Cambodia

Cambodia part 1

Siem Reap

Cambodia, however, was not all doom and gloom. After checking out of our hotel, we headed north to the city of Siem Reap. Siem Reap is situated in close proximity to the ancient city of Angkor, which is the site of some of the world's most impressive temples.

The main temples we spent time in were Angkor Thom containing the many faced columns comprising The Bayon, Ta Phrohm, and perhaps the most famous, Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat

Our first port of call was Angkor Wat. It was constructed in the early 1100s, and at a time when London's population numbered around 50000, the population of Angkor was around one million.

The temple itself was quite simply stunning. Surrounded by a moat, which is 190m wide, and stretches 1.6km by 1.3km around the encompassing walls, the grounds were still reasonably well preserved. Almost all the walls, walkways, and ballustrades were covered in intricate carvings, depicting the Hindu gods worshipped there at the time.

The 5 central towers, which appear in so many of the photographs are, in fact, raised above the rest of the temple, so that the four corner towers are on a platform higher than the surrounding grounds, and the central tower is higher still.

The climb to the inner courtyard was steep, and although there were steps on each of the 4 sides, only one set was really navigable downwards. Even so, it was still pretty hair raising.

Ta Prohm

Following on from Angkor Wat, we headed to Ta Prohm. This temple, used in the filming of Tomb Raider, was almost deserted when we got there. Unlike it's close neighbours, it has been left to the jungle, and in places, massive trees have punched holes through supporting walls, and in others, wrapped themselves around structures.

Walking around this temple was reminiscent of walking around an Indiana Jones set, particularly as we saw almost no one else. This temple was probably my favourite.

Angkor Thom

The most famous part of this temple is The Bayon. The Bayon has numerous large columns with faces looking north, south, east, and west. Although no one is really sure what the faces are meant to depict, it is thought that they could be the image of the king at the time, Jayavarman VII, looking out on his minions to make sure they were not up to some mischief.

At sunset we headed to Phnom Bakheng, a small hill top temple over looking Angkor Wat. Unfortunately around 200 or so other people also decided that it was a good idea to do this, and we ended up crushed. The sunset wasn't that great, and we ended up leaving early.

The following morning, we got up early and watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat. Instead of heading up to Phnom Bakheng, we headed into the grounds of Angkor Wat itself. Although there were a few other people, it was nowhere near as crowded as the previous evening at Phnom Bakheng.

Preah Khan

This temple was our penultimate stop. Although it is less well visited than Ta Prohm, it was in a similar state of disrepairUnlike Ta Prohm, however, it was in the process of being restored.

Preah Neak Pean

This was our final stop. Built towards the end of the 1100s, it was a central pool, surrounded by four smaller pools. The pools were said to have healing powers, but when we visited, they were all pretty much dried out.

The final two temples were a good contrast to the previous three. Although we were lucky with the times we chose to visit the temples, it was obvious that Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm were all fairly heavily touristed sites. Preah Khan and Preah Neak Pean did not have the same feel.