Breathtaking, Awe-inspiring, Majestic and Powerful.Sure these are words that describes myself (you can all laugh now) but these four words are the best ones to describe ones feelings after we visited the Angkor temples. We decided on a three day pass and in hindsight, this was an insipred move. From what looked like an adventure that could have been over in one day turned out to be a two and a half day fun filled odyssey.
On the advice of the owner of the guest house we were staying in, they organised a tuk-tuk driver who started the day but not understanding that i needed to get to the bank as the ATM machine took my Mastercard the day before. After giving directions to the driver to the bank, i found that i needed all this paperwork sent over before i could get my card back. Thinking that the card expires in a couple of months before i get a new one, i decided to leave it there in the machine. Sab and i said thank you to our driver and decided to find a new one. Not more than 30 seconds later we found a driver who went by the name of "Funny Guide." Bingo!!
About 30 mins later we were driving past the front of Angkor Wat. Now Angkor Wat is the temple you see on TV or in magazines and even on the Cambodia flag. Sab and I were going to save the biggest and best till last. We drove on a bit further to the second most historic temple at Angkor..the Bayon. The Bayon was considered the centre of the Khmer Universe during its heyday and the ability to actually go inside and explore rather than seeing it from behind a rope was sensational. I felt like a 10 year old boy who stumbled across the biggest cubby house in the world. All around me was thousands of years of history and i could touch it and be inside these wonders of man and imagine how this civiliastion actually created such structures.
Sab and i have concluded that we havn't seen a better historical monument in our lives than Angkor. With the numerous other temples that followed the experience kept getting better and better.
I'm just happy to be here at AngkorAngkor has an inspirational aspect to it that has not been matched in any place i have ever seen. The day didn't start off to well as Sab and i were ripped of into purchasing Angkor Books and anything else under the sun. We actually videotaped this little adventure and after watching it again, it's amazing how determined Cambodian sellers are to get your money. When i mean sellers i mean anyone between the ages of three and three hundred. This is a constant source of frustration in Cambodia for as much as you want to help out the people here by purchasing things you don't really need (such as my traditional Cambodian Wooden Cow Bell) you can't really find a moments peace to yourself.
Our first stop on the tour was to the Bayon which is the epicentre of the larger Angkor Thom complex. This temple is the second most impressive behind Angkor Wat and its most impressive feature are the carved faces set in massive blocks of stone. It's hard to imagine it was built in the late 12th century but even today looking at these impressive ruins you cannot help but think "How did they do it?" The next stop was the Baphon temple which is as close as the Khmer Empire got to making a pyramid. One side of the structure used to have a recline Bhudda built into the side of it but these days it looks like a big pile of blocks. Once we were there a local decided that he would tag along and tell us about the temple. As impressive as his knowledge was there was the catch at the end of it which was this "i'm a poor student and i need money for tuition." At the time in all honesty Sab and I didn't have any money on us so we couldn't pay him. He walked away dejected and we walked away knowing not to fall for that trap again.
Along our travels we also ventured into the Leper King Temple and the Elephant Terrace and it just added to the whole amazing experience that is Angkor. After lunch we made our way around to other various temples where by we were hassled by more kiddies out of our money. Our list of new pointless but later in life we'll sit back and laugh items included my cow bell, a traditional Cambodian flute, more books and another t-shirt as i sweated my way though the first one. More temples followed (Thommanon and Ta Phrom) which included the one filmed in "Tomb Raider" which looked like it was being held up by these mammoth trees.
Big Temples, Massive Trees!
The long awaited sunset came and after climbing a mountain and finding our spot, we waited for a magical sunset. The only problem was that the sky was very grey and there was only a glimmer of sunset hovering over the massive man made lake. It wasn't the best looking sunset (even though with the help of a amatuer professional Japanese cameraman who had a few tricks in order to get great sunset pics i tried to take one but failed) but the experience was magical until the thunderstorm made the tourists at the top of this mountain temple quickly scamper. With these maginificent temples being only an entree' to the man dish that is Angkor Wat, Sab and i had spent a marvellous day in the ruins of a powerful civilisation and went to bed that night looking forward to the next day and seeing the majesty that is Angkor Wat.
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