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Published: December 4th 2006
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Angkor Wat
It's difficult to take a picture that truly does it justice The big, bald, brash cockney industrial worker I met after our last day exploringthe Angkor ruins described Angkor (with no small admiration) as "a lot of rocks." He'd be right too. There's definitely a lot of them. What rocks, though!
Our guidebook told us that it's a generally common misconception that Angkor Wat is the sum total of what you'll find at Angkor. The truth is that while Angkor Wat is the largest self-contained stand-alone monument (and some would argue the titles of Most Memorable or even Most Impressive), it's just one temple in a recently rediscovered area of approximately 200 square kilometres across which a myriad of lost cities are still being cleared of jungle.
We bought a three-day pass (free for Cambodian Nationals, $40 for dirty foreigners) and spent them exploring various temples, palaces and cities here - a tuk-tuk for the day was $10 to hire (which is a fortune in Cambodia - all the tuk-tuk drivers in Siem Reap ask to drive for you the next day as you pass). In three days, we barely had time to see a selection of the ruins ther, but we saw the principal structures and many of the
One of the "Roulos" Group
The central temple from some surrounding ruins less visited ones as well. It was astoundingly hot, and the Angkorians hadn't got around to installing any decent aircon, not even any overhead fans, so the only respite from the beating sun was to hide isnside the strructures that hadn't collapsed and behiund the ones that had. On day three it was 35 in the midday shade. Those three days were some of the toughest days so far - I'd spent 8 hours at a time saturated in sweat - but they were also some of the most rewarding.
We got good at bargaining with the multitude of vendors that line the entrance to every monument too: "Sir, you buy cold drink? I have fresh coconut! Pineapple! Want postcard?" There was no escaping it. No isn't an answer, so you have to completely blank them. If you want sometyhing, they'll ask $1 for a bottle of water, but if you're stubborn enough and prepared to walk away and risk not making a purchase when you really want it, you can get it down to 25 cents (1000 Riel) for a bottle of water or about 40 cents (1,500 riel) for a cold can of coke. Apparently, the Japanese
The Bayon
Actually taken at dusk, this is the better picture of it pay $1 for everything without questioning it.
The rocks themselves, such that they are, are incredible. Each pile of them was suitably different to stand out in its own way. The period of time they were built over spans betwee nthe 9th and 14th centuries, and the religion switched back and forth between varying degrees of bhuddism and hinduism (these two religions are very closely related, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, except without the animosity) each time there was a new king. So the style and fashions changed a lot between each new building.
Angkor Wat itself is vast - the encircling wall encircles more empty space than actual temple, but this all serves to undeline the grandeur of it. A great causeway leads over a moat that's more of a full-size reservoir and through the main gate. The way leads onto a great, long, raised terrace up to the central building. It's all so big! The very central peak has five great towers arringed like the 5 spots on a die, so you can often only see 3 at a time. The steps up to this are particularly daunting from the bottom...
The south entrance of
Close up of a Bayon Face
Looks happy, doesn't he? Angkor Thom is situated about 3 km from the main (west) entrance of Angkor Wat. A. Thom is a great enclosed space suirrounded by a square of walls something like 4km to a side. Inside, it's full of many smaller temples. We spent most of one day here, exploring on foot, taking care not to just walk in and out of these by the main tourist routes, but to take the time to explore each one carefully. The most impressive here was definitely the Bayon. The defining aspect of the Bayon is the forest of spires that just up from the rubble and restored masonry, bearing great smiling faces (it's something like a mona-lisa smile) on all 4 sides. It would be impressive enough if it wasn't for the labyrinthine set of passages and corridors that most tourists completely overlook - they just walk right on up to the top, take snaps of their friends in front of the faces and leave again, rather than trying to properly experience the wonder of it. Consequently, I was one of the very few people exploring them, and at times it felt like I was the only person there.
The other noteworthy
Jen at the Bayon
Our intrepid explorer investigates the Angkor Code temples (and they would ALL be noteworthy if the general standard of them wasn't so high) were the overgrown ones - ones that had reached a point at which the trees that had reduced them to rouble were now holding the remainder of them together - gateways in the walls half-hidden amidst great snaking banyan roots. Of these, Phra Khan (I think that's what it was called) captured our attention most. We visited about an hour before dusk on our final day. Most people at this time leave to see the sunset up on the mountain one (which is nice enough, but a bit overcrowded) so there were only a handful of tourists present. This one's huge, and, owing to the fact that approximately half of the passages collapsed a long time ago, it's reached a very mazelike status. I separated from Jen in order to explore this one on my own, and hardly saw another soul in the 40 minutes I spent exploring it all. I did find some nice little courtyard areas that were all but hidden from the rest of the complex, and one almost-secret buddhist shrine that smelt suspiciously of smoke and had a small collection
Another Impressive-Looking Temple
The name eludes me, but there were several in this shape with varying architectural styles. of cigarettes in a bowl at the side (so
that's where the monks go to smoke). Apparently this one was used in the film, Tomb Raider. I'm sort of interested to see it now, entirely on that strength, to see how they used it.
So that's Angkor. I think that it's a crime with this blog not to have included pictures yet, but the USB connection at this cafe doesn't seem to work on any of the computers, so you'll have to wait a day or so (I don't have anything to do tomorrow so I'll add them then).
We've been back in Bangkok for the last few days, visiting the weekend market and relaxing a bit, preparing for our trip to India in a couple of days. We finally found a second-hand, non-photocopied, current-edition Rough Guide to India (which I prefer to Lonely Planet, though I'd have taken the LP over any other option) so we're just about ready...
Next update will be from Mumbai (Bombay), so watch this space!
Sam
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Helen
non-member comment
Jealous
Angkor sounds really fantastic, great place to play in, if a bit hot. I would love to see it for myself some time. Think I will ahve to do SE asia sometime, love Jen's dscription of it being like Narnia too. I always like these sort of hidden places and trying to work out what it must have been like in its glory, but I bet the jungle adds to it really