Traipsing thru temples in Angkor

---

Following our long trip through the Cambodian border on dusty, bumpy roads, we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia around 8pm on Friday night. The bus that picked us up at the border conveniently ran a guesthouse that they took us all to, and I headed straight to bed, anxious at the chance to stretch out horizontally after a long, cramped journey.

We met a super-cool British girl, Carrie, on the bus and together the three of us set out to buy our three-day pass for the temples and start exploring the ancient Khmer temples scattered around over 3,000 KM of jungle. Khmer kings built these temples in a raging war of the egos to erect temples to reflect their power and influence. Sort of a my temple is bigger than your temple kind of thing. Beginning in 1,000 AD, the temples were continuously built for the next 300 years, with over 100 complexes dotted between rice paddies and villages.

Our first visit was to Angkor Thom, to the Bayon temple, which is known for its massive 4-faced pillars throughout the complex. Angkor Thom was a thriving, technologically advanced city it its time (more so than any of its western counterparts) and home to over one million people. The remains of the town still show the outer walls, the temple, the elephant terrace, which is carved with beautiful reliefs of elephants, and the terrace of the leper king, which was thought to be a diety for the diseased.

Next stop was Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world and the iconic design on the Cambodian flag. Its huge structure spans 2 moats with bridges that are guarded by 54 angels on the right side and 54 demons on the left side, showing the balance of good and evil. We scrambled up steep staircases, admired the intricate carvings on the sandstone walls, and breathed in the incense pouring out of the shrines dotted throughout the complex.

Amazingly, the temples were lost to the outside world for several hundred of years, reclaimed by dense jungle growth, until a french explorer discovered them in 1858. Since then, the temples were restored and opened for the world to see.

During the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979, Angkor Wat was defaced by soldiers shooting up statues and carvings of these amazing architectural wonders, as religion and religious places of worship were outlawed by the Angkar government.

By far, my favourite temple was Ta Phrom, which was built in the 12th century and overtaken by massive python-like roots of trees that are hundreds of years old. It's like being in the middle of a fairy-tale castle with a sleeping Khmer princess tucked away in a castle. This is actually where the first Tomb Raider film was made -- I've never seen it, but I might now, just to say hey, I've been there!

We made it for a 5am sunrise over Angkor Wat on our last day, which was beautiful. It was a long day of temple trekking, going until 3pm. We made it out to Banteay Srei, which is a beautiful temple built entirely by women and recognised as some of the most stunning carvings of the period.

It was a remarkable three days, but other than dinner on Pub Street (yes, that's its real name), there seemed little reason to hang about Siem Reap, so we took the boat trip down the Tonle Sap river (Cambodia's largest lake and river) for a chaotically organised 8 hour journey to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Carrie came with us and we're all catching up on blogs since it's been dumping rain this morning. Gotta love the monsoon!

---