Most wonderful Humans back home,
We miss you lots, here's the latest installment from our trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is the home of Angkor Wat and its associated temples. Angkor Wat itself is the largest religious building in the world. However, as we came to learn, there are some really cool other temples to appreciate here, it's not just "the Angkor Wat show."
The temples were built by the Khmers, an ancient people that were very powerful at the time. Their empire included parts of Thailand, all of Cambodia and the Mekong delta of Vietnam.
We spent three days, and you honestly could spend more here- there is just so much to see. I've broken it down by days here, enjoy!
Day 1: We rented bikes from our hotel and made the voyage to the Angkor complex. Today we are doing the 'little circuit' of temples; easy to reach by bicycle.
First temple of the day: Banteay Kdei. Built late 12th to early 13th Century by the Khmer ruler Jayavarman VII (you'll see as we go he was a busy guy and was the most prolific builder in Angkor). It's been left in a relatively ruined state similar to when it would have been rediscovered by the Europeans in the 19th century.
The next biggie of the day was Ta Prohm, built in the same era and of the same style as Banteay Kdei, just more restored. It's also where they shot Lara Croft, Tomb Raider so it was crazy overcrowded due to this 'notoriety.' There are lots of strangler figs and silk cotton trees growing into the rocks giving the ancient temples a very 'taken back by the jungle' feel. It's kind of a trade off for the restorers to decide whether to leave the trees in or not, because when they are living they support the structure of the temple (and look really cool), but once they get knocked over or die a portion of the temple has to go with it. Here's some shots of Ta Prohm:
We passed into the ancient city of Angkor Thom by the Victory Gate. The city is still surrounded by a moat, and had 5 big entrances like the one you see in the pictures.
Next temple was Jared's favourite: the Bayon. It's most famous for the many faced-towers. It is in the centre of Angkor Thom, it was built by Jayavarman VII in late 12th/early 13th by Jayavarman VII to honor his mother (aaaaww). There are about 37 faces carved into stone, one tower usually has four faces- each one pointing in one of the four directions. There is so much symbolism built into each one of the temples, depending on how the towers are arranged, which direction the temple faces. It's really a fascinating place because a lot of the temples pay homage to both Buddhism and Hinduism in them. I read they quarried the rock from about 100 km away and then floated them down a river to Angkor. To lift the rocks they used the strength of elephants and a lever system which was made of sticks and rope. Had they just done that it would have been amazing enough, but then they elaborately carved the outside surfaces with apsaras (mythical celestial nymphs), devatas (gods), and depicted epics from various religious epics (like the Ramayana).
Day 2: 'twas an early morning Tuk Tuk ride to Angkor Wat at sunrise. But even I, the epitome of 'not a morning person' was able to appreciate the value of being there at that magical time, seeing the temple reflected in the water.
Day 3: I had done some reading the night before and decided I wanted to see three temples: Beng Mealea, Kbal Spean, and Banteay Srei. I knew they were further afield than the little and grand circuit temples, but I obviously didn't do a great job of looking at the numbers. When I asked our tuk tuk driver to take us to Beng Mealea, he seemed hesitant but a lot gets lost in translation here. We get in the tuk tuk and head off on the highway. After what seemed like quite a while (it was an hour) we see a sign for Beng Mealea: 26 km! Remember we are in a tuk tuk, which in Cambodia is just a motorbike with a roofed trailer on the back and it's top speed is 40km/hr. Oh dear. We finally get to the temple and here are the pics:
As you can see, this temple was left basically untouched from when it was first discovered by the Western world. It's very cool and actually, as I write this I realize it was my favourite. Perhaps that crazy tuk tuk ride was worth it after all....
Next stop that day was Kbal Spean. It's not a temple, it's a stone River bed that had been carved by the ancient Khmers because it was a very sacred river to them. And a waterfall at the end- doesn't get much better than that!
Last temple, and my second favourite was Banteay Srei. Built in the late 10th century (making it one of the oldest temples we visited) by Rajendravarman, it is 'the jewel of Khmer art.' The carvings on this diminutive temple far surpass anything we had seen before:
Blame it on the heat
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