Angkor Wat and Siem Reap

 

Flying out of Bangkok, lots of rice paddies.

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Heading to Cambodia – More jungle and rivers

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Arriving in Siem Reap!

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Visiting the Angkor park in Cambodia has always been a dream of mine. When I visited Vietnam in the 1990s, I was so close but didn’t make it out there. Since it’s only a one hour flight from Bangkok and pretty inexpensive to get to, we decided to add it to our itinerary.

Going to Angkor was definitely a dream fulfilled. The place is amazing and very spiritual – a huge temple complex with enormous spires and Buddha faces set in a lush jungle. We visited a number of sites in the park but there is so much more to see that we didn’t get to – we’ll have to leave it to the next visit. 

One thing to note is that the temples were originally built by the Khmer civilization starting in the 9th century and were overcome by jungle and reduced in part to rubble over neglect and abandonment for centuries. With the help of the French, who colonized Cambodia starting the 1800s, these temples were all rebuilt, some with no idea of how to put them back together. They did an amazing job, though there are many obvious places where they didn’t know what went where.

Angkor Wat, the main temple in the Angkor park, also the largest

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Tha Prom, how the temples looked before the trees were cut down and the renovations. Some renovations have been done to make it safe for tourists.

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This was low season – can you imagine how crowded it would be in high season? It would not be bearable – the temperature was 100 deg and sweat was streaming down our faces. If it weren’t for the A/C van with cold towlettes and bottles of water every hour or so, I don’t think we would have made it through the day. The sun was blazing hot and casting very deep shadows.

Victory Gate and the moat

A large moat surrounds the inner temples of Angkor park (the outer temples are spread out surrounding Siem Reap up to two hours drive away). The victory gate is stunning – it was the gate that the elephants and troops would return through after fighting a battle.

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Bayon – Temple of the Smiling Buddhas

 

I believe there are over a thousand smiling buddha faces at Bayon temple. The smiling Buddha/fat Buddha is supposed to represent Nirvana, not the actual Buddha.

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Next up – the (not quite) floating village.