Angkor Wat - and lots of other temples

Thursday, April 06, 2023
Siem Reap, Kandal Province, Cambodia
We knew it was going to be hot today but I don’t think we were prepared for just how hot it was going to get whilst touring around the massive Angkor Wat complex.
Our guide, Peng, picked us up at 8.20am in an old but air conditioned Lexus SUV type vehicle and we started our journey at the ticketing office for the complex. We had to have our photos taken for the tickets which we needed to show at the entry to each of the temples.
The tour began At Angkor Wat which surprised me because that was supposed to be last. Fortunately it wasn’t, because of the oppressive heat.
The whole temple complex is spread over 400 acres and there are various Hindu temples and one Buddhist temple which we visited last. When it was a functioning temple complex there were a million people living there. Now because it is such an important and valuable cultural area, all the local people who were living in the surrounding  area have been shifted to another town outside the jungle complex and it is purely a very profitable tourist attraction as well as still being used by some of the Hindu people for a place of prayer. I did see a few Buddhist monks in the grounds as well.
Our guide was very knowledgeable and knew all about the history of the ancient site. A lot of it went in one ear and out the other though because it involved a lot of complicated names of the various kings that had lived in the temples and the folklore that accompanied them.
It was rather strange that there were several levels of castes, and the demons were above humans. There were good demons but most were bad. I always thought all demons were bad.
It was really the wrong time of the day to be photographing the front of Angkor Wat because it was in shadow, so I will have to do a bit of editing, and the reflection pool in front of it was rippling a little, even though there didn’t seem to be much wind. It was magnificent though and a striking start to the tour. We journeyed through the massive temple and Peng explained a lot of what was going on in the carvings, until it all became too much and Ross informed him that we had seen enough carvings. Lol
There were a lot of monkeys roaming one part of the temple and I feared for the backpacks that were left lying around by the many students that were visiting the site. Monkeys are notorious thieves, although this lot seemed more intent on checking each other for fleas.
We visited so many temples that it became a bit of a blur, although one of the other temples, Ta Prohm, was the one where they had filmed the Tomb Raider movie, and it was very impressive, with enormous tree roots growing around the stone. Of course it was difficult to get photos since so many people were intent on taking photos of themselves in areas featured in the film, and people here don’t seem to be able to take photos quickly for some reason. 
The heat was getting more and more oppressive so we went off for a break for lunch in a large air conditioned restaurant. The mango smoothie was a nice counter to the heat, and the lunch wasn’t bad.
When we came outside we were assaulted with the usual barrage of vendors trying to sell their wares and one enterprising young woman talked me into a cotton top for some of the Vietnamese dong that I had left.
It’s always difficult for these local people just trying to make a living in a very competitive environment.
Each time we got back into the car the driver gave us another cold bottle of water and a little hand towel, which was very welcome after dripping perspiration all the way around.
The heat had gotten rather extreme and it was no wonder that climbing up the steep stairs to the top of some of the temples had gotten difficult when we met an American man who told us that the temperature had gotten up to 42C. I was wondering how many people had had heart attacks climbing up those steps. It would be a nasty place to take a fall. The original stone steps are closed and they have built wooden ladders alongside them to protect the steps from the many feet climbing them, but the ladders are long and very steep and you have to be extremely careful going up and down. I think I might have nightmares about those stairs!!
When I got to the top of the most enormously high temple, after climbing those steep stairs followed by another lot to reach the very top, (Peng remained at the bottom!) and was probably suffering heat exhaustion, there was a young university student who insisted on telling me all about the folklore that the carvings depicted. He was hoping to get a token for his ongoing education and I was just about ready to pay him just to stop telling me about carvings. Considering I still had to get down the stairs again I had to have a little breather at the top before walking around the top of the wall. The view from the top was spectacular though and was worth a look.
You would think that it might get cooler in the dark parts of the temples but it didn’t work that way, and I was just about ready to jump into one of the giant pools that had been swimming pools, one for the King, and one for his 2000 Concubines. He was a very busy man, as he also had five wives.
The last temple that we went to was Angkor Thom which was the huge Buddhist temple and had large faces carved into its sides.  We were just about spent by then so didn’t stay too long there but it was an interesting piece of architecture.
The whole place was incredible and to think it was all built by hand in the 12th century.  There is an enormous moat surrounding the whole temple which apparently helps to keep it from crumbling, as well as being for defence when it was built. The moat was hand dug of course, as well.
The stones for the temples were shipped in along canals from nearby Mt Kulen and it was all built by the Cambodian people.
One of the temples has since been reconstructed by an Indian archaeologist, and there are piles of stones which will be reconstructed eventually into another temple. They all have to be matched up perfectly so it is going to take a very long time.
Well, the whole place was amazing and was of course the highlight of the trip. It was worth suffering through the awful heat. Truly one of the wonders of the world and the largest religious site.
Back at the hotel, it was into a cold shower with my clothes on and then off to the pool for a few laps. The pool was very warm, even though it is huge and it was good to get under the delightful elephant showers after the swim as the water coming from them is cooler.
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Comments

Jill D
2023-04-07

That’s a lot of photos! Looks like an amazing place.

jillmac
2023-04-07

I took nearly 200. I’m not going to ever get back here!

2025-02-11

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