Angkor.... wow!

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You know the expressions, "breathtaking" and "it took my breath away"? Well, this did.

Literally.

As Huow, our tuktuk driver, drove us along the moat that partially surrounds Angkor Wat, the temple’s front aspect and distinctive towers suddenly came into view. There was a sharp intake of breath. Sure, I’d seen a gazillion photographs and representations of Angkor Wat - you can’t spend two minutes in Cambodia without doing so - but nothing I’d seen could begin to convey the sheer power and mystery of these buildings that have stood here for nearly a millennium.

But we weren’t stopping there yet; the first place on the agenda for our three days of Angkor sightseeing was the South Gate to the old city of Angkor Thom, and this time my breath really did desert me. The road leads, in a straight line, up to, and then through, the South Gate. Consequently, the Gate first appears in the distance, glimpsed through the forest, and looking, for all the world, more like a film set than anything real. Surely I’d driven onto the set for “Tomb Raider” or the latest Indiana Jones? (In fact, the first “Tomb Raider” movie was filmed here, and is suitably commemorated in “Angelina” and “Tomb Raider” cocktails in nearby Siem Reap.) Huow set us down to allow us to walk across the god- and devil-guarded, be-Naga’ed bridge and through the South Gate, arranging to meet us on the other side.

I was still struggling for breath.

The South Gate is the best preserved and most dramatic entrance to the old city of Angkor Thom. The gods and devils lining the bridge are largely intact (or at least well restored). On each side, you can see how the Naga - the mythical water serpent with magical powers which is a dominant symbol in Buddhism in this part of the world - is supported by the semi-human figures. Its multiple heads seem to dare anyone to approach the city, though, by Naga standards, it’s quite a mild one. The Gate itself is huge, dwarfing the traffic that incongruously passes through it. John McDermott has made a name for himself photographing the Angkor ruins in dramatic black and white. One of his most memorable pictures shows a trio of working elephants passing through the Gate but, in order to show the elephants properly, much of the Gate has been omitted so that, even after seeing his work, I found the reality completely breathtaking.

Silenced to an unprecedented degree, I dazedly rejoined David and Huow for the short drive to the next incredible temple, the Bayon. While this temple is smaller than some, its “faces” are iconic. On each side of each of its multiple towers is carved the serene face of the Buddha, and the effect is extraordinary. If the light is too harsh or too dim, the details of the face are hard to discern. If you wander around later in the day when the light is warmer, the faces reappear, all-seeing, hypnotic and calming.

I was overwhelmed by the other-worldliness of what I was seeing, unable to take it in properly, wandering around haphazardly, barely concentrating on what I was looking at and photographing, so, when we were planning our last trip to the area on the afternoon of our third day, a second trip to the South Gate and to the Bayon was an essential addition. This time I could focus a little better. There were fewer people at the Bayon - a welcome relief from the coachloads of Chinese and Japanese we’d run into at the South Gate - and I paused to drink it in. What an extraordinary place.

The degree to which detail is preserved on many of the Angkor ruins is stunning, but, perhaps, nowhere more so than at Banteay Srey. Huow recommended an early start for this, one of the more distant ruins, and we were indebted to him. Its red sandstone reliefs and carvings are at their best in the early morning and late afternoon. Arriving at 7.30 am or so, we found only lone couple of people there before us. The carvings really are extraordinary and in remarkably good condition given the temple’s tenth century origins. In places, the artist has carved underneath the principal figure, making it truly stand out but necessarily fragile, yet many of these carvings are still intact. Beyond the temple, two moat-esque lakes and their deep pink lilies gave even more options for the would-be arty photographer.

After breakfast and a good dose of Khmer coffee - the local coffee is so strong that, even when mixed with condensed milk, as is the custom here, it doesn’t change colour - we returned to the tuktuk, Huow now surrounded by fellow drivers. On our trip back to the main Angkor ruins, we passed a number of coaches. Thank goodness for Huow’s recommendation, and the chance to look round Banteay Srei alone.

Ta Prohm is another of the better-known and well-photographed temples, but, again, it was even more extraordinary when seen first hand. Here, the forest is eerily gradually overwhelming the temple. The roots of huge hardwoods are strangling the stonework in their slow but remorseless manner. I don’t know why some temples seem to be more susceptible to this than others. At the far side of Banteay Kdei I noticed apparently disembodied tree roots snaking their way through the pile of unrestored rubble. At Preah Khan, the tree that is slowly cracking up part of the temple has been cut down, but the remaining stump and roots now weirdly resemble Thing, the fictional hand in “The Addams Family”.

With literally hundreds of ruins around Siem Reap, there was no time to make a real dent in the numbers, and I won’t even take you through each and every temple that I did visit. Hopefully, then, you’ll excuse me the overdose of photographs in lieu of further words. However, no description of this area would be complete without homage to Angkor Wat itself.

You’ll remember that it was the first sight of this temple that caused my initial respiratory problems. Later that first day, we returned to explore it properly, and stayed for sunset. Several of the temples are known for being good sunset and/or dawn venues. Others are simply buried too deep in the surrounding forest for the sun’s arrival and departure to make any impact. But Angkor Wat has reflecting lakes, and the expanse of its grounds means that the forests are restrained some way back from the buildings. It is a stunning venue for both ends of the day, and, having stayed for sunset on the first day, to the accompaniment of an Angkor beer and a chorus of frogs, we returned before dawn the next day to see the sunrise. We were not alone, and I was pleased to see that the local stall-keepers knew their market. As we stumbled across the temple’s main grounds towards the reflecting pools, we were accosted by a small boy saying “You want coffee?” Manna from heaven! We glued ourselves to his shirt-tails, and were rewarded with a half-pint glass - yes, literally - of Khmer coffee. An hour or more later, when we’d watched the pre-dawn sky gradually change colour and the sun then appear over the temple’s trademark towers, the same little boy appeared. “You want breakfast?”

It is a magical and mysterious place, Angkor Wat. It has a grandueur that surpasses any of the other temples in this area, and that takes some doing. Not that it is top of the class in every respect. Yes, it too has carvings - its apsaras (dancing goddesses) are particularly fine - but they’re not exceptional by the standards of others. Yes, it too allows you to try some wonderfully arty angles with the camera lens, though not necessarily any more so than some of the other temples. But it is the scale and setting of Angkor Wat that seer themselves into your memory. The approach is fabulous. Walking along the water’s edge and across the bridge over the moat is a pilgrimage in itself and, if the waters are still, the reflections are out of this world. Once through the entrance gate - an impressive edifice by itself - the sheer expanse of the grounds that lie before you, the distance between the main gate and the central temple area, is, as far as I’m aware, unique in amongst the Angkor ruins. Then you reach the temple and its classical construction - a series of Russian-doll temples, one within another, each at a higher elevation than the previous one - and you climb to the top, or as far as current renovation work permits… It is truly magnificent, and you may well yearn for a time machine: oh to see this place as it was, and as it was meant to be…

After a final sunset, this time in the company of the lions at Pra Ruk - although it was sad to see that one lion had crumbled only in the last fifteen months - we bad farewell to this other world. Gradually, Huow drove us away, along Angkor Wat’s moat one last time, down the tree-lined avenue-like approach to the ruins, and back to Siem Reap. To think that, when we planned the trip, four days in Siem Reap seemed too much: I needed the fourth day - and would have taken another couple if time had permitted - to try and digest the previous days’ extraordinary experiences.

When can I come back?

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