Angkor What ?

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So day 2 of my trip to Angkor and this is the first time I really have done a solid sightseeing adventure. The thing is it has started to feel a bit like I’ve seen it before. At the same time I can’t stop looking at the temples. They mesmerize you in some way that you have to look at each lots of different reasons such as intricate carving and see yet another Vishnu or Buddha. Somehow, all the same gods, in the different temples, manage to look totally different. This could be due to lots of various reasons such as the weather for example. Seeing the eroded remains of what was once a carefully stone carved face somehow fascinates me.
Today we started with what is dubbed; “the mother of all temples” Angkor Wat. This is widely considered the largest religious building in the world. What I found was that whilst the scale was gigantic, it seemed to be very empty in the middle. I could build the world’s biggest church by building a wall around a field 10miles squared and put nothing but an altar in the middle and its bigger. I have seen the Vatican, I have seen the forbidden city, both are huge monuments to man and what they can achieve that leave no space uncovered and I’m not saying Angkor Wat is by any means a disappointment, it’s just the way I see it.
As you walk along the western causeway into the main entrance. You are told to savour the moment as you will never get that back. I did and it was a feeling of anxiety mixed with excitement of seeing this monstrous building and what lay inside. We then got to the entrance and saw that there was a walkway that takes you around the whole parameter of the complex. You walk through to find lots of statues of Vishnu. The reason for this is said to be in two parts. The first says its because the king who had the temple built deified himself and based his godlike status on Vishnu. The second and more probable reason is, that Vishnu is seen a god to do with death and all that good stuff. The temple is also the only one in the whole of the Angkor region to face west. West in Buddhist religion is facing the way of death. It is therefore thought that Angkor wat was a mausoleum for the king that had it built (his name I can’t remember or spell).
After walking through the main entrance you walk into another causeway that seems about 300 meters long (I didn’t measure it). Flanking either side if this are two libraries or what used to be libraries. I can only describe them as old buildings. There was nothing special here apart from a huge hole in the floor that when you may be looking at the roof and carvings, you could fall into. I was the unlucky one that did.
Further on up the causeway you get to the base of the temple which is set on 3 floors. This base has four pools (now empty) I never found out what they were for so if you are reading this I would really like to know. After this you go up to the second floor, here there is not much a kind of court yard that goes around with carving and the heavenly nymphs on the wall. Now you have got over that I said nymphs, I will tell you about the disappointment of the temple.
The final and most splendid floor…… is now closed off to the public! I was devastated. The three famous conical towers cannot be seen from the inside any more as they are either restoring them (and not very well) or its now too dangerous to enter. Either way I was not pleased.
The highlight for me was searching for a little known fact about the temple. There is one carving in the whole 10kmsq area that has the woman in it showing her teeth. There are about 50,000 carvings at a guess in the whole complex and I was lucky enough to find it. I had read about it in a book that Dan got ripped off for. And followed the directions to where it was supposed to be. There was no joy and it was looking like I wasn’t going to find it. Just when I gave up a tour guide pointed it out to his group and I was happy again. It turned out to be nowhere, where the book described. The carving itself felt a lot more special knowing it was unique and that I had searched especially for it. The reason that it is unique? The person who did it wanted to be different which just shows you that there were rebels even back then.
After leaving Angkor wat, we decided to head to Angkor thom. This is another huge ancient city that is bigger than Angkor wat. The first thing we did was see about three other temples along the way. It I could now no longer distinguish the difference in the style of temple or the way that it was set out. I was unfortunately templed out by this point.
I saw some monkeys in Angkor thom that were pretty cool. There were people selling bananas to feed them but I just picked up a piece of grass and handed it to one monkey. When everyone else saw this they stopped buying bananas and started to give them grass. This definitely didn’t go down too well with the woman selling bananas who I think laid some kind of curse upon me but I seem to be alive still so that’s ok. The day seemed to wear on with us going to a few temples which Dan really wanted to see where I would have happily just walked around at my own pace and taken it in. instead I kind of felt hurried along by Dan and the enjoyment was kind of sucked out of it. After Angkor thom we started on our way back to see that the bakeng temple was now full of people and there were elephants and a huge torrent going up the hill to watch the sunset. I followed them and we waited for a while and eventually the sunset began and to be honest I could have watched a better sunset anywhere else as it was not that spectacular But at the same time the location was definitely a one off place to be.
The next day was our final day visiting the temples and Dan wanted to go and see a temple called bantay sarei. This was fine with me apart from the fact that it was a 37 km cycle there which meant it was 37 back too!!! So we set off to go and before we had even set off Dan was complaining about his bike, he then asked for another one and the only one they had left was a mountain bike which when Dan sat on it, his legs hit the handle bars. So we set off with Dan at the back complaining about his bike so I sped up a bit so I couldn’t hear him anymore. I stopped at the entrance gate to the temples and waited a good 5 minutes before Dan turned up. He had new thing to complain about now. He had stubbed his foot on the road and got a huge blood blister on the end of his bug toe. So he really wanted a band aid so he wouldn’t get an infection. I would have left it honestly. He found one and then I just asked him if he wanted to swap bikes, as it would have been much nice to carry on the day with as little complaining as possible.
Once I was on the new bike I realised I had been royally screwed over as it didn’t work at all. The chain kept slipping when my right foot came to pedal so I was to cycle 37 km on a heap of crap!!! We decided to see some more of Angkor thom on the way to the temple as we weren’t going to be there again. We saw some more of the same stuff and then eventually were on our way to bantay sarei. Dan wanted to see every temple along the way though making this journey last even longer than it needed to, I was at this point so uninterested by temples that the trip was now becoming a choir. I just pattered along and remembered all the reasons why I travel alone.
The road towards the temple was fairly scenic with lots to see until we came to a turn in the road where we were accosted by many taxi drivers offering to take us to the temple. I said I have a bike its fine, they looked at me as if I had some sort of third eye on the end of my nose when I told them I was cycling there. About 1 and half hours later I found out why. We set off down the road which had absolutely nothing but people’s houses and the wells that they used to wash drink and pretty much was their main and only source of clean water. This was really interesting to see how the people that were not involved in tourism lived. The every deteriorating bike was now about to get thrown into the next oncoming vehicle so I could pay for the damage providing they would drive me where I needed to be. Dan had gone ahead on the bike as my bike was hardly moving anymore. A guy on a moped then drove past me as I had had enough I put my arm out to grab on. He slowed down and let me. I then just held on as the man pulled me down the road I took over Dan who was quite shocked to see me fly past him on my bike from hell itself. Unfortunately the man and his bike had to turn off so I was back to half pedalling my diseased bike. Dan had eventually caught up and we carried on to the temple.
We eventually got there and all I could say was “bugger”. I had ridden and nearly caused countless accidents. Swore at several cows that had got in my way, only to find that this temple was not made of solid gold or had lots of naked women dancing around it, or in fact had anything decent to look at apart from the fact that the bricks were a different sodding colour!!!! I was officially ready to punt the next person I saw under one of the many busses that had nearly forced me off the road but I sat down and thought about what I was actually looking at. Here was a structure that was hundreds of years old that had been built by a totally different set of people who probably weren’t thinking about how long it was going to stay standing for. Then I thought about all the sweat and effort that had been put into building this temple. They would have made the same journey I had just made carrying tons and tons of stone. And they didn’t even have crappy bike (I named it). So I calmed down and actually appreciated the effort and maybe not the beauty of it but I still managed to enjoy it. I have become very good at finding the silver lining of most things on my travels, but I couldn’t see anything positive about having to cycle back on crappy bike. I just set off but asked Dan to stay with me as I thought I would get less pissed off with someone to talk too. But then he reminded me that if he had just taken the first bike instead we wouldn’t be and by that I mean I wouldn’t be in this mess. So I thought it best for Dan to go on ahead before he became a victim of a passing bus.
We did stop on the way home at the aki rai landmine museum. This is a very fascinating place to read about aki rai and his work which I won’t go into detail about but I will say that he is a very special man and you should google him to see about his incredible life. The museum itself is about the size of a decent garden with lots of disarmed mines and many used shells and old guns that he has been finding in the jungles since he stopped fighting.
We carried on both now weary from the days cycling and every pedal began to hurt as my chain slipped more and more. I then decided to just give up and done what I should have done in the first place. I asked Dan to swap back. I did it nicely but in reality I should have said it was because it was him that chose the bike so he should use it. I didn’t as I like Dan and he’s a nice guy and I should have just stayed with my own bike at the start but we live and learn. We got home eventually and I was so tired and hungry I felt like I had done a marathon….. well I suppose I kind of did… more in fact.
We awoke the next morning after waking up without the need for an alarm which was nice. Then I noticed a problem when I got out of bed. Apparently it hurt like hell to move any part of my body. On one hand I was glad that there was no serious travelling to be done today, and on the other I was in agony so I couldn’t care less what I was doing. We waddled to breakfast and then went into the town where there seriously wasn’t much to see. I was a bit disappointed with the town that has so much tourism that they haven’t got more to offer. We spent the day wondering around and looking at the various small stalls they had. As I was walking past a place that sold copied CD’S and software, the girls in the store ran out and dragged me inside talking in a very excited Cambodian tone. They held up a CD and pointed to me saying “you you” I looked at the CD to find it was James Blunt. I was not very happy with this comparison. They asked for my picture (I said yes as apparently I love the camera I’ve been told). That was about the only good thing that happened in Siem riep.
Our next stop was Phnom penh.

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