Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

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July 8: Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

I had made arrangements with Samadeach to pick me up from the hotel at 8.30 am on he morning of July 8. He was waiting for me outside when I stepped out of the lobby. The ride to Angkor takes about 40 minutes from most city center hotels, and 25-30 from Tara since it is closer and on the same road that leads to Angkor Wat, but might become longer depending on the lines to buy entry ticket. three visit pass valid for a week costs $40, which is what I purchased.
The first stop of course was Angkor Wat. The area has several temples and a walled city called Angkor Thom which itself has a multitude of temples within it. All are of different periods and architectural styles. Some of the differences are subtle since they all seem to follow similar design principles.Angkor Wat is surrounded on a sides by an approximately 60m wide moat, and an equally long causeway leads to the west facing main entrance. I will try not to get into details of the layout and design since thee are many authoritative sources to get that information and I will never be able to convey it with the same precision and relevant details.

The striking feature is the expanse which seems to convey a false sense of a severely diminished height the main structure. I got a sense of the real height as I slowly ascended the five tiers of the temple. Each tier becomes taller and the stairways steeper and treads narrower. The topmost tier provides a nice vantage to view the surrounding jungles and also the outer perimeter structures of Angkor Wat.
I met some Japanese tourists and we took pictures of all of us on the steps at the eastern entrance. I spent close to about three hours at the complex and headed back out to meet my tuktuk driver Samadeach. He gave me a big wave as soon as he spotted me. We took a very short ride to a restaurant nearby for lunch. Mine comprised grilled bass in spicy mangos pickle with steamed rice and fresh coconut water. The coconut had a layer of tender, sweet kernel which became my dessert.


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The next stop was Angkor Thom, the walled city with more temples. The entrance, one of five is the easily recognizable arch with large faces topping it. The faces represent Buddha but are said to have been constructed to resemble King Jayavarman who built the city. All of these are along a modern road. The plan was that I enter the first one and meet Samadeach at the other end of the stretch after I complete the entire row. The first one was the Bayon which is also the name derived from the period and given to the architectural style.


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Lots of spires with four heads each facing a cardinal direction. And when I say lots, I am underestimating. This like every other temple in the complex involved ample climbing up and down very steep and long wooden stairways scaffolding the original stone steps.


Another feature the Bayon is that every structures is built from similar sized sandstone blocks. This includes the Jayavarman/Buddha has atop the spires. The whole thing is like one huge 3-D jigsaw.There are a lot of micro features not to be missed as one internalizes the macro features. This, apparently is he only temple with bas reliefs representing 2 apsaras together. All of the other Angkor temples have single apsara motifs.


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All of the temples are in a visible state of ruin and restoration work is underway, being carried out as joint projects with Archeological departments of various foreign governments. The Bayon restoration is being undertaken by the Chinese. One can see large blocks os stone and portions of structures strewn around along with new sandstone blocks for restorative work. Short hikes through the jungles took me to the next sights along the row - Bauphon, Phimeanakas, The Elephant Terrace, Leper King Terrace. At the end of this, the exit route is designed to take one through a row of vendors selling everything from cold water and silk shirts to souvenirs. I bought a set of T-shirts and a cotton shirt, haggling down the price to $10 total for all three.
It was close to 5.30 pm and Samadeach reminded me that we need to get to our next stop soon to catch the sunset. We reached Phnom Bakheng (Bakheng Hill) in short order. I was too tired to climb up the hill. So I purchased a ticket for an elephant ride up. The elephant had just left and they radioed the mahout to turn around. The platform mounted on the elephant's back can seat 2-3 people. The other person was a Korean tourist. We started chatting along the way. It was hard communicating, since he did not speak english well. But we managed. Talking mostly about travel, he used some excellent ad hoc sign language to convey the basic idea of a king mourning his wife's death, indicating that as the context about one of his dream travels. I said 'Taj Mahal?', and he nodded in acknowledgement. I have noticed that mentioning the island of Jeju to S.Koreans invokes a sense of warmth and nostalgia. I mentioned that I have been to Seoul and Suwon twice, and that I'd like to visit again, hopefully including Jeju.


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The ascent took about 10 minutes. We were on the top. The Bakheng Hill has a temple on the summit. It is a very simple structure with just a central altar and entrances in all four directions. There are other auxiliary structures on the four corners with spires and Buddha statues. As the sunset hour approached, more people started pouring in. Another noteworthy thing about this hill top is that in the distance out east, three of the five main towers of Angkor Wat are visible, sticking out of the thick jungles surrounding it. It was raining much farther out, in the eastern direction and the shafts of rain made a pretty sight. The sunset itself, I decided would be be something spectacular. The western side was just plain land with paddy fields and a lake. However, the setting sun would make for some great silhouettes if one simply walked around the temple. That is precisely what I did and here is proof my theory.


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The facility has a posted closing time of 6.00 pm. However, no one seemed to budge till about after sunset. There were a few dozen people staking out for those amber strokes in the sky. It was past sunset and dark when I started the descent on the same trail that the elephants use. This gave me a small taste of what it would be like to hike the jungles of Cambodia. It was close to 7.30 pm when the tuktuk brought me to Tara. I arranged for Samadeach to pick me up at 9 am the next morning.

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