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| The towers of Angkor Wat at sunrise |
Having heard a few horror stories
about the notorious border crossing into Cambodia via Aranya Prathet we set off
early on the 6am train to the border. Half
asleep we left Bangkok with the carriages growing increasingly busy with ‘commuters’
heading to the casinos that are housed in no man’s land between the two
countries. The six hours passed relatively
quickly as we trundled through the lush green countryside although as we
approached the border the farmers were burning the fields and fires raged
alongside the tracks filling the carriage with ash and smoke. During the journey we made friends with a few
of the regular gamblers who kindly helped us to avoid the cockwombles who meet
the train to scam tourists and directed us instead onto the local bus (2
benches in the back of a wagon) to the check point. Despite having to pay the customary $2 bribe
to the border control for a processing fee we crossed relatively smoothly, meeting
another Brit called Oli along the way and a Japanese lad that we were able to interrogate
for advice about our upcoming trip to Japan during the 4 hour bus ride to Siem
Reap, the home of Angkor Wat.  |
| Bayon Temple |
Arriving into Siem Reap we met up
with our friends from Laos - Clement and Katya, as well as a Swiss lad dubbed
Mr Handsome by the friendly hostel owner due to him being the only backpacker in
South East Asia to travel with just a smart shirt, jeans and shoes. We were recommended to leave
at 6am the following morning to avoid the heat when we explored the ancient city of Angkor and with
great reluctance I left Hannah in bed (she had been twice before) the following
morning and the five of us squashed in to a tuc-tuc and set off into the
darkness. The ancient city of Angkor was
built by the Khmer (who still populate Cambodia) and successive kings built increasingly
grand temples and structures culminating in Angkor Wat which is believed to be
the largest religious building in the world.
The vast city was built by sandstone cut from the holy mountain of Phnom
Kulen nearly 50km away and it is believed that 300,00 workers and 6000
elephants were involved in the construction of Angkor Wat alone! Angkor is thought to have been the largest
pre - industrial city (larger than modern day Paris) but now only 72 temples and
smaller ruins lay scattered among the waterways and jungle that cover the area.
The first day of our tour took in
the temples around the edge of Angkor. As
we were so early the sun cast long shadows across the ruins as the sun slowly
rose above the trees. The size of the site
means it has been impossible to reclaim many of the ruins from the jungle and
huge tree and vines towered over us as we scrabbled around some of the less
visited temples throughout the morning. Despite
the number of visitors you can thankfully find yourself alone in the outer
temples and one of my favourite ruins we visited in the morning was Preah Khan
which once housed a 1000 teachers and is thought to be a former Buddhist
University. It has tributes dedicated to
both Buddhism and Hinduism and the walls were decorated with some of the 3000
strange carvings of apsaras (heavenly
nymphs) that you can see all over the ancient city. As the sun became too strong during the
morning we eventually gave up clambering around the temples and headed back to
the shade (and $0.5 beer) at the hostel to recharge and escape the oppressive heat.
Seeing sunrise over Angkor Wat is
sold as being one of the world’s iconic images but having been recently spoilt
in Bagan the flocks of tourists that gathered around the lake waiting for the
sun to appear took away from the otherwise picture perfect setting. The temple was built by Suryavarman II in the
12th century and is meant to be an earthly representation of Mt
Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith.
Four towers rise up over 200 feet in the shape of lotus flowers and the
temple is covered in ornate carvings of battles and famous Buddhist scenes, finally
being surrounded by a 190m wide moat. Even
with the crowds however it more than justifies its reputation as one of the
worlds must see sights for its incredible scale and the amazing detail. We spent the rest of the day inside the ancient
city walls of Angkor Thom, reached by crossing one of four bridges adorned with
statues before passing through a huge stone gateway. Inside the city walls the highlight for me
were the ruins of Bayon, without doubt the most obscurely designed temple I
have ever seen. Dedicated to one of Angkor’s
Kings the maze of corridors and rooms are topped with 216 enormous faces and
some 54 gothic towers. Unfortunately the
temple began to fill up with tour groups and it was at this point the Chinese
became too much for Clement to bare and he pulled out his emergency ear plugs reserved
for just the situation! Our final stop
was at Phnom Bakheng, made famous by Lara Croft in Tomb Raider but despite
searching the amazing ruins we left disappointed not to have found her.
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