The Jewel In The Crown

And then there was Angkor Wat.

After a false start the previous day (having gotten up for the sunrise only to find the cloud cover insurmountable and so going back to bed) we made our way up to the legendary ruins to watch the dawn break of the largest religious monument in the world.

From daybreak Jen and I went in for a closer look at the marvel. And the first thing that blows you away about Angkor Wat, before getting up close and personal with the towers and structures themselves, is the range of phenomenal bas reliefs found telling their epic stories around the outer walls of the complex, which includes the legendary Churning of the Sea of Milk...

Once inside the complex, Jen and I were treated to the kind of views that literally take the breath away - the monumental towers and buildings are still in great shape (no doubt helped by fairly constant restoration work), and one such tower can even be climbed to obtain both great views over the complex and gardens, and also a look inside the central structure.

Finally, a walk out into the grounds presented a wider look at the gardens and other buildings, as well as of course the wondrous money shot of the entire, magnificent central complex.

Having arrived before dawn, we were finished at Angkor Wat before lunchtime - meaning technically we still had a half day available to explore other Angkor buildings if we'd wanted to. But we were more than happy to finish with Angkor Wat. After that, there really could be no more.

So that brings Cambodia to a close for us and tomorrow we'll cross the border into Thailand once again and head down to Phuket for some sun, beer and serious R&R. Despite having another seven months of our adventure still to come, Jen and I do actually have to be back in the UK briefly in mid-December, which has put a limit on how much time we could spend in Southeast Asia. And truth be told we've short-changed Cambodia somewhat. On each occasion that we've decided to spend an extra day somewhere, or indeed made the decision to go to a country not originally on our itinerary (such as Myanmar) that time has been shaved off what we had available for Cambodia. Which is a shame, because we've loved it here and feel that it deserves more of our time. There's only one thing for it, of course, and that's to add it to the (long) list of places we just have to come back to...

Things Jennie will remember about Angkor:

1) Awesome shakes at Orchide Guest House.

2) Our budget tuna sandwich breakfasts.

3) That the temple of Angkor must truly be blessed by the Gods as not only did Sean and I cycle something approaching 100kms over three days but we also abstained from beer for 2 days and got up TWICE at 4am for sunrise (albeit that we didn't go out the first time as it was cloudy, but we did get up and dressed so it counts!)

4) The lovely man at the bus stop who was so concerned about us when our guest house driver didn't arrive to pick us up that he let us use his phone and basically sorted it all out for us! We're sorry for immediately thinking you were trying to scam us when you asked for our guest house phone number.

5) The pimped up tuk-tuk with in-built stereo/MP3, DVD player, beer, cooler, reclining seats and fan. We're sorry we couldn't afford to hire you for the day - but my goodness your tuk-tuk was awesome!

6) The bat-mobile tuk-tuk - equally awesome!

7) All of it - I loved Angkor. Every temple is a new discovery and they're all different. Can't believe how lucky Sean and I were to avoid the crowds most of the time. Every decision we made was perfect. This place rocks.

Here are the pics:

BT37_Siem Reap 21 - 25 Nov 2010

The Temples Of Angkor

To say that the Cambodians are fairly proud of Angkor is something akin to saying that the Twilight series is moderately popular with teenage girls. The image of Angkor Wat is everywhere in Cambodia, from the national beer to the most tenuously-linked piece of advertising to tens of thousands of souvenirs to the central design on the country's flag and everything in between. Angkor Wat - and the temples of Angkor generally - ranks as the most famous ancient site in Southeast Asia, and among the most celebrated in the world, so it was already pencilled in as a highlight of the trip before Jen and I had even gotten there. A dangerous thing to do, of course, and potentially lining ourselves up for disappointment, but it was hard not to be excited by the prospect of seeing these wonders. We'd been looking forward to this for months.

Arriving in Siem Reap, the bustling town from which explorations of the temples are based, we had yet another epic win on the accommodation front with the Orchide Guest House - it seems that the hostel gods have been smiling on us over the course of our journey, so spoilt have we been in that respect. Siem Reap itself is a great town for the traveller. It has fully realised the tourist potential of the ruins nearby and has cashed in mightily - as such the city caters heavily for the traveller/tourist market and is littered with high quality western-style bars, restaurants and accommodation. It is certainly a pleasant place to hang out on its own, but of course the town itself isn't the reason we're here.

Having gotten ourselves a three day pass to the Angkor Archaelogical Site, Jen and I then - you guessed it - hired bicycles. We had assumed that there would be hundreds of people joining us on bicycles around the temples, but soon discovered that most people were paying the extra and getting themselves driven by motorized tuk-tuks. We told ourselves that we were doing it the "proper" backpacker's way and earning the right to see the temples like real travellers. In reality, it was 30-something degrees and the temples are spread out over a massive area so we killed ourselves for three days because in truth our budget didn't stretch to luxuries like "motors".

Jen and I deliberately avoided Angkor Wat until our final day, and so we began by exploring some of the outlying temples and doing the Grand Circuit - so named because it is sodding huge and, including the rides to and from Siem Reap to get there, we covered upwards of 40 kilometres that day. But the exertion was well worth it, as the day proved an amazing first glimpse of the wonders of Angkor. The early temples included such luminaries as Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei, Pre Rup and East Mebon, all of which are shown below.

These were then followed by the later highlights of the Grand Circuit which include Ta Som...

...Neak Pean...

...and our Grand Circuit finale, the wonderful ruins of Preah Khan - one of the largest and most spectacular of all the Angkor complexes. Stretching over a huge area, it is like a lost city all unto itself.

And here's a tip about the Grand Circuit - do it anti-clockwise. We found that the majority of the people on the circuit were taking it in a clock-wise direction, which gave the anti-clockwise travellers two advantages. Firstly, it was quieter, meaning that we got a better feel of discovery as we explored these great ruins. And secondly, the order of the ruins means that they increase in magnificence while travelling them in the anti-clockwise direction. Just so you know.

Day two saw us refine our explorations into a smaller area comprised first by the walled city of Angkor Thom - the ancient Khmer capital which was once home to a population of one million people at a time when London could barely boast 50,000. Truth be told, in our (humble) opinion most of the ruins in Angkor Thom didn't quite match up to those on the Grand Circuit, but there were still some impressive structures.

Possibly the most celebrated - and certainly most striking - area of Angkor Thom is the ruin known as the Bayon. Bayon is a huge temple complex decorated by hundreds of serene carved faces, thought to bear resemblance to Jayavarman VII, the not-egotistical-at-all God-King who built it (along with most of the other Angkor Ruins).

Though personally, I felt the carvings bore closer resemblance to a more modern - yet equally God-King-esque - profile. Don't pretend you can't see it.

Following Angkor Thom we then took on the Small Circuit, which - amazingly enough - is smaller than the Grand Circuit, and so kept our riding distance for the day down to a mere 25km or so. We also stumbled across a spot that a lucky couple had decided was a particularly lovely place for a wedding reception...

Once again, Jen and I were treated to a memorable finale - the fantastically overgrown jungle ruins of Ta Prohm. This site found double fame in the Tomb Raider film, both as a mystical and atmospheric scene setting, and by comfortably out-acting the rest of the cast.

And after all that, Angkor Wat was still to come...