No Fixed Abode: Which Wat

Thu 03 and Fri 04 Mar 2016 - Angkor

Angkor Wat is a world heritage site and is the main reason the vast majority of people visit Cambodia, however, The Wat, while famous, is not the only temple in the Angkor Archeological Park, which covers a huge area.

After much research we set aside three days to explore Angkor, two by cycle, and as they turned out to be long days with early starts we’ve combined them together into a single blog entry.

Angkor itself is a strange place. Heaving with tourists (over 2 million per year) the few roads are packed with cars, buses, tuk tuks and cycles as they wind their way through the jungle between each site. Around each of the major sites are small hamlets of wooden shacks and trucks selling food, drink, clothing and tourist memorabilia. In some way it’s good that the local villagers get a cut of the tourist money but it does give the whole area a shabby feel and the constant hassling can be wearing - ‘Hey mister/lady XXX a dollar’ - everything seems to be a dollar.

We, along with most other visitors it would seem, have come to loathe Chinese tourists. They swarm in noisy packs (despite the plethora of signs requesting silence) wielding their selfie sticks, posing for photos every step or two and shoving their way around. At one point Yvonne was admiring a particular area and a Chinese tour guide showed her group how to place their phones on the floor and take a selfie with them looking down and an archway above. Noticing that Yvonne was appearing in the photos the guide pushed her out of the way. Needless to say Yvonne pushed her back and stood her ground but was eventually inundated by jostling women. We even heard one of the local guides urging his group to take their photos “quick, before the Chinese come”. When we met other nationalities waiting politely in an orderly line accompanied by ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank you’, we all remarked how refreshing it was.

Another thing that we found is the temples are all very similar. While the major sites are amazing by their sheer size, when we walked around the smaller ones they became a bit deja vu. Anyway, onto the temples.

Angkor Wat - the famous one that everybody comes for. This is a large, very large, Hindu temple that is famous for its sunrise. So famous in fact that thousands of people flock there every morning to see it. We chose not to join them but rolled up a little later and snuck in the quiet east gate, where we had a good look around before the post sunrise hoards worked they way through from the west gate. This place is so massive that it beggars belief it was built at the same time as Westminster Abbey. The central temple itself represents Mt Meru, where the hindu gods live (think Mt Zeus from Greek mythology), reaches 65m above the ground and is 100m square. It sits in a raised, walled courtyard of 187m x 215m that sits within a walled area 1000m x 800m surrounded by a moat 190m across. How was that much stone and earth moved by hand?! As well as being huge it is completely covered in carvings. All the walls have some sort of frieze carved on them. Every tower, wall, entrance or bridge are embellished with mythological figures. Simply mind blowing.

The Bayon - is the next most famous temple which sits at the centre of the vast walled citadel of Angkor Thom, a few kms from Angkor Wat. This temple is buddhist by design but was later modified by Hindu rulers (there was much toing and froing between the two faiths by the various kings) and is famous for the 216 carved faces that look at you from the four sides of a multitude of towers. Although not as massive as the Wat it is still vast and also covered in friezes and carvings.

Ta Prohm - the temple made famous by the film ‘Tomb Raider’ has been wrecked by the roots of many large trees that grow in the ruins. The large powerful roots force their way between the stones to displace them and the weight of the vast trunks has caused lintels to snap and walls to collapse. Although greatly damaged there is still much to see and the roots make a spectacular setting. Accompanying the jungle theme were birds squawking and screeching making it sound like a set from Tomb Raider.

Preah Khan - many of the temples are being restored or protected by different countries and this one has been adopted by the Americans. Uniquely there is a shelter at the entrance with lots of information boards describing the design; explaining the creatures and gods represented by the carvings; showing before and after photos of the restoration efforts. A welcome addition that would be really helpful at the other sites. Preah Khan is dedicated to the king’s father and is like a maze. Layer upon layer of concentric walls surround the central tower which housed a buddha shrine. Also of interest is the remains of the ‘Hall of the Dancing Girls’. Covered in carvings of, you’ve guessed, dancing girls, it used to hold thousands of dancers.

Banteay Kdei - was a working monastery and is in a poor state of repair. It is being worked on by the Japanese but they have their work cut out just keeping it standing.

Prasat Kravan - a small temple of five brick built towers. It is a very early structure and the bricks are amazing well made and laid. So much so we both thought it was a recent addition to the area.

Sras song - a huge bathing lake 700mx350m edged on each side by stone steps leading into the water. They didn’t do anything small here.

During our tour around the area we passed many other sites with only a brief stop for a cursory look which we’ll not record here.

On both days we also had to negotiate the traffic on our ‘sit up and beg’, single gear bikes. Our first encounter with a Cambodian road crossing was a nervous affair as we picked our way gingerly through the mingling traffic in the 08.00am rush hour accompanied by the odd shriek from Yvonne. By the end we were picking our gaps, darting between cars and giving motor cyclists ‘the eye’ to let them know we were not going to give way. Whilst our competence (or maybe foolhardiness) improved we never got to grips with the dust and fumes and by the end of the day we were relieved to return to a filtered, air conditioned room. Whilst trying to find a quieter route home on the last day we cycled along the side of the river and came across a bunch of local children climbing an overhanging tree to jump in the water. As they became braver, possibly as a consequence of us watching, the older ones climbed increasingly higher until the bravest of them all must have reached 7-8m above the shallow, dirty water.