Day 20 - Angkor Wat and Other Temples

I don’t even know where to start with today’s post, there was just so much to see. We were up before sunrise to head out to Angkor Wat, hoping to get that classic reflection photo of the main temple. We ended up on the left-hand side of the pond, but looking back, the right side would’ve been better. The left had a fence running along it and the posts kept getting in everyone’s shots. Would’ve been nice if our guide had mentioned that before we set up.

Once the sun was up, we made a quick stop at a nearby Buddhist temple. It was interesting enough, but didn’t really have much to do with what we were there to see. After that, we made our way into Angkor Wat itself, though kind of in reverse. Most people start at the front entrance, but we began by checking out the carvings first before making our way through to the front.

The temple is huge, and the carvings are incredible. The walls are covered in scenes from ancient Hindu stories and rows of dancers carved in amazing detail. Hard to believe it was all done around 800 years ago and still looks this good.

Even though the sunrise spot wasn’t perfect and the order of things was a bit backwards, it was still an amazing place to visit. Walking through the long corridors and seeing all the old ruins was really a sense of just how old and special the place is.

We headed back to our hotel for a quick break before Gill, Mike and I headed into town by Tuk Tuk to check out some of the market and to see if we could spot Pub Street. Our driver took us on small detour to show us some sites on the way to town, then drove us up Pub Street before dropping us outside the market so we could go for a walk, he said he would wait for us and we told him he should just carry on a do more jobs while he waits for us as we could be some time. We brought some items while walking around the market. Gill got some earrings and we polished off the shopping trip with a Gelato. I called our Tuk Tuk driver who was still waiting for us, he drove us back to the hotel detouring past a small temple. Preah Enkosei Temple, which is one of the smaller and less-visited ones, but still really interesting. It sits just outside Siem Reap, near the river, and actually dates back to before Angkor Wat. It was built in the late 10th century during the reign of King Rajendravarman II and later finished by King Jayavarman V.

The temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and is made up of a few towers built from sandstone and brick. You can still see some of the carvings on the lintels and door frames showing Hindu gods and floral designs, though a lot of it has worn away over time.

After a bit of a rest in the hotel, including small swim, it was time to head off and see more temples. Next up was Bayon Temple, right in the centre of Angkor Thom. It’s the one known for all the giant stone faces looking out in every direction. It was built in the late 12th or early 13th century by King Jayavarman VII and was the main temple of his new capital.

What really stands out are those smiling faces carved into the towers. There are more than 200 of them, said to represent either the king himself or the Bodhisattva of compassion, they may be a bit hard to see in the photos, but in person they are quite clear, besides the fact they are decaying. The walls are also covered in carvings showing scenes of everyday Khmer life, like people fishing, cooking, and going to battle.

While there are a lot of old stones lying around, they aren’t planning to fully restore the temple. At the moment they’re focusing on structural repairs to stop it from collapsing, but since more than 30 percent of the original stones are missing, it can’t be completely rebuilt. The goal now is just to maintain it as it is.

Bayon feels quite different to Angkor Wat. It’s less symmetrical and a bit of a maze to walk through, with narrow corridors and steep steps, and faces watching you from every angle. It’s busy, a bit chaotic, but that’s what makes it so interesting. Nee spent maybe 45 minutes there before we headed onto our next stop Ta Prohm Temple.

Ta Prohm Temple is the temple that’s been left mostly as it was found, with huge tree roots growing over and through the stone walls. It’s a really unique sight, and the mix of nature and ruins makes it feel like something out of a movie. That makes sense, because this is where they filmed parts of Tomb Raider.

The temple was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastery and university. Over the years the jungle slowly took it back, and now the trees have become part of the structure itself. Some of the roots wrap right around the doorways and towers, almost like they’re holding the temple together.

They’re doing some work to stabilise parts of it, our guide advised us that they were going to work on restoring this one, but other sources say the plan is to keep Ta Prohm looking mostly the same rather than fully restore it, so I'm a little uncertain what the plan is. It’s one of those places you just stop and look around, trying to take in how something so overgrown can still look so beautiful, and if they were to restore it, would it look as lovely as it does now. Strangely, one of the carvings in this temple looks like a dinosaur, see if you can spot it in the last photo.

The day is still not over at this stage, we got back to our hotel, and after a small break all headed out for a dinner, our group had decided to go to a restaurant called Spoons, at this stage we hadn't realised that it was a student restaurant. There were some mistakes made here and there and the steak wasn't that great (either badly cut or just a bad steak) but all and all the meals were very good. From there it was back to the hotel to relax after a massive day.