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Published: September 2nd 2010
25.8.10 Mission to the Temples of Angkor.
Graeme and Ae kindly drove us to Krabi where we caught the overnight sleeper bus to Bangkok. We arrived at 4:30am and caught a connecting bus from Bangkok’s Mo Chit bus stand to Aranya Prapet. After much confusion and several missions to avoid the scams that surround crossing the border we eventually found the Cambodian immigration. Month long visa in hand and we crossed into the kingdom of Cambodia. Passing the 100’s of casinos we found the Cambodian Immigration point that was a run down lean to building that had a tree growing through it. Stamped in and we caught a taxi with a lively Canadian couple who had just arrived from the Philippines. The 2 hour trip on a tarred road was spent discussing budget traveling the Philippines, and bizarrely, watching rather large pigs being driven down the road on mopeds (check the photo)
I drove the same route in 2002 with Paul and there was no tarred road. The drive took 14 hours on the back of a pick up and being the monsoon season we had to cross rivers with no bridges with our packs on our backs.
God bless the new road. After checking a few guest houses we eventually made it to the Golden Mango Guest house where Ling and Annie had checked in. The Golden Mango is a little gem with reasonably priced rooms that are amongst the best we have stayed in so far. The staff are super friendly and there are free auto rickshaws to the markets and regular tourist haunts. We switched on the walkie talkies and eventually tracked Ling and Annie down in the old market area.
Angkor Draft on tap and we caught up and planned the next few days.
Top of the list was the temples of Angkor. These thousand year old masterpieces are the highlight of anyone’s trip to Cambodia. So sure enough we arranged to go at 5am the next day...Angkor Wat is reported to be at its most dramatic at sunrise, and we did not want to miss out!
More than a little upset at leaving our beds we downed a coffee and set off in the still dark morning on the back of our chariot like moto rickshaw. As Cambodia’s no. 1 tourist spot it the ticket system was very modern and efficient. We got
a three day pass complete with digital photo and were then free to come and go for the next few days.
A few miles through the jungle and we had a shadowy glimpse of the first of the many temples, Angkor Wat. Crossing over a massive man-made moat on a stone bridge we entered the ancient, holy world. Dodging the tourists and touts we watched the sky turn pink and orange before our eyes, silhouetting the temple with a magical glow. Guy snapped away not wanting to miss a second, while I enjoyed the spectacle.
Much of Angkor had been left to the jungle for decades and sadly many parts of most of the temples in the Angkor area are badly weathered and often tumbledown. Luckily there are a host of dedicated professionals from several countries (most notably France) who have ‘adopted’ these ruins and been working very hard to restore them as best as possible, (various attempts have been made to halt the decay since the late 1800s,sadly with little sustainable success). Although these repairs are vital, it did mean access was restricted to some areas as works continued.
Sun firmly established in the sky and we
began to explore the inside of the temple. Carved stone facades depicting both Hindu and Buddhist, deities, beautiful floral designs adorned almost every surface. (during Angkor’s thousand year history various rulers and religions had occupied and added to the complex providing a wealth of different architectural and aesthetic styles) We wandered the corridors and courtyards in the ever increasing heat, until we reached the heart of the temple with its massive stupa.’ No entry! Work in Progress’ said the sign ahead of us, but Guy wasn’t having it............... a sneaky $5 to a few workers and we were through the barrier up the desperately steep, narrow stone steps, and into the inner sanctum. The views were stunning and we felt like Lara Croft in action. From our vantage point we could see the ordered layout of the complex, gateways followed the compass with north, south east and west in perfect alignment and courtyards and corridors repeating the pattern in perfect symmetry. After our naughty visit we rejoined Annie and Ling and the rest of the tourists to admire the temple grounds...check the photos... they describe it better than me!
The building was built first from a type of volcanic
stone (bit like pumice stone, but more holey and red) then clad in sandstone which could be easily carved. The massive heavy stones were cut and hauled by elephant from over 50kms away... each stone still had two holes in by which they were tied to the elephant and dragged through the jungle. It is mainly the sandstone that has borne the brunt of time, some areas worn smooth by tropical rains, others sections have cracked and tumbled in the fierce sun, but it still holds its majesty, and the restorations are very sympathetic indeed.
We found our tuk tuk guy waiting patiently under a tree and headed off through the jungle passing under a massive stone gate and on to the next temple area, Angkor Thom and Bayon.
Huge Buddha heads facing in all directions smile enigmatically from this tall imposing temple. Climbing impossibly steep steps we entered a maze like structure and found a multitude of different faces peering at us from all angles (216 to be exact!). Most were intact and all oozed a calmness that was strangely humbling. Doing our best to ignore the other tourists we wandered around finding mini shrines, carvings and statues at
every turn. Knowing we had our three day pass and could revisit when we fancied, we set off to explore the surrounding temples on foot. We passed the Terrace of Elephants. A massive stone walkway at least 15ft high with sides carved with armies of elephants, the centre of which was a platform from which the rulers could perform celebrations and rituals or address very large crowds watching from the grass below. The wembly stadium of its day!!
Behind this terrace several other ‘lesser’ temples could be reached by walking over stone bridges which spanned ornate large ponds. Huge amounts of restoration work was happening in this area and we witnessed the painstaking work being undertaken. Teams were meticulously measuring and detailing each block of stone that had tumbled, so that they could eventually piece the puzzle back together...there must have been hundreds lying around the grounds, some buried, some moss covered all of them vital to the completion of the project.
Having been up for hours we braved the hoards of children pleading ‘lady, one dollah, give me one dollah’, to the street stalls selling rice and noodles (with free beer...great at 930 in the morning!)
Revived and
ready for more we found our dozing tuk tuk driver and set off once again through the jungle..... we braved three more temples on this first day, my vertigo tested to its limits every time we had to descend the steep staircases...Guy just skipped down, mountain goat style!
All our efforts were more than worth it, as each new temple, though similar in construction method was unique in its layout and aspect. Some had never ending corridors, some had hundreds of tiny shady courtyards, all of them had carvings, altars.
Alas we were finally defeated by the heat, stairs, and the early morning start and so headed back to our hotel in the early afternoon to relax.
Enjoying the relative calm and coolness... we repeated our early morning sorties for the next two days, each time discovering new marvels of engineering discovering new marvels, and revisiting favourites..exploring them in more depth
Evenings were spent in the lively tourist hub of the old market..every taste and budget was catered for by the many restaurants and bars. our favourite was a local spot doing traditional food...spicy tasty including fish curries served in coconuts, noodles and frog thanks to Annie.
Cambodia is
just like Guy remembers it. The people are friendly, its really cheap (far cheaper than Thailand), and unfortunately with 6 million land mines still in the country, there are masses of people without legs.
Lovely to be traveling in a team again and its time to explore the capital....
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Jillian
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Unbelievable ..........