The Temples of Angkor

We spent the first three days in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat and the other temples, of which there are very, very many, ranging from the 9th to the 12th century, Hindu and Buddhist.

Day 1:
We started the morning by spending about 3 hours at Angkor Wat. And yes, it is amazing and everything people say it is. It's massive and hard to imagine how it was built with only manpower. The image of the wat is all over Cambodia - on their flag, on their beer, on businesses, so it was a bit surreal walking up to the real thing! We walked around the outside, which is covered in very complicated and ornate carvings of Hindu myths and stories. Inside, there are some amazing carvings of female goddesses on the walls. The climb to the top involved scaling these very tiny, steep, and frightening stairs. Going down is much scarier! Then we took a break for lunch, and drove to see the three temples that make up the Roulos group, about 16km outside Siem Reap. They were older and very damaged, but had some nice sculptures. The temples are surrounded by small villages, which we wandered through, down dirt roads, past tiny houses made of palm and mud and some pigs and chickens. We returned to the Angkor Wat area and walked up to a temple on the hill which promised to have a great sunset. However, it was horribly crowded and the sky was too cloudy anyway so we left early. Then back to the city for dinner!

Day 2:
We woke up insanely early to get to Angkor Wat at 5:30am to see the sunrise. It was freezing cold, which we were not prepared for. However, this is one of my favorite memories from the trip - sitting in plastic chairs near the pond of lotuses in front of Angkor Wat, drinking hot tea, and watching the sky grow pink and brighter as the sun rose, with the silhouette of Angkor Wat against it. AMAZING. Then we went to see some of the smaller temples around the area. Since we got such an early start, there were few tourists and we were alone in some of the places, which was great, and pretty rare. We went to a few temples that are completely destroyed by tree roots, which were growing through the doors and walls and devouring the temples slowly. "Tomb Raider" was filmed at one of them, just to give you an idea! We went back to Siem Reap for lunch at a butterfly garden, and then wandered around the city, did some shopping, relaxed - we were up so early and had seen so many temples at that point that we were in need of a break. In the evening, we met my friend Erin for dinner - she was an exchange student in Penang, from Australia, and happened to be in Siem Reap at the same time as us!

Day 3:
Alice and I were feeling a bit sick and tired so it was a slow morning. We started by going to Angkor Thom, the walled capital of the ancient empire. Of course, all that is left are the temples because they are made of stone, and everything else is long gone. It's strange to imagine it as a bustling city. We saw Bayon, the main temple there, which was definitely a highlight. It has massive faces of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, at the top, which smile at you and watch the city below. After Bayon, we saw the Terrace of Elephants, which is a wall with elephant heads carved out of it, their trunks all lined up! After a small rest, we took a tuk-tuk to Banteay Srey, a temple that is 37km outside of the city. It's small, made of pink sandstone, and the carvings there were my favorite out of all. They are so intricate and detailed and I could spend hours examining them.

There are many more small temples that we did not get a chance to see. The temple complex is massive and they all demand a lot of time if you want to see the carvings in detail. Angkor definitely leaves a very long-lasting impression.