Angkor Wat: Temples, Faces, and Extrodinary Places

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(Kev)
We reentered the time machine...the only thing missing were the people that made up this ancient, and wonderful place. There has been a couple times so far on this trip, that the sights we see seem so far removed from the modern world that it really does seem as if we have warped back...reality comes with the flash from a fellow tourists camera, but the moments of serenity are very surreal.

According to one Internet site Angkor currently sits at the number 13 spot for wonders of the world. Angkor is also the place were Tomb Raider was shot, apparently Tomb Raider has been one of only two movies the Cambodian Government has allowed access to in the last 50 years.

We got to watch the sunrise and sunset from Angkor. Walking through the site at sunrise was a great experience; we were able to walk in solitude, and the sun filtering through the temples was awakening, which is a great thing that early in the morning. The whole complex is made of great wall murals, which tell the story of Hindu Gods and their triumphs in war. The complex is recognized by most as simply Angkor...but there is much more to the place than that.

My favorite temples were probably Bayon and Ta Som. Bayon was interesting because it was composed of faces protruding out of the rock giving the place a really fascinating look. Ta Som was unique because this place is completely overgrown with jungle. There is trees coming out of the rock, and it looks like something you would stumble upon if you were a part of the jungle book.

Well enjoy the pics,
~love Kev




(Daryl)
Before I write about Angkor, I'll mention something about Siem Reap that I felt would be more appropriate here, in respect to the solemnity of the last blog. Phnom Penh had a really neat indoor marketplace that was absolutely huge. It was like they were having the same "going outta country sale" that Thailand was. There was a lot of neat, cheap stuff, like watches, T-Shirts, CD's, and shoes, and anything else you could want. When I asked a gal about buying some sandals, she took one look at my size-15 feet and said "We no got shoes big nuff for sasquatch." With a bruised ego, I ended up getting a green ballcap so I could fit in with Kev and Dust, and Kev got a bucket hat so he could look like me. They were selling them for $2, but I managed to get them down to $0.75. It was fun to be negotiating again and back on my game...reminded me of home in a way.
One thing really struck me though in a deeper sense. When I saw a guy hobbling on crutches missing one leg, yet selling books out of a heavy box strapped to his shoulder, it really moved me. In one way, it moved me to be so proud to be from a country (USA) with so much freedom and opportunity. In another way, it got me really ticked at how lazy many Americans are, who have situations far better than that man's, yet they sit on their butts year after year collecting their "disability" checks. My message to those folks, is GROW UP, get out there, stop whining, and work! Everyone else in other countries seems to! Okay, now that I've gotten that out there, lemme tell y'all about Siem Reap and Angkor.

Arriving in Siem Reap was neat, as the bus station had more chaos than I've seen for a long time. Tuk-tuk drivers, guesthouse owners, and street vendors were way too eager to get our business. They had to have police chasing them away from the bus with whipping canes that looked rather painful just so we could have our space. We already had a guesthouse and taxi reserved, so we just met up with our guy, and went on our way. Once we got our stuff unloaded at the guesthouse, we headed to Angkor Wat. It really was like walking back seven centuries in just a few steps. The pictures don't do the experience justice, but we did our best. We got there in the evening to take some pictures and get tickets for the following day. For our REAL day there, we got up at 5am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. There were crowds of people to capture the solar event, which proved to be anticlimactic with the clouds in the sky. Once the sunrise was over, most of the tourists went home and we practically had the whole place to ourselves for a few hours. The changing sunlight filtering through the temple provided a new scene and photo op at every turn. What was so cool about Angkor is that they aren't subject to westernized disability and safety rules to make good things become boring. They don't have to have a wheelchair elevator, handrails, or widened doorways there, which would totally screw the thing up. They just have some big, steep stairs to climb, and if you're crippled or you fall off, it's your own bloody problem.

After hours of exploring Angkor Wat to our camera's content, we explored the other temples surrounding it. I scratched my camera's lens while climbing up Angkor, so Kev was gracious enough to let me borrow his for some time following it. Bayon temple was pretty amazing, with all its different engravings and faces. Temple Tom Sa was pretty cool too, as it was being overgrown by trees from all angles...talk about what deferred yard maintenance can do to a property. I felt like Indiana Jones going through this place...ducking, climbing, and crawling to see something new or to take a new photo. All the temples were very unique and fascinating, but by number five, they began to look the same.

Kev and Dust were great to explore this with, since we had three cameras going at all times...er..most times. The next day, it was time to make the long bus trek to Laos. I'm really thrilled that we went to Cambodia, as it was a really great adventure through the goods and the bads of ancient and not-so-ancient history.

With the spirit of adventure,

Daryl

"When our time has come, we will not look back and regret the things we shouldn't have done, but did. Our deepest regrets will come from what we SHOULD have done, but DIDN'T."

(Dustin)

Man its so funny by now to hear people say that the more expensive option is the only good option or that others don't run. I wonder if its a good thing to get this skeptical about peoples word. Again it was about buses that may or may not exist and might have AC but turns out the cheap bus actually did have AC and was pretty comfortable and actually did seem to exist considering its the one we took.

The bus station at Angkor Wat was one of the rowdiest we've arrived at yet, the only rival was at Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. They had police with small canes smacking the hordes of touts back away from all the tourists getting off the bus and away from the baggage. The Royal set up something with their sister hotel in Siem Reap so we had a dude camped a little ways away from the bus with a sign that had our names on it and all we had to do was push through the others and point to him and we were left alone.

The guy that picked us up was our own personal driver for the next day as well. But he gave us some good ideas as to how to spend our time and took us out to the main temple the first night because there were tons of clouds and the mountain overlooking the area wouldn't have been so nice that night. It gave us a chance to scout things out and see some good pictures for dawn. After getting back a little late to our driver, tons of little kids with loads of post cards crowded around and were REALLY unhappy when we weren't all that interested.....who knew swearing like sailors came at such a young age over here.

Early in the morning our Dude was out and ready to go again for sunrise, For being so early in the morning there were quite a few people, but as soon as sunrise came and went everything cleared out into that lull between the "die hard tourist types" and the "Vacationers." So we had some relatively alone time there to get some scenery and carvings without other peoples heads or arms in the corner of every picture.

The whole complex was pretty amazing with temples spread out and hidden in the jungle. Even from the top of Angkor you can't really see the tops of the other nearby temples through the trees. Its just neat how they have managed to preserve sections of the temples and the carvings so well, much of them have rebuilt sections though they are marked so you can see the difference between old and replacements.

The Jungle Temple Ta Prom was really cool because its literally being eaten up but the trees and other stuff in the area, the tree's roots are destroying yet holding up sections of the temple halls at the same time. The overgrown style was one of the neatest though because of its more natural and "untouched" feeling.

By the last temple everything seemed to have alot of the same structure and design so we ended up skimming through the last one especially pretty fast. We met a couple Canadians at the top of one temple and talked for a while and saw some other REALLY obvious nationalities....including a Canadian guy wearing all red and white with a flag on his hat (little weird). Overall it was a good idea to go to Cambodia even for a couple days to check out one of the wonders of the world because you always see pictures of places like these and its neat to actually walk into the frames of pictures we've all seen before.

Cheers,
Dustin

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Photos

Tombraideresque
Angelina Jolie may have stood close by here...but instead we give you Daryl

Time Warp
Like an instantainious leap back in time.

Temple time
You can see the daily routine of this particular temple in the picture.....its been doing it this way for thousands of years

Comments

[Michelle]

Seriously, if it weren't for the Jungle Book, how many people (Or should I say Americans) would actualy know about Angkor Wat?