Temples of Angkor

Another long bus journey, again with no air-con and full of crying children, brought us into Siam Reap. Along the way we had a couple of refreshment stops and it was during one of these that I've found the most interesting snack stall. All they sold were fried bugs. Sicadas, crickets, large cockroaches and small beettles were deep-fried with chillies and herbs and piled high on large trays. Whilst I was busy taking interesting photos of these rather terrifying delicacies, a tiny old lady was waiting to for me to finish the last dregs of my water so she can collect the empty bottle. She must have been well over 80. With long white hair tied in a tattered old cloth, plastic slippers on her crooked feet and scraps of clothing on her skinny frame, she looked so vulnerable. I gave her my water bottle and offered her a handful of small pears I'd just bought. Her eyes lit up as she accepted and thanked me before she made her way to the nearby bins to scrounge for more empties. She was carrying a huge plastic sack nearly her size full of empty bottles and cans. How much would she get paid for that? Probably very little. It was so sad that she still had to work so hard at her age! I think I have a weakness for small grannies, whether it's in Asia or South America, I can't help myself, they just tug on my heart strings. I caught up with her again, gave her more pears and a few dollars so she could at least eat well that night.

After finding ourselves a nice hotel, Mark and I went out in Siam Reap for a bite to eat. The town was crawling with tourists (there's even a street called the pub street!). Our first stop was the night market for some lovely silk scarfs, followed by a delicious margarita - it was our 4th year anniversary afterall. We enjoyed a nice Cambodian cook-it-yourself BBQ for dinner with fresh prawns, chicken, beef and crocodile, and made friends with couple of fellow travellers sitting at the next table. They were also headed into the temples next morning but had a rather early 4.30am start to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

Later, as we were walking around we came across a Batmobile tuk-tuk. It was so funny it made us do a double take. The old guy inside spoke fair bit of English and we agreed a price for a tour of the temples next morning. Why not have a day out in the Batmobile?

Next morning we travelled to the Temples of Angkor with our new friend, Batman. The first site you come across is one of the old gates at the entrace of the old city. The bridge leading to the gate is lined with huge statues of warriors on either side. Some of these have been repaired recently so you can see what they used to looked like but many are just crumbling thousand year-old stones. The gate itself was impressive. There were huge carved faces looking out on all 4 sides; however, this was nothing compared to our first temple, Bayon. A huge, partially rebuilt temple with carvings on every piece of stone, whether it was internal or external walls, along pillars, ceilings and doors frames. The most strange thing about this temple was the 216 enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara on all the towers which give the temple a most enigmatic impression. These huge visages glare down from every angle exuding power and control with a hint of humanity. I think this was my favourite temple overall.

We continued to the temple of Baphuon which treated us to some amazing views over the site and also had a huge reclining buddha (60m in length) at the back, which was only partially rebuilt. We went to further 5 temples that day, most impressive of which was Ta Prohm. This is another huge temple but not much of it has been rebuilt. Many of the crumbling towers have been left where they have fallen and some of the corridors are impassable, clogged with jumbled piles of delicately carved blocks. It also makes you appreciate the power of the jungle, as you walk around you see many plants and even huge trees growing from the roofs of temples.

After many hours of walking in the heat both our camera batteries and our energy levels were completely depleted and we made our way back into Siam Reap. We saved Angkor Wat for next morning as we wanted to catch the famous postcard views of this immense structure at sunrise. We knew we were in for a treat, and although you do have to put up with huge crowds of tourist, it really was magical at that time. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world and the site itself has been in continuous use since it was built in12th century, and thus has not been abandoned to the elements. The carvings were impressive and site was huge but we did not find it as interesting as Bayon or Ta Prohm.

By the afternoon we had visited another 5 temples on the grand tour. Each unique and impressive in their own right, but we were sweaty, tired from our early morning start and rather templed out, so returned back to hotel for a dip in the pool. Overall I think this was one of our favourite places we have visited so far. Seeing these thousand year-old structures with their extravagant beauty and spine-tingling grandeur should be on any adventurous travellers list.