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Published: July 22nd 2006
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Entering the World of Angkor
Stepping through the doorway to the temples of angkor. The start to a wonderful three day experience. If you ever wanted to go to a place where you will be truly inspired to sit and meditate on your own life as well as the world surrounding you, then you must come to Siem Reap and visit the temples of Angkor. Three days I spent at these man-made wonders and I don’t feel as though I should leave. Amazing jungle and wildlife meet magnificent temples, many of which date back to the turn of the 11th century. On my first day I hired a driver to take me around on his scooter (motorbike). The day started a little later than I had hoped it would, but after the horrendous drive the night before from Bangkok to Siem Reap I was happy to catch up on some sleep. We still managed to see many temples on our first day. We began at Bayon and finished at Angkor Wat. The day was really magical. I spent many hours trying to get lost in the maze of sandstone that surround the Angkor Thom grounds. Finding that quiet place away from the zoo of tourists was always a reward. A quiet moment to sit and reflect on the tens of thousands of people
Resting up for the climb
Steep temples covering big plots of land can get tiring. Here I pose for a picture and also give my legs a rest. who spent years building these ancient temples was special.
For those of you who are familiar with Laura Croft’s Tomb Raider, the film with Angelina Jolie, I visited Ta Prohm which is a temple featured in the film. As such it is overrun with tourists, but it is still quite nice. There has not been much restoration done to that particular temple and the result is an amazing union of enormous trees intertwined with sandstone. Partly destroying the temples, the “Spong” trees that surround the stones make for great photos.
Just like day one, I chose to take another motor bike tour of the temples. This way I would be able to see more and get further away from Siem reap to see some more distant ruins. It was well worth the 15 dollars I paid for the entire day. We drove for close to an hour outside of Siem Reap and the result was peace and quiet at many of the temples. For whatever reason, maybe it had something to do with the previous night’s shenanigans, but I was awfully tired at the days start. Up and out of the guesthouse by 8am, I was almost not
The hip pose
Standing in front of one of the many amazing nature/building unions. Not much needs to be said. functional. So the first few places I visited were a real struggle. But some vegetable curry and rice with large ice cold bottle water reenergized me for the day.
On the last day I decided to save money on transport and visit the temples by bike. I must have ridden about 60 km today easy. It was nice exercise for me since I have not done anything really active except walking since I was in Bangkok days ago at kickboxing. With the occasional downpour of rain to cool me off, the ride was really pleasant and I felt as though I was getting familiar with the surrounding area because I was able to go at my own pace. I met two lovely English girls when we were all trying to escape a sudden rain shower. We found ourselves sitting at the same table in one of the small huts set up near the temples. I chose to have lunch, some vegetables and rice, while they enjoyed a cold soda. We got to talking and then spent the remainder of the day riding around with one another. They had electric bikes and I had a traditional one gear push bike.
Ta Promh
Need I write anything, just spectacular. I will say that this shot made it into the film Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie. Really fantastic. Let’s just say my job was a bit more difficult in keeping up, but I managed.
Aside from the amazing temples, some other memorable parts of Angkor will be the monkeys that I had a chance to feed. They were very curious and for the most part friendly. They would come and take fruit right out of you hands and if you were lucky, or unlucky, however you saw it, you could get them to climb on you. In my case I was a bit unlucky because they though my necklace was food and at one point I had about 5 monkeys on me, trying to rip them off. They got aggressive and starting biting my arm.
Lastly, it will be hard to forget the people that surround the temples. With many miles of land separating all the ruins, the jungle is littered with small villages and thousands of children. Most of the kids are really sweet and they are just genuinely happy to say hello and give a wave. There are more than a handful that make the visit very difficult, constantly trying to sell you gifts and drinks. It gets hard to turn away so many
Hold On!
When I say that the temple steps were step, I was serious. Look at these folks trying to get to the top of Angkor Wat. This place would be shut down if it were back in the states due to the health risk in climbing them. beautiful faces and tell them that you have already had 5 drinks and purchased all the souvenirs you can carry.
Anyway, I hope each and every one of you is enjoying life wherever that is right now. Stop for a moment today and think about something in your life that perhaps you take for granted because it has become so routine for you. What we may find routine in our lives are luxuries that people in places like Ankor and Siem reap may never experience.
Wishing you all good health and happiness
Marcus
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Johanna
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Hi marcus
I know exactly what you mean, I also loved walking around the temples and see these amazing man-made wonders. I agree that trying to say no all the children was really difficult, I ended up buying to many bracelets and water bottles than i needed, but i guess it's for a good cause. Where are you heading next? Talk to you later//johanna