagine my surprise when I told someone that I was from SA and they replied, "Oh are you from the capital Pretoria?" I ended up buying 10 postcards from the little girl that got that. But the rest of the day these kids knew it as well.
Our driver Jen was awesome. Really funny. Oh and at the end of the day we watched sun set from the top of this mountain temple. Pretty pretty cool.
We could easily have spent an entire week there wondering around and really getting to know the place but by then I am sure we would have been all templed out.
At the moment I am in Phnon Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Interesting is the verdict so far heading down to the Cambodia coast tomorrow morn by myself as Dave has gone back to the states and Adam has gone to Vietnam to see his parents.
Picked up a photo copied copy of the Alchemist and The Things
Oh Dave
Riding in the back of our Tuk Tuk They Carried today. It is so crazy but they have all these boot legged copies of books that you can buy in Thailand and here. Paid 2 bucks a book.
Go see the temples of Angkor!
cheers
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sam
non-member comment
This is so WICKED SICK COOL BEANS AMAZING BRILLIANT. Oh my silly South African how I miss your growing vocabulary.