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Published: August 18th 2006
Like most everything else on this trip, words cannot properly convey what we saw over the past two days. Angkor Wat is the biggest religious structure in the world and one of the world's man-made wonders. It is full of beautiful, centuries old temples with intricate and ornate carvings. Angkor Wat is a photographer's paradise and unfortunately my lousy digital camera was useless here. We saw tons of pro photogs out in the templers with tripods and several thousand dollar cameras, just waiting for the perfect photo. On the first day, we hiked up to the top of the temple called Phnom Bakeng and watched the sunset from above. The top of the temple was full of tourists, naturally, which was a bit frustrating. It is nearly impossible to take any pictures without getting other people in the shot. It was beautiful and surreal, however, to see so many people standing in the same place, staring in the same direction.
Today we left for the temples at 5 am to catch the sunrise over the biggest temple, Angkor Wat, truly a spectacular and peaceful sight, especially since you can also catch the temple's reflection in the front pond at the
same time. But even just the motobike rides out there, zooming through the jungle at 5 am under a dark purple sky, was a highlight of the day for us. The four of us each hired a motobike driver to take us around the sights which was really the best way to do it as the temples are several kilometres apart. Luckily the rain held out and we had near perfect weather.
After the sunrise, we explored the biggest of them all, Angkor Wat, which is pretty much unlike anything we've ever seen. The near vertical staircases, the intricate carvings, the endless hallways, the platforms. At one point, I stayed behind, while Nathan hiked up to the top, and just sat there for awhile trying to imagine the pomp and circumstance of the Khmer celebrations that would have occured there. Poor Nathan realized only after the exhausting hike that around the back of the temple exists a guide rail to aid tourists in getting to the top. From there, we visited Ta Prohm which is a more secluded temple in the jungle. Our drivers dropped us off outside the jungle and we had a short but beautiful walk to
the temple accompanied by the performance of a roadside musical group made up of land mine victims. Unknown to us, Ta Prohm was the temple where "Tomb Raider"was filmed. It's surrounded by lush jungle and much of it is in ruins from land mines and other Khmer Rouge atrocities launched on the temples. The roots of many of the surrounding trees have grown over and under the temple, creating a really unique piece of art; indeed, parts of the roots look like snakes or elephant trunks. Next, we visited Angkor Thom, a large complex made up of smaller temples including Bayon which might've been our favourite. It has 216 massive heads carved in the likeness of the king who built it; he apparently quite liked himself. The coolest part, though, is that from wherever you stand there are at least a dozen heads looking at or down on you at any given time. Lastly, we visited Baphoun which is currently in the process of being reconstructed. It wasn't documented before it was destroyed so authorities are left with essentially the world's most complex puzzle.
Having left at 5am to make it to the sunrise, we were absolutely wrecked by
The sunset from Phnom Bakeng
Sadly, we had cloudy weather and a lousy digital camera. Still, not a bad photo.the afternoon. We wanted to see more temples but we couldn't physically do it. The climbing is exhausting. Coupled with the jungle heat, we were wiped out. The four of us went back to the hotel and crashed for a few hours to regroup before we had a great dinner and drinks in town. We reminisced about the temples and the history we saw over the past two days. We might not fully understand the magnitude of what we experienced but all we can surmise is that we feel incredibly lucky to have been here.
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Ian
non-member comment
Hey Nathan, it pretty cool there eh!
Nathan, good to see you made it and you are well on your way to enjoying SE Asia. I really is a different world over there, we have no idea what happens there because our news never covers much about that region. If you want to learn more about the Cambodian genocide there is a famous book called "First the killed my father", it is a tough read from an emotional standpoint, but it is the Cambodian version of Anne Franks Diary basically. It was written by a girl who lived and survived the genocide by going into hiding etc. Anyway enough about that..take care of yourselves over there, and enjoy the rest of your stay