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Published: August 7th 2007
With Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples being Cambodia's principal tourist attraction, it should come as no surprise that Siem Reap - the gateway to the temples - is heavily touristed and with all the attendant hassle that that implies. Apart from the tuk tuk and accommodation touts, you also have to contend with restaurant owners and massage parlour proprietors hailing you as you walk down the street, creating a hybrid of the worst that India and Greece have to offer. Fortunately there were plenty of other tourists there to draw some of the fire so it was manageable.
In preparation for our impending templeathon, we invested in the book "Ancient Angkor" by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques. Though available for the princely sum of $28 in the western world, bootleg copies were on offer around Siem Reap with an opening price of $10. Using the bargaining skills for which I'm rightly not famed, I secured one for $5. Subsequent evidence suggested that $2 was the correct price, which coincidentally was the number LA Woman said I should have offered. Guess who'll be doing the bargaining from now on.
We decided to go for a 3 day pass to
Apsara
Angkor Watthe temple complex, for a mere $40 and 1 photo. The first day was by far the longest, a dawn until dusk slog starting at 5AM and beginning and ending at Angkor Wat. Sunrise at Angkor bore some similarities to when I'd visited Uluru - the sense of anticipation at seeing something I'd been wanting to see for years, a familiar shape crystallising out of the pre-dawn dark, the intimacy of the moment somewhat spoiled by the presence of hundreds of jabbering tourists, etc. I'd imagined Angkor Wat to be partly overgrown with jungle, perhaps because of seeing "Tomb Raider" too often, but it was completely reclaimed from nature (subsequent temples would have more of a "collapsed civilisation" feel to them).
There are actually over 100 temples from the Angkor era in the vicinity. These were built between the 9th and 13th centuries, after which the Thais sacked the empire and the buildings disappeared under jungle. (From the early 13th century onwards, the rise of Theravada Buddhism also resulted in more wooden buildings, which were obviously less able to withstand the ravages of time.) The complex wasn't brought to the wider world's attention until the mid-19th century. When the
Face tower
The Bayon in Angkor Thom Angkor empire was at its peak, it was the greatest ancient civilisation in Southeast Asia.
It's worth noting that Khmer temples were not meeting places for the faithful, but the palaces of gods, hence though they still needed to look impressive and worthy of their function, they did not need to accommodate large numbers of people.
Angkor Wat itself is the poster-child for the whole complex. The world's largest religious monument, constructed 900 years ago, its 5 lotus bud-shaped towers catch the eye even without the 300m causeway focusing your vision on them. It was constructed as a microcosm of the Hindu universe, but was converted to Theravada Buddhism in the 14th century. A gallery of extraordinary bas-reliefs - 600m long and 2m high - encircles the main temple buildings. Most show scenes from the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Two of the best known are the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, which depicts the creation myth, and the Gallery of Heavens and Hells, showing the various punishments awaiting those deemed worthy of eternity downstairs as well as the more pleasant prospects for "good" people.
We knew we'd be returning to Angkor Wat in the afternoon
Tower
Angkor Wat so didn't explore it fully that morning. Our next stop was Angkor Thom, the greatest capital city of the Angkor era, built about 800 years ago. It contained about 1 million inhabitants at its peak, when London's population was about 15,000. The most spectacular site in Angkor Thom is the Bayon, a temple featuring originally 49 towers (though only 37 exist now). Most of the towers bear a large carved face, perhaps that of Jayavarman VII, at each cardinal point.
In the interests of completeness, I'll mention that we also saw the temple of Baphuon(originally more impressive than the Bayon but now a heap of rubble), the Terrace of the Leper King, the Terrace of the Elephants, Preah Palilay, and the temple mountain of Phimeanakas, but none really grabbed the attention.
We then returned to Angkor Wat for late afternoon and sunset, having been dissuaded by the tuk tuk driver from going to Phnom Bakheng because he said it would be overrun with tourists. You can't stay in the towers for sunset itself (apparently this was banned in the late '80s due to too many Westerners going up them to smoke pot) but the views even with the
sun above the horizon were still decent. The steps leading up the towers were narrow and very steep (supposedly representing the sides of the mythical Mount Meru). Climbing up them was tough enough but going down again - a necessary activity - was not for the faint-hearted. A thin metal railing was available on the south stairs of the main tower, and a queue rapidly developed to negotiate it, as more and more people realised they didn't fancy the trip down unaided. Of course, the wait to start the descent preyed on people's minds, not to mention the fact that your speed was governed by that of people below you. I was glad to get down.
With it being the hot season in Cambodia now, it was already uncomfortably warm by 7AM and traipsing around in the middle of the day was as energy-sapping an activity as I've done in recent years. By the time we were back in the guesthouse we were both knackered, and decided that day 2 would i) begin later, and ii) end earlier.
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Tom Cruise Jr.
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Hey Hey
this is the first smiling portrait of O. Skinny but happy.