Angkor Wat!!!!! - Blogabond

Sorry for the delay on this one I actually wrote a long article about Angkor 3 or 4 days ago then there was a power cut and the auto save on the blog failed to do what its supposed to!!!

Cambodia is a doddle to travel in, its as flat as a pancake and the roads are wide. Bit harsh on the engineers in Laos with all the hills and jungle they have to get through but the same distances here can be got through in half the time.

So a fairly comfortable ride north to the town of Siem Reap the only event was the fried tarantula on sail at the lunch break. THis one had a missive bucket full of live ones and a plate around the same size of greasy looking 2 inch black blobs.
I didn't have one.

I hadn't realised that Angkor comprised of over 250 temples not just the 1 famous one as I had erroneously believed. The main tourist area has around 25 huge and beautifully built temples dating from between the 11th and 12th centuries. Most are Buddhist but some are Hindu.
They all have intricate carvings and fabulous arches columns and tall steep staircases and you basically get free run of the place (within reason) once you've paid you 20 dollar a day (2 for the price of 3) entrance fee.

The park has 2 sort of ring roads through it and I took the inner road on the first day hiring a bike for a dollar instead of the 15 dollar tuk tuk. Had a lovely day cycling along the shady roads turning a corner and coming across yet another outstanding piece of architecture.

What's so nice is the variation I thought I'd quickly get board at looking at the same thing but the temples all have big differences. Some are pyramid shapes. Others one level buildings (one of these had doorways that got smaller the further you went in) Others have square stone pillars some round roman style columns and one is built of bricks instead of huge stone slabs. My favourite though was the temple named Bayon which was a kind of circular pyramid of columns which had wonderful Buddhist faces on top of them about 2 meters square.

Next morning I had planned to cycle the second, outer, ring but I woke feeling awful and ended up in bed all day. Fortunately I had the extra day on my ticket so on day 3 I felt better but still not well enough to cycle a 30 km round trip so hired a motorbike and driver. To make the most I headed out to one of the distant temples 80km from the main park. It was worth the sore bottom. Beang Malia was designed by the same chap who built Angkor Wat but it hadn't had much of the jungle cleared from it. The beautiful building was crawling with fantastic ancient trees and long winding vines and best of all it just had a few boards through it and you where given complete freedom and encouragement from the wardens to boulder your way through and get lost in its dark hallways. I got there late afternoon (all the tour groups go early morning) and the only other tourists I saw where a few leaving as I entered so I had the whole complex to my self. In the evening sunlight through the trees it was truly stunning. My pictures don't do it justice whatsoever.

written by

Dan on September 24, 2008 from Siem Reap, Cambodia

from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!

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