The Wonders of Angkor

I had originally planned to visit the colonial town of Battambang before heading to Siem Reap. I thought it would be nice to see another part of the country and I'd also read that there's a stunning boat journey from Battambang to Siem Reap. However at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to stay an extra couple of days in Phnom Penh instead. The heat and the rain is making me quite weary now, and I'd prefer to spend longer soaking up each place rather than moving around just for the sake of it. (I was also slightly put off by discovering that the boat journey could take up to 11 hours, as it's only the start of the rainy season and the rivers are still relatively low!) In any case, I liked Phnom Penh a lot and it was good to be able to explore it at a slower pace. 

After five days there I then took a bus to Siem Reap. It was a really nice journey and a great way to get a little glimpse into life outside of the tourist hotspots. Here are a few things I spotted from the window, along the way:

• monks in flowing orange robes, riding on the back of motorbikes (side-saddle of course)
• children in navy and white school uniforms, cycling along the side of the road - usually 2-3 of them on each bike. Some could only have been 5 or 6 years old and they were wobbling along while lorries and buses hurtled past them... argh!
• motorbikes pulling huge trailers laden with all sorts of things, e.g. big crates of food, stacked up 10 crates high, 5 crates wide and probably another 10 crates long.... dwarfing the little motorbike and its rider!
• a motorbike with a wooden barrel-shaped cage on the back, containing lots of wriggling piglets
• a motorbike with two dead pigs tied face-up to the back seat
• a tiny little girl riding an adult-sized bicycle (alone). Her legs weren't long enough for her to be able to sit on the saddle, so she was peddling standing up and her face was only just visible over the handlebars!

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get photos of any of these things, but here's one of a stall at our lunch-stop, selling all sorts of fried insects. I am really squeamish when it comes to cockroaches and honestly the thought of putting one in my mouth just makes me want to retch! (they're the ones in the plastic bag).

Suddenly not hungry any more...

Of course I was in Siem Reap to see the magnificent temples at Angkor, which was once the capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire. I had put aside three days for temple-touring and decided to get a guide for the first day, to help me understand the important historical stuff. I'm not sure it was worth it in the end: despite some extensive internet research the guy I picked seemed to have lost the will a bit. He'd been in the job for 10 years and I guess he'd got a bit bored of repeating the same info over and over every day. Still, he did bring along a great tuk-tuk driver who I then used again for the subsequent two days.

We started off in the fortified city of Angkor Thom, which is home to a number of temples. The city is enclosed by a moat and a large wall, in which there are five large gates topped with giant faces.

At the top of Angkor Thom's East Gate

Once inside Angkor Thom, the first temple we visited was Bayon, more commonly known as "the one with the faces". It has some amazingly well-preserved bas-relief murals on the first level (bearing in mind that it was built in the 12th century) but people are really here to see the towers on the third level, from which 216 huge stone faces gaze out, each with a serene little smile. The exact symbolism and function of the building is unknown - it's their little secret! 

Bas-Reliefs on the first level of the Bayon

Four faces on each tower look out North, East, South and West

What are you smiling about?!

Little Monk 

Next we wandered around the Baphuon temple, which was originally at the centre of another city which existed here before Angkor Thom was built (most of which was destroyed during an invasion). 

With my guide, Sormson, at Baphuon

At this point, the rain which had been threatening us all morning finally appeared, so we walked quickly around the rest of the complex, including the Royal Enclosure and the Terrace of Elephants. Apparently Angkor Thom was once home to over 1.5 million people - it's hard to imagine it as a living, working city.

This was a good point to break for lunch, after which we headed to Ta Prohm, more commonly known as "the jungle one" (or, "the Tombraider one"). The Angkor temples were rediscovered by Europeans in the 1800s and while most of them have been cleared of the jungle which had grown up around them, Ta Phrom has been left in largely the same condition in which it was found (well, with a LITTLE careful pruning to make it look good in a movie!). The trees had grown up through the gaps in the stones and many of the buildings were in ruins. It was shady and quiet and atmospheric and I liked the idea of nature reclaiming its territory from man

Ta Prohm

The trees are taking over!

The jewel in the crown - Angkor Wat - was saved for the end of the day. Widely believed to be the biggest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century, by King Suryavarman II, to honour the Hindu deity Vishnu. It's incredibly well-preserved, particularly the bas-relief murals and the 3000 apsara (female spirits in Hindu and Buddhist mythology) carved into the walls - each different from the next. It's pretty impressive that something of this size and grandeur could have even been built, when there were no machines to move the stones around, and very fortunate that it survived the various invasions and the Khmer Rouge regime (when many things of historical and cultural value were destroyed). However although Angkor Wat is officially the jewel in the crown, I have to say that my favourite on Day 1 was "the jungle one"! 

Angkor Wat: the classic view

The temple courtyards

The inner walls

Apsara