The Bog Log: Angkor Whaaat?

Pick of the Day: Public loos, the temples

Style: Western sit or Squat... to many choices

Atmosphere: Educational

Extras: This loo is relatively unremarkable, aside from it seems a little russian roulettly as to whether you get a stall containing a western sit or a squat. The BEST thing is the signage detailing exactly how to use each. The urinals have signs to tell you not to wash your hands in them. Brilliant.

02/06/13 to 09/06/13 Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Ton Sap lake

Thanks to the lovely people at our Kampot guesthouse we had a relaxing and air conditioned trip to Siem Reap and arrived to find that we had left one guesthouse run by a couple of French hippies and arrived at another run by ageing English rockers.

Yup its a street full of pubs... and hookers. Siem Reap, classy.

It was almost a home from home. There was a cat called Branston, there was baked potatoes, cheese on toast and cider and best of all (for Ben) there was marmite!

We decided to see the temples of Angkor Wat at a slower pace than most and so decided to invest in a week long pass for the temple complexes and then spent the rest of our day wandering around Siem Reap old town and checking out the markets.

Even so, we gave it a miss.

*Interesting fact: Siem Reap is named to celebrate the “rape of Siam”, the Siamese being the Thai Kingdom, Cambodia’s old enemy.

On our second day we decided to rent bikes and start slow, doing half of what is called the ‘small circuit’. There are two circuits (basically roads) at the Angkor Wat complex which apparently traditionally should be completed on elephant back, adventurer-style. The temple complex, to clarify, consists of Angkor Wat itself and the nearby Angkor Thom and Bayon which consist of the main temple sights. Then further out are more of the smaller temples. Further out again and only accessible by long Tuk Tuk rides are the outlying temples. Confusingly all of it is referred to as Angkor Wat. The temples were built by a succession of Khmer Empire kings and priests (hindu and Buddhist and a Hindhist mash up of the two) from around the 10^th- 15^th centuries and Angkor Wat is thought to be the largest religious building in the world. It was ‘discovered’ by the French in the mid 19^th century although all Cambodians know that the temples were never actually lost, just abandoned and it can’t take much in terms of Indiana Jones type escapades to find a temple a couple of miles down the road from town with the help of a friendly local.

Even the less notable outlying temples are stunning

Anyway on this particular day we didn’t actually see any of the main temples at Angkor Wat but the minor temples were impressive enough and it was nice to build up to it. We got pretty sweaty on the cycle round and discovered a whole troop of monkeys complete with tiny baby monkeys on our way back which was very cute.

You need to be careful walking through less traveled doorways!

The following day we cycled in again and decided to see the major sites of the Bayon, Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat (a 37km loop!). All 3 were incredible but rather controversially Ben and I liked the Bayon the best. It was really atmospheric and the carvings were just beautiful even hundreds of years after they were made. Angkor Wat was also obviously beautiful but in a way its popularity marred it a little as individual tourists are at constant risk of trampling from marauding packs of Chinese/Japanese/Korean tour groups (we can tell the difference but there really were a lot of them). Trying to get a real feel for the place is more tricky when you end up trapped behind people trying to get the perfect picture of the temple tops poking out of their heads with no apparent awareness of the hundreds of people trying to get past/round them. The Bayon has the advantage of at least 2 flights of steep steps making it only available to the truly adventurous and vertigo-savvy tourist. We cycled home in the dark having fruitlessly hung around in the hope of catching sunset at Angkor Wat and got caught in a thunderstorm on the way home. It rained hard enough to actually wash the contact lenses out of my eyes at one point and the lightning flashes were truly terrifying. So far this year over 50 people have died in Cambodia from being hit by lightning and we were in the eye of it on metal bikes. Suffice to say our shorts were a little browner by the time we got home.

Stone beats Paper, but Tree beats stone

Bayon

Intricate carving at the Bayon

Sunrise and the many faces of the Bayon

Dusk and dawn are the best times to explore

The next day we took as a rest day, seeing as hard seated bikes with no gears or suspension on dodgy roads can leave you a little tender in the rump area. We took a little trip to a silk farm which was fascinating although I felt a little sorry for the silk worms that got boiled in their cosy little cocoons to extract the silk. We then spent the rest of the afternoon blissfully sat in a coffee shop, reading and thinking about everything and nothing.

Silk worms munching on mulberry leaves

Silk weaving. New found respect for the effort involved in this.

The next day started at dawn to see Angkor Wat in the early morning light which was really lovely and a little less crowded and then took a tuk tuk to Banterey Srey which in our opinion is a very under-appreciated temple. It is much smaller than most of the others and a good hour away from the main temple complex but the carvings were more intricate and beautiful than anything we had seen elsewhere. Having got up at 4:45am we decided that an afternoon nap was in order and following that we popped down to a 5* hotel down the road where for a bargain $8 each spent an afternoon by the pool and got an hour long Khmer massage. Word of warning: khmer massage apparently translates to tiny Cambodian lady with fingers of steel spending an hour bending your limbs into positions you didn’t know were anatomically possible whilst attempting to prise your muscles off their bony connections. I was sore for 2 days afterwards.

Morning light and the intricate carving on a different stone type at Banterey Srey

The South Library at Angkor Wat

How to get Angkor Wat to yourself. Wait for the mother of all storms. Warning: May get wet.

Carvings on the outside of Angkor Wat

The Wat

Sunrise and the outer moat

Our last full day in Siem Reap saw us up at dawn again this time to see the Bayon in the very early morning light which was lovely. We forgoed the lunchtime nap this time in order to fit in an early afternoon trip to Ton Sap lake to see the floating villages. These really are entire villages that float on the lake complete with schools, shops and petrol stations. Sadly the trip was a bit of a let down as the water level was so low that we were not allowed anywhere near the villages and had to gaze from afar. We spent the afternoon desperately writing postcards (always seem to get written on the very last day we are in a country!)