Wat a Day!

We left Vietnam after a week for our 24 hour adventure to Cambodia (Yes, one day is a short time to go anywhere, but we had debated back and forth about going to Cambodia at all, and luckily decided to squeeze it in despite the high cost of getting there via air). Our main mission was to see Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, and we had heard and read that there were many other temples, but didn't know what to expect. Pictures cannot even explain the magnitude of this place, with hundreds of temples, many built 1,000 years ago, all out of giant stones that are carved with depictions of . Here's a little history lesson about this UNESCO World Heritage site.

The main temple is called Angkor Wat and is the largest religious monument in the world and is considered to be the ultimate example of Khmer architecture. Built between 1133 and 1150, during the reign of King Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu (though the whole area came under Buddhist rulers a few hundred years later until the present time) . The size alone is breathtaking - the outer walls stretch 1.5 km by to 1.3 km (nearly 1 mile square), and there is a moat over 650 feet wide surrounding the whole complex. The entire site takes up about 500 acres. In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that the Angkor area had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 400 square miles. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was roughly 50 square miles in total size.

Angkor is, quite simply, one of the most splendid attractions in all of Southeast Asia. Long considered "lost," the ruins of Angkor were never really lost to the Khmers, who throughout their history have used the monuments as a religious site. The myth of "Angkor's lost ruins" is more suited to a Hollywood film than the history books. The French botanist Henri Mouhot stumbled across Angkor Wat in 1860, and since then it has been a main attraction in the region.

We started our adventure on Monday afternoon, after arriving into Cambodia. We took a taxi to the Le Meridian hotel, and rested for a bit, as we wanted to spend the early evening at Angkor. The guide book said you could buy an entrance ticket at 4pm, and then it would be good for the next day. We hired a tuk-tuk (or little cart pulled by a motorbike), and went out to get our ticket.
The entrance discount started at 5pm instead, so our driver took us around down-town Siem Reap and gave us some history on the area. He also showed us the "killing fields" which was a monument to the millions of people that were killed during the Pol Pot regime. There were 3 million people killed that were counted for during 1975-1979, and many more missing. Our driver had a grandmother and some uncles killed during this horrible time.

We got our entrance ticket and asked the driver to take us around for a driving tour of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. We planned on getting up early the next day and spending the morning discovering the temples, so this was going to be a bit of a preview. The main, popular sites are Angkor Wat, Bayan (where there are budha faces carved in the rock), and Ta Prohm (which is the temple overgrown by large trees). We spent a couple hours riding around and getting out to take pictures and explore a little of the compound. After this little taste, we headed into town to eat at Khmer Kitchen for some traditional Cambodian food - very yummy. Off to bed early as we wanted to be up before sunrise.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 4:30am (ouch) and met our same tuk-tuk driver (named Kimleng), as we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, which is a very popular thing for tourists to do here. We stumbled through the grounds and temple, by only the light of the moon, and then sat down by the pond to wait for the sky to open. Kimleng said the reflection of the sunrise off the pond is beautiful. The sunrise was a little more bland than desired, but it was still mystical and magical to be in this incredible space. After the sunrise, we explored the temple for an hour, where you could easily spend all day or more to see everything, before heading off to Bayan.

A couple months ago, I (April) had seen some amazing photos of monks wearing the traditional saffron-colored robes, sitting near these Buddha faces, carved in rock monuments - somewhere in the world. I googled the image and then found out that it was the very place I was going on my trip this summer. Needless to say, I was very excited about this site.

Bayan is one of the most written about and photographed of Angkor's monuments. Originally, this site had 54 towers, with 4 faces carved into them - facing the directions of the compass. Some people believe the 54 towers represented the 54 provinces of the realm of King Jayavarman VII, and that the faces were that of the King's, looking down upon the entire country. In any case, the temple is amazing and makes you realize the difficulty of it's execution.

According to our guide and driver, the stones were brought here by floating down rafts on the river, some 70 km away. And, not only are there the Buddha faces carved into the rock, but the whole site (along with most of the other temples at Angkor) are carved with relief designs of Hindu religious symbols and stories. And - this is was all done nearly 1000 years ago!













The last main site we toured was called Ta Phrom. The jungle covered Ta Phrom is straight out of an Angelina Jolie "Tomb Raider" film. It was decided to leave this temple in its originally found state, although the trees are slowly destroying the monument, as the roots grow on top of and in and through the monument's stones.

Ta Phrom was built by Jayavarman VII for his mother, and this was the center of a city of over 10,000 people and also an active Buddhist monistary. We were dropped off at the North gate, and then walked through the jungle (litterally) for a while before stumbling upon the main site. We imagined ourselves as the French botanist who found this place, and thought how crazy it would have been. While walking around, Mark made friends with a worker at the temple, who gave us a private tour of some hidden spots and pointed out the most important things to see. He took such pride in this ancient place of his people, and enjoyed showing us its splendor. One of the things he pointed out was this carving of a dinosaur. It is amazing to think that they knew about the dinosaur's back then.

Our time in Angkor was really great. Besides all of the temples, one of the real highlights were the people who we found to be extremely nice and very beautiful. The children were simply adorable, and like in Vietnam, they start working at a very early age selling things to tourists. They speak very good English, at least enough to give a full sales pitch. "Mr Mark, will you buy a water" "No thanks, I already have some." "Mr Mark will you come buy one from me when you are done". "Miss April, would you like a bracelet?" "Thanks but I already have one." "One is not enough, you need two or more. Please buy from me." Our hearts really went out to them (as did some of our money).

Mark also spent some time talking to the server at the hotel bar. She was 29, not married, and practicing her English so she could get a better job. Mind you, she had a very coveted job, working at the Le Meridian in Angkor which is a five star hotel. However, she works 60 hours a week (10 hours a day for 6 days) and gets paid $120 per month plus room and board.

Though we only had a day in Cambodia, we made the most of it, saw a lot., and felt like it was worth the trip We highly recommend for anyone to come here to visit. It is simply one of the most amazing places either of us have ever been!