Wat? Angkor Wat

After escaping the fast paced rat race that was the Four Thousand Islands we headed overland to Siem Reap in western Cambodia.

Siem Reap is a pretty popular tourist destination boasting hotels and an international airport. The reason we were there though was to see the Angkor Temples which were built around the 12th century. The most famous temple is Angkor Wat - it is the largest religious monument in the world.

We were up early and back on push bikes sweating up a farang (white person) storm.


The temples are only 7km out of town so we headed to the main gate and bought 3 day passes ($40 USD each). The Angkor Temples are very large and they are truly amazing.

After the Khmer (Cambodian nationals) empire was dominated by the Thai's the temples fell into disrepair before being "discovered" by a french botanist in the 18th century. The photo below is of us at a temple called Ta Prohm (where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed), a huge tree has sprung up over one of the walls.


Three days at temples is a long time by anybody's standards. We developed a routine where we would explore in the morning before avoiding the heat of the day by hiding inside a temple exploring and listening to our iPods. We tried to do our bit to help put the temples back together but it was hard when the rest of the work crew didn't show up...


With no help forthcoming we decided to take matters into our own hands...


As the day draws to a close alot of the tourists flock to Bakheng Hill which has a good view of some of the other temples, and of the setting sun. In the photo below you can see everyone perched like seagulls.


Random Fact
- The temples are leased by a Vietnamese petroleum baron who happens to be friends with the Cambodian King - thus depriving the impoverished country of the largest sum of tourism revenue.

Highlights:
- Seeing the variety of tourists on display. Everyone from the camera mad Japanese/Chinese/Korean to the older men dressed just like Indiana Jones minus the whip.
- Baiting the hawkers. Where there are tourists there are people trying to sell them things they don't want and don't need. A great game is to pretend you don't understand and generally feign confusion.
- Paying the guards "extra" to let us into the very top of Angkor Wat. It is currently closed to the public as it is being repaired.

Lessons Learned:
- Start the day early and avoid being out and about during the heat of the day. Inside a nice airy stone temple is the way to go.
- iPods help pass the time whilst exploring and if you turn them up loud you can't hear the hawkers.