Which Wat is what?

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Oh my Buddha!

Really that is all I should say. Today I went to see Angkor Wat, Along with Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. The place is absolutely amazing, and none of my photos will do it the slightest justice. If you are in Asia and have time, come and see this wonderful place. My second piece of advice is that unless you have a job that requires lots of walking, then I wouldn't recommend doing this by foot (Which of course I did!).

I had already gauged how long it would take to do this by foot, when I walked to the ticket office yesterday in the hottest part of the afternoon. It was overcast when I left the hostel, but as soon as I was on the way, the sun decided to come out. It was a glorious afternoon, but not really the ideal weather or temperature for walking.

This morning was quite cool in comparision, and I set out early with water in hand, and a spring in my step. It probably took me around an hour to get my ticket (One day, twenty bucks) and get to Angkor Wat itself, so not too bad. The walk itself is pleasant, heading out of town into the forest. I had lots of tuk-tuk drivers pull over, but was happy with my decision to walk. I needed the exercise.

The first thing you see of Angkor is the moat. This is not the small moats that you tend to see around English castles, this was the real thing. Walking around the moat and over the bridge, you soon get to enter the complex itself. At this point I picked up a Student tour guide unintentionally. It took me around five minutes to realise what was going on, and he seemed quite upset when I told him to head back to the entrance to find another customer, as I was happy to walk around without a guide, and no I would not be giving him a tip. I probably would have, but at that time the smallest I had was ten bucks, and I wasn't paying him that.

Angkor is everything I thought it would be and more, it is bigger than I thought. More commercial than I hoped, and busier than I wanted it to be. But then it is a world heritage site, and the only reason every tourist is in Siem Reap. I really am not going to try and describe it, come see it for yourself.

After doing the tour round, I left by the way I came in and followed up the road towards Angkor Thom. This in itself is the remains on a large walled city. The only building left are those made for the gods, as these were made of stone. All of the other buildings were made of wood, and have long since perished. It was quite funny listening to a guide tell a couple, that those rocks over there were the royal palace. Literally they were the odd rock here and there that were the remains of the foundations. Funny thing is though, it's still marked as something to see on the maps.

Anyway I get ahead of myself, I still had a good couple of mile walk to get to that point. The walk from Angkor Wat to the gates was again through the forest, and again very pleasant. I came across a Wat in the forest, that I do not know the name of, but was good for a quick look anyway. When I got to gate, I had a feeling that the walk wasn't all that, and this was easy. Unfourtnately it was at least another mile from the walls to the first temple, Bayon. It was still cool, and when there was no traffic, the sounds of the forest came out, and it was lovely. I even managed to meet some monkeys, sitting by the road having their breakfast.

I think I probably thought more of Bayon than most people who see it. Don't get me wrong, it is amazing. But I am sure that it is that little bit more amazing after you have had to walk there! No where near as big as Angkor, and in a less healthy state, it is still truely something to see. This is pretty much in the centre of the city, and heading slightly north after I came out, there are ruins to the left of you, ruins to the right of you, and ruins to the front of you. At this point, I sort of got confused as to what I was seeing, but it is here that I found the royal palace, and the royal temple. I think the most impressive thing is the size of it all, the site is massive. I have only touched the main three temples, I think there are more than 70 around the area. Could be more or less, but definitely lots more than I saw today.

By the time I had finished in Angkor Thom it was after mid-day. The sun had come out, and my feet were starting to ache. I was just walking east towards Ta Prohm when along came a rather nice gentleman on a motorbike. For six bucks he offered to take me there, and then back to Siem Reap. A this point, I gladly accepted the offer, I was already on my second bottle of water and could feel my soles of my feet getting hot. I can safely say, that I am now getting used to being on the back of the bike, can hold on with just my legs and not once did I cause us to lose balance or nearly crash. I was actually very relaxed and enjoyed the ride, with the wind in my face.

I am glad I took the bike, it was probably a good four to five km walk. More than I would have wanted to do in the heat, and I would not have enjoyed Ta Prohm as much as I did I have had tried to do it. He dropped me off on the west side, and agreed to meet me at the other side of the temple when I had done.

Ta Prohm is a jumble of falling down buildings, rubble and trees! There are some really, really big trees growing over and through the temple, it is like something out of the movies... Tomb Raider maybe? The site itself is alot bigger than I thought it would be, and what with lots of corridors blocked off with rubble it can be slightly confusing. I am pretty sure I saw it all. I defintely saw a few places more than once. Again there were a few student guides to politely decline, but not the hordes of children trying to sell you stuff that I had heard from other travellers (Finally found them just as I was leaving the east gate).

Pretty much all of the sites that I have visited are having restoration works done, so I can only assume that if done correctly, the places are only going to get better.

After finishing off there, I met up with my friendly moto rider, jumped on the back for a cooling twenty minute ride back to town. I stopped off and had Tempura battered frog legs and some lovely ribs for lunch. Then it was back to the hostel for a long shower. I thought that I might lay down for a moment to rest my weary body, and awoke two hours later!

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