Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

We awoke early (4.30am, still dark) wondering why on earth we had decided to get up so early, but excited about seeing one of the world's most famous temples - Angkor Wat. We found our tuktuk driver and bundled into the back for a ride through in the pitch dark. As we left Siem Reap we became aware of a number of other tuktuks on the road - presumably all with the same idea in mind. We passed cyclists who still had an hour of hard graft ahead of them before they reached the famous temple. As we arrived at the entrance of Angkor Wat I was surprised to see some coaches parked and about fifty tuktuks - clearly a few people had had the same idea as we did. Luckily at such an early hour there were no children thrusting scarves or books into our faces.

We headed through the magnificent entrance and across the causeway over the moat, crossed a field past a separate building and moved towards the edge of the lake where the crowds had gathered. We still couldn't make out the temple as the sun had not yet risen, but that didn't deter people from trying to take pictures in the dark, which was quite funny. We stood at the lakeside with hundreds of people - I had envisaged us standing, almost alone, watching the sun rise - I didn't know that, for the Chinese especially, sunrise and sunset is seen as a prime time to view the temple. There was no peace and quiet, no time for meditation or appreciation of the view - just fighting for a space at the lakeside and listening to the noisy chatter all around. This (as well as Ta Prohm) was probably one of the first times I had witnessed the effects of mass tourism - and it wasn't pretty. We hung back from the crowds and watched as the sun began to rise.


We then decided to head into the temple itself to escape the crowds and get a feel for the place on our own. We didn't realise that we needent have worried - many coach loads of tourists head to Angkor Wat for sunrise and then go back into town for breakfast.

We walked through the huge entrance and into the corridors of the temple, listening to the squeaking bats that were settling down to sleep. We made our way to the back of the temple and stood watching the first of the sun's rays light up the facade.


Here I am appreciating the quiet moment we had in the world's most famous temple:
We found some more beautiful aspara carvings and were able to find someone to photograph us together


One of the temple courtyards contained a shrine to Buddha and we saw two orphan boys, who had benefitted from the care of the monks, playing there:



As we headed outside and round the front of the building, in search of breakfast, we looked across the lake where the crowds were still gathered. I began waving and making an Oscar acceptance speech as it seemed like the natural thing to do with all these adoring fans photographing us... and then we headed an area containing small restaurant/cafe stalls for some breakfast. As we neared we saw scores of stall owners standing near the entrance to this area and shouting and gesticulating at us and the other tourists... "oh my gosh - which stall do we go to then!" we wondered... we decided to go with the first person who shouted at us and headed with him, ignoring the others, to his stall. We ordered a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon which was of a really high standard considering it was being cooked right in front of our noses on a tiny hob. We also watched them making ice - the old fashioned way!
Some cunning children tried to trick me out of 1000R (25p) as I headed to the loo in the nearby monastry, 'toilet costs 1000riel! you pay me!' - but I'm a wily traveller now and I know full well that you don't pay anything for a dirty squat toilet (with no light) in a Buddhist monastry.

Back in the temple we made a small offering for the orphanage and continued with our explorations.
We walked past dozens of asparas (which made Al happy) - for some reason the stone on their chests was highly polished, leading us to believe that they are often the victims of groping assaults.
Some of the carvings in the temple were beautiful and we spent hours wandering round taking everything in.



We finally decided to tear ourselves away from Angkor Wat and explore Angkor Thom (the ancient city of Angkor). Our driver dropped us off at the entrance where we walked around, dodging the tuktuks and elephants and coming face to face with the guardians of the city - you don't wanna mess with these guys... but we did anyway - haha!



Just as we started thinking it couldn´t get better than Angkor Wat... we were taken to the magical Bayon. This temple was one of the best we had seen. Each tower was covered in huge faces, smiling benevolently at the crowds of people milling around.

It really made you think how amazing it would have been to be one of the first explorers to discover this temple in the jungle, stone faces smiling down at you through the wild vegetation.


We took time to appreciate some of the detailed wall designs and temple architecture:



We walked round to another temple tucked away within Angkor Thom - Bauphuon. It looked amazing but unfortunately much of it was under restoration so we were unable to have a look closeup.

Next, within Angkor Thom, we walked to the Terrace of Elephants: a wall covered in detailed carvings of battle scenes, fighting animals and huge sculpted elephants.


We entered a narrow maze of high stone walls known as the Terrace of the Leper King. The structure of the walls had protected the engravings from the weathering elements and their quality was superb.

The only problem with Angkor Thom is that it is very open and we were being fried by the midday sun from which there was little cover. This, along with the early start and hectic schedule of the last few days, left us really tired and we decided to head back to Siem Reap for a late lunch before heading to our final temple to watch a beautiful sunset. We thanked our tuktuk driver and paid him for his service, arranging to meet him at 4.30pm. However we then made a mistake which we only realised after we walked away from the driver - we paid in advance for the evening trip. Biiiig mistake. Don´t ask why we did it - we didn´t have the right change on us or something... we should have known better. Anyway by the time 4.30pm came we were waiting eagerly in the hotel lobby for our driver. Tuktuk drivers are generally very punctual so we thought it was unusual that he wasn´t there waiting for us. Fifteen minutes later we complained to the hotel staff who knew the driver. They said they had spoken to him and he was on his way. Fifteen minutes later and still no sign of our driver, we were pretty worried - we had a sunset to catch you know! Eventually the hotel staff told us that our driver had been ´held up´while on another job in Angkor and they went onto the street to find us a different driver. We were preeeety p-d off by this point, especially as we had to take a new driver who we didn´t know and we had felt that we´d got to know the previous driver quite well. We felt betrayed... no just kidding, but there you go, tuktuk drivers are promiscuous, just don´t pay in advance for their services.

So off we headed (with our new driver trying hard to sell us a boat trip that we didn´t want) to Phnom Krom, an ancient ruin at the top of a steep hill, right next to a working Buddhist monastry.
We passed the monks on the way up, labouring on the road:

and, once we had reached the top of the hill, we cracked open our cans of Angkor beer and perched on a small outcrop to take in the view and the beautiful sunset that illuminated the paddy fields below.




And thus ended the visit to our final temple. Our time in Siem Reap and viewing the temples of Angkor was truly magical and we will always remember it. We saw so many amazing temples, all of them different, and despite the sometimes large groups of tourists, it wasn´t hard to find a corner or a rock to sit and relax - although it could be difficult to escape from the ubiquitous young souvenir sellers. We would definitely recommend the temples of Angkor to anyone of any age. There are plenty of budget accommodation options in Siem Reap, as well as a plethora of luxury, five star hotels for the more affluent traveller. The same goes for restaurants - you can eat noodles at the market or steak in the top restaurants. Siem Reap is easy to reach from Bangkok or Phnom Penh by aeroplane, or from Phnom Penh by coach.