Exploring Ancient Angkor

The temperature was scorching and shade was scarce during our first day visiting the Angkor ruins. We zipped past Angkor Wat, the most recognizable of the temples, on the back of our motos but our drivers assured us it would be best to return there in the late afternoon. Lighting is a key consideration when visiting the sites. The guidebooks recommend visiting many of the main sites both in the early morning and evening lights in order to truly enjoy their splendour. Personally I think its just easier to enjoy anything during those cooler parts of the day rather than when the forty degree sun is pounding down on your head.

So we started our explorations at Angkor Thom with its great entrance way overseen by giant stone guards. The drivers dropped us at the back entrance but since this wasn't entirely clear we spent much time trying to figure out where we were on the map. I had found a Angkor guidebook secondhand that went into more detail about the reliefs and sculptures than anyone should ever need to know. But what we did manage to read gave us enough of an understanding to appreciate the sites.

The Bayon is the highlight of Angkor Thom with the giant friendly faces beckoning to have the pictures taken again and again.

We meandered around the Bayon and then headed over to the Terrace of the Elephants which was the giant platform with (surprise!) elephants carved all around the base. Then it was time for a rest so we headed to the "restaurant" Or rather covered area with plastic tables. Within moments of sitting down we were mobbed by children selling books, scarves, bracelets, postcards and other trinkets. Some of them were cute for about five seconds, but it became quickly obvious that these kids have learned to selectively ignore the words "No thank you" Asking them to come back after we ate we interpreted as a promise to buy something. I did get leave with a couple of bracelets and we picked up a "TinTin au Cambodge" t-shirt for our sister Erin.

In the afternoon it was off to Ta Prohm, the temple that was made famous by the first Lara Croft movie. All of the temples at Angkor were taken over by the jungle but some of them like Ta Prohm were left with the trees emerging from the crumbled stones and in many places supporting the structures. The roots splay themselves over the ruins like Salvador Dali paintings. The best part about Ta Prohm were all the passages to explore and the fact that the jungle kept the hot sunrays at bay

Next it was onto the Angkor Wat (Round 1) The ruins were exceptionally crowded. We had managed to hit a the Japan-Cambodia friendship weekend. Apparently this meant there were even more Japanese tour groups than usual at Angkor. Even still the reliefs in the late afternoon sun were stunning

After a quick look around the drivers whisked us off to a hilltop temple (Can't remember the name) to watch the sunset. It was generally a disappointment because the temple wasn't anything special, the were hordes of people and the sunset over a huge field and not any ruins. An alarm rang as the sun sank beneath the horizon telling us to get our butts off the hill. Which we did as quickly as possible and hurried back to catch the end of the England-Wales semi final match of the World Cup rugby.

The next morning started early as we hurried to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We started out in front of the temple but we unimpressed so we decided to climb to the top and get away from the crowd.

It was beautiful up there at that quiet hour. The mists were rising from the field behind the temple. The serenity was magical.

The remainder of the day were a blur of more temples. We tried to pay attention to what the guidebook was describing to us but the heat got the better of us. We headed back to the guesthouse in the early afternoon happy that we had our fill of Angkor

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