Cambodia 2004

Tuesday 09-03-04.

Crossing over to Cambodia went a lot more smoothly than I had anticipated. Leaving the town of Aranya Prathet in Thailand, it took only half an hour to get across the border, buy a visa, and get into the town of Poipet. There was a sign in immigration which read something like 'Any aliens looking like hippies are not welcome', and a portrait of someone who looked very much like the Queen.
My destination, and sole reason for visiting Cambodia, was to visit the temples at Angkor Wat. The town closest too them is called Siem Reap, which is about 150kms from the border. I had two choices of transport... Ride in the back of a pickup truck for 10 dollars, or take a private taxi for 20 dollars. The road looked very rough and dusty, so i went for the easier option and took a taxi, which in the long run was by far the better choice. The journey took a few hours over bumpy roads, and included several detours through some paddy fields where bridges were down. I figured out along the way that the sign showing a man with a spade in his hand and a red line through him meant no digging because of landmines, which was a bit worrying, because we were driving through those fields!
I arrived at Siem Reap none the worse for wear, and booked into a cheap (what else!!) hostel at $3 a night. After  checking in, I saw some people who had decided to take the pickup truck instead of a taxi turn up an hour after me. They were caked from head to toe in red dust and looked pretty miserable, so I gave them my best 'you won't be doing that again smile' and went out for a beer.
The next day I decided on buying a three day pass for the Angkot Wat complex, and I hired a guy from the hostel at $5 a day to drive me around the sites on the back of his moped.  

Click on the photos below to expand them

Angkor Temples

Although Angkor Wat is the most written and talked about monument, ancient Angkor actually covers an area of almost 200 square kilometres. Many of the sites have collapsed, and a lot of them are overgrown or hidden in jungle, which only adds to the mystery of the area, but a solid core are easily accessable to tourists. In the years before the city's collapse the temples were adopted by Buddhists,  however, they were clearly based initially on Hindu temples and mythology, which I had seen myself only weeks earlier in India.

On the first day, I wandered around the centre of Angkor Thom, which was the last capital, religious and administrative centre of the vast Khmer Empire. Although many of the palaces and houses which housed the estimated 1 million population were originally made of wood and have long since rotted away, what remains are the impressive stone monuments of this once great capital.

The Bayon, The Baphoun, Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King are the most notable areas within the complex. Extraordinary towers, carvings figures and the jungle background making it a magical place.

I stayed for the sunset at Phnom Bakheng, which in a way was just as interesting to witness the sheer amount of tourists there as much as anything else! At night, I went out to a bar in the town, and got a lift back at stupid o'clock in the morning to find that the ten foot gates set in a ten foot fence were locked at my hostel. Great fun climbing over those half cut in the moonlight!!

On Thursday 11th March 2004, I went out to the Angkor Wat temple, and it was absolutely amazing. The temple itself is Hindu in origin, and after climbing up the central tower, I took my time looking at the bas relief carvings on the outer walls, which were stunning. There were scenes from Hindu mythology alongside other scenes depicting actual historical events, and I'm glad that I bought an additional guidebook from a hawker, which proved to be invaluable.

Friday, I visited Preah Ko, Lolei and Bakong in the morning, which were all earlier, and of totally different design than the other temples. These ones had more brick than stone in their structure. In the afternoon I visited Preah Khan.
Writing this web page a couple of years after visiting the sites, the immediate emotion of being there and experiencing the jungle growing through parts of buildings has faded a little. What I can say, however, is that the Angkor complex has some of the most amazing remains I have ever seen, and certainly rank in my personal top seven wonders of the world.