Siem Reap was inviting upon walking into the airport. It was only our flight full of passengers to be seen anywhere! I randomly jumped in a taxi with two other backpackers from Liverpool, and found my way to a guest house located within walking distance of the madness! Madness meaning traffic, packed markets, and the pedestrian only filled street! To be able to chill roadside at a plastic table and chairs while enjoying a fresh (yes, the cut up the fruit right there) fruit smoothie and curry or amok, while people watching (mostly the locals) is an entertainment experience in itself! The cleanliness of the cooking venue is certainly to be questioned, but I think that 7 weeks into it I have built up a bit of a tolerance to venturing into some of the more local fare (so far, so good in Africa and Thailand!)
Siem Reap draws enormous amounts of tourists for it’s main feature – Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat & Machu Picchu have got to be the two most amazing ruins in the world! (if I am missing another, or have forgotten one, then I will end up finding it someday!)
Ancient Angkor is filled with various temples, containing some of the most intricate stone sculpture I’ve ever seen – from dancing aspara’s, to Buddha faces, to elephants, and decorative flowers. For instance, Angkor Wat is the biggest, and most popular temple of all. It is the sunrise ‘capital’ of this area, where tuk-tuks and motos (and tour busses too) flood out in a line of little white headlights before any morning light is to be seen. I climbed to the top of this particular temple in the far back corner, actually sitting on the outside ledge (my remaining fear of heights was far subsided in this moment)… and witnessed a picture-perfect sunrise – which you will all get to see via pictures (assuming they’re posted here!)
I made the crazy decision to see as much as I could in one day (most people are on 3-day passes)… but knowing that I have the non-stop feature located somewhere within my being, I took off on foot – as my tuk-tuk driver (Bayon) waited to cart me the km’s in between, non-stop, all day! CLIMBING stairs for people with a size 3-4 foot to summit the top of each temple, and doing my best to climb into every corner, ‘nook & cranny’ to soak in the entire experience. The heat in the middle of the day left me consuming full bottles of liquid between each temple. My ideal choice would have been to use a bicycle, however – I could never have reached the far outlying ruins of Roulos in the southeast… I traveled along an old Ancient Route, which is a village dirt road with high-stilted homes, and the families chilling on tables or in hammocks below. Behind the homes lining the streets were vast fields of crops and nothing! This particular area in Cambodia has an interesting mix of palm trees and dirt – like what you’d see in a desert… I don’t know how you technically refer to this type of landscape, but I’ll call it the desert tropics!
So back to a little more on the “things” these temples contain…
BUDDHAS – it’s too cool! Bayon, one section within Angkor Thom is just coated with towers displaying a Buddha face on each of its four sides (or sometimes 2 & 3, depending on the tower)… They are HUGE!... and it is like standing within the envelope of an invitation to meditate.
Preah Kahn, another section further north had dancing asparas – stone carved female figures, in groupings that were detailed to the millimeter. Each woman’s smile and stance was ever so graceful and beautiful within each conglomeration.
In the southeast of Angkor (the Roulos that I mentioned above) – Bangkor, one of the oldest ruins (dating back to the 800’s) towers over a present-day monastery below. The area is absolutely silent. I only saw about 5-6 other tourists during the time I spent here, as most don’t care to venture this far away from the ‘main attraction’. I was able to wander down and observe some of the monks and their daily rituals, as well as witness two young monks learning – one from a book, the other how to put on his orange robe.
Siem Reap draws enormous amounts of tourists for it’s main feature – Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat & Machu Picchu have got to be the two most amazing ruins in the world! (if I am missing another, or have forgotten one, then I will end up finding it someday!)
Ancient Angkor is filled with various temples, containing some of the most intricate stone sculpture I’ve ever seen – from dancing aspara’s, to Buddha faces, to elephants, and decorative flowers. For instance, Angkor Wat is the biggest, and most popular temple of all. It is the sunrise ‘capital’ of this area, where tuk-tuks and motos (and tour busses too) flood out in a line of little white headlights before any morning light is to be seen. I climbed to the top of this particular temple in the far back corner, actually sitting on the outside ledge (my remaining fear of heights was far subsided in this moment)… and witnessed a picture-perfect sunrise – which you will all get to see via pictures (assuming they’re posted here!)
I made the crazy decision to see as much as I could in one day (most people are on 3-day passes)… but knowing that I have the non-stop feature located somewhere within my being, I took off on foot – as my tuk-tuk driver (Bayon) waited to cart me the km’s in between, non-stop, all day! CLIMBING stairs for people with a size 3-4 foot to summit the top of each temple, and doing my best to climb into every corner, ‘nook & cranny’ to soak in the entire experience. The heat in the middle of the day left me consuming full bottles of liquid between each temple. My ideal choice would have been to use a bicycle, however – I could never have reached the far outlying ruins of Roulos in the southeast… I traveled along an old Ancient Route, which is a village dirt road with high-stilted homes, and the families chilling on tables or in hammocks below. Behind the homes lining the streets were vast fields of crops and nothing! This particular area in Cambodia has an interesting mix of palm trees and dirt – like what you’d see in a desert… I don’t know how you technically refer to this type of landscape, but I’ll call it the desert tropics!
So back to a little more on the “things” these temples contain…
BUDDHAS – it’s too cool! Bayon, one section within Angkor Thom is just coated with towers displaying a Buddha face on each of its four sides (or sometimes 2 & 3, depending on the tower)… They are HUGE!... and it is like standing within the envelope of an invitation to meditate.
Preah Kahn, another section further north had dancing asparas – stone carved female figures, in groupings that were detailed to the millimeter. Each woman’s smile and stance was ever so graceful and beautiful within each conglomeration.
In the southeast of Angkor (the Roulos that I mentioned above) – Bangkor, one of the oldest ruins (dating back to the 800’s) towers over a present-day monastery below. The area is absolutely silent. I only saw about 5-6 other tourists during the time I spent here, as most don’t care to venture this far away from the ‘main attraction’. I was able to wander down and observe some of the monks and their daily rituals, as well as witness two young monks learning – one from a book, the other how to put on his orange robe.
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