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Published: December 14th 2012
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After a delicious breakfast of omelets, baguettes and Vietnamese coffee we sent of with our wonderful tour guide to see the first temple of the day.....Angkor Wat itself. We expected there to be a lot of people and we weren't disappointed lol. There were heaps of large tour groups with their leaders carrying brightly coloured flags on sticks or the groups were all wearing the same coloured t-shirt or cap. Sometimes even all three. It is hard to describe first impressions of Angkor Wat....it is breath taking. Our great guide unfolded the story of Angkor Wat and the story of the carvings on the wall and it just became even more amazing. The carvings on the wall are from the Hindu story the Ramayana. The king who built Angkor Wat followed the Hindu religion. The story of how the religion in Cambodia has changed from Hindu to Buddhism depending on the belief of the king is fascinating. Our guide told us that even though today the main religion of Cambodia is Buddhism, it is really a mixture of Hindu, Buddhism and the old religion of animism. As it was not a special religious day we were able to climb to the
top tower of Angkor Wat. They have put in steep wooden steps that cover the original even steeper and narrower steps. Apparently this occurred because a few years ago a tourist slipped on the steps and ended up with a few broken bones. Anyway the new steps and rail certainly made it a lot easier. Only a certain number of people are allowed up at any one time. Even though there was quite a long queue we only had to wait maybe ten minutes before we too could climb up. The view was spectacular and there were a considerable number of carvings and statues. Our guide had not accompanied us so we did not have a commentary to fill us in on all the details but it was extremely great experience anyway. Each person is only allowed 15 minutes in the tower and longer than 20 minutes and you find yourself being shooed down the steps. Angkor Wat took all morning and so after a visit to Artisans d'Angkor and lunch at a local restaurant we decided to have a shower and put our feet up for an hour or so. It had become extremely hot and it was so
refreshing to have a cool shower. Our original plan had been to see Angkor Thom in the afternoon but decided to leave this large complex until the next day and instead we went off to view Prasat Kravan. This little temple is very interesting in its own right. It is made entirely of tiny bricks, is still in reasonably good shape and is dedicated to the God Vishnu...so another Hindu Temple. The next temple on our itinerary was Ta Prohm...the temple known as the Tom Raider Temple. It is far more magnificent then it was ever done justice in the movie. Because it seemed overgrown you felt like you had just discovered it. Banteay Kdei was next on the list. Though only small it too was fascinating. The final temple of the day was Pre Rup where we going to watch the sunset. When we arrived there were already many people on top waiting but still heaps of room an great spots to catch the sunset. They ensure everyone comes down before dark as there are no special wooden stairs here just the original lava rock steps to climb up and down. Sunset was brilliant and it was a great
end to an interesting and awe-inspiring day. We had dinner again on pub-street but went indian this time.
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