Angkor... erm excuse me but nobody told me they were ruins

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The temples of Angkor... well where do I start. Not exactly what I was expecting to be honest. In fact, they are so far removed from what I had read that I thought I had gone to the wrong place. The 'magnificent empire of Angkor', 'the greatest civilisation ever', 'a beautiful city'; these are all things we read about Angkor. They said it was home to a million people and compared in size with New York. Well you can imagine my suprise when I turn up in a tuk tuk in day one expecting to see the world's greatest city and I discover that it's all in bloody ruins. I know, I couldn't believe it. It turns out that far from being a Hong Kong or a Singapore, Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples were built between 900 and 1100. I was absolutely flabergasted and, if I'm brutally honest, felt like a bit of a fool.

Instead of super casinos, I found super trees. Instead of luxury hotels I found monstrous stone walls. Instead of a twenty first century transport network (a sky train of sorts for carrying all those people around) I found that there were no people living there to be carried around. Yup, they've all gone and been gone for a while too apparently.

Obviously the first thing I had to do was find myself a hotel now that I couldn't stay in Angkor Wat. All my luggage was in the tuk tuk which thinking about it had surprised the driver when we'd set off but I had put that down to cultural differences. He may have travelled with all his possessions in a plastic bag whereas being from the west I travelled with a suitcase - this surely explained his surprise.

I found a hotel in nearby Siem Reap and requested the immediate presence of the manager to explain to me just what the bloody hell was going on. There is no modern super city here it appears. The Angkor complex is an ancient ruin and has been for nearly ten thousand years! How did I not know this?! Some careful re-reading of the guide book was going to be necessary.

Having travelled all that way there was no point sulking in my hotel room so I ventured out to see the sights. Firstly the big circuit that takes in some of the lesser known temples (suburbs shall we say) and secondly Angkor Wat, Ankor Thom and Bayon (downtown Angkor).

To give credit where it is deserved, they are pretty damn impressive FOR RUINS. In fact to call them ruins is unfair, much of it is exceptionally well preserved despite the millions of tourists clambering all over it every year. It is the huge trees that decide to grow in doorways and through walls that is causing the most damage. Although it leads to some great photos it is amazing to see how strong tree routes are - pushing huge sandstone blocks out of the way so that they can grow through.


So, lessons have been learnt. read guide books carefully and don't we swayed by words like 'super-city'! I'm only just recovering from the shock.

Bloody RUINS.... I still can't believe it.

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Comments

[Mattress]

How could you possibly not realise they were ruins?! That is priceless - you rocking up to a thousand year old temple with your backpack and $2,000 in casino chips. Superb!