Choose another map, showing:

• Thailand
• South East Asia
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Siem Reap

Angkor What?? UPDATED

I have no words that can properly express what any of the temples of Angkor make you feel like! The power is unreal when you pull around the corner of the moat and see the long causeway leading up to the gate of Angkor Wat. It's like a set from a movie. You can almost imagine how it must have looked when it was still in full use in the 11th century (?) Or even when it was discovered by the French in the 1800's, with the jungle all overgrown and threatening to destroy alot of the structures. The fact that you can climb almost all the towers in Angkor Wat gives you real perspective on the overall size of the temple, and what kind of construction project it must have been to erect it. You are able to see at many little podiums what alot of the temples looked like upon the French finding them and also pictures of how they were reconstructed, block by block. Literally numbering all the stones to their specific place in the temple. An absolutley mind blowing puzzle.

We decided to head over to Ta Phrom next, this was where they filmed part of Tomb Raider. It was amazing to see how the trees have swallowed so much of the temple. Everywhere you look there is another tree just ripping apart the walls and eating giant stones. They have not reconstructed much of this temple as to allow the feeling of being in a place that has not been touched in hundreds of years, and it really works. Even with the hundreds of tourists on your heels and in your face (constantly) you still get the feeling that you are the person discovering this hidden temple after years of it lying hidden in the jungles of Cambodia. It's quite a feeling.

As we were walking through the ruins we were approached by a young Cambodian and he showed us a couple good picture spots, then kinda started to guide us through the temple. Now we were both kinda leery about it, neither of us knew if he expected money or not, but we didn't know how to get out of it. Finally our camera died, and we told him we were going to leave. So he guided us towards the exit, but then took us outside the walls of the temple, which seemed kinda fishy. He showed us the direction to go, and I tried to hand him 4000 Riels (1 dollar) as a tip, he thought this was funny and asked for some Thai Baht. We didn't have any so he asked for 50 000 Riels (12 dollars) Melissa got right pissed at that and told him that there was no way he was getting 50000 from us as we were on a budget (her exact words).  He kept saying that what we were offering was too little and that he needed to pay off the police cause he was an unlicensed tour guide. He then told us that would should have known he would want money cause "Nobody in Cambia does anything for free".  Another lesson learned!  Finally we offered in 19000 Riel and he took it.  I was afraid to turn my back on him, cause shit I was literally in his backyard.

With that episode over we returned to out room for a well deserved shower and NAP!

Today we explored the massive Temple of Angkor Thom. This is without a doubt the largest temple in regards to land coverage. If we had to guess it would probably cover about 4 sq km. Inside it are many smaller temples including the Bayon. This temple has a number of high towers, which have faces on almost all of their 4 sides. A great example of traditional Khmer art. We also had the opportunity to explore parts of the Baphuan which is in full reconstruction mode at the moment. We were able to cross the causeway and walk around behind the temple mound where there is giant reclining Budha. Next to that is the Terrace of Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King. Both are great massive terraces covered in great detailed carvings of Elephants and battle scenes. We explored some more unpopular temples, which was nice to be lone and not have the crowds trampling over you with there camcorders to imitate the statues for their scrapbooks. Melissa is in the midst of some sort of allergies or a cold so her nose was leaking all day, so after that we headed back to Siem Reap for a rest. Tomorrow we are going to go to the temples a little later in the day for our last exploration and a traditional dance at sunset at Angkor Wat.

We have slowly but surely started to adapt to life in Cambodia (as a foreigner) It really is a beautiful vibrant country with amazingly friendly people, but they do need some help getting there ducks in a row. We are heading back to the beach in a couple days, to Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia. Try to save some money, hopefully they will have a pineapple lady who likes us and a nice little restaurant to have dinner at. Plus the quickest Vietnamese visas in all of Southeast Asia...5 minutes flat! Well the internet is very slow so I don't think many pictures are going to make it on here unfortunately, but I will put alot of good ones on when we get some fast shit.

Peace

Brad and Melissa

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Angkor What?? UPDATED":