Day 20: Angkor Wat

Today we visited Angkor Wat, or more accurately, we visited the Angkor Complex, which is often referred to simply as Angkor Wat, the biggest temple in the complex.  Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire, with over one million residents, and most of the temples being built in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.

We had a tuk-tuk and guide for the day, whom we met in front of our hotel at 8:30am.  Of course, we had to stop for fuel on the way to Angkor.  At least we stopped at a normal gas station this time.  The ride up to the temple area was about 20 minutes, so after getting cooled off by the breeze in the tuk-tuk, we were there.

Our tuk-tuk

We drove by Angkor Wat, our driving telling us we would see it last.  That was fine, we just hoped that the beautiful blue skies would hold up that long.  We drove to Angkor Thom, the center of this capital city.  Everything in Angkor is big and spread out, so we had to have the tuk-tuk drive us between different areas of the complex.  The wall around Angkor Thom is 12km alone.  We were dropped off at the gate of Angkor Thom, and we walked through there for quite a while.  One of the coolest things about the temples is that they are simply made of big rocks.  Looking at the roof of a section, one can see that the stones were simply put together like a puzzle and made to stay.  Sure, much of the temples may have fallen down, but the fact that they have stood, for the most part, intact for almost 1,000 years is incredible.  Also, the imperfect appearance of the structures gave them a different feel from the immaculately maintained Indian and Chinese temples.

These were in front of the gate to Angkor Thom.

One of the many temples.

Each temple was impressive by itself, not considering that there were dozens of them.

Inside the walls of Angkor Thom was not just the one main structure, but many structures, which together formed a city.  After walking away from the biggest building, we turned the corner, and there was another large temple, this one with a very cool laying Budda formed by the entire rear wall.  We moved on from that, past a wall with a tree going to it, and there was a huge platform and wall combination, which by itself would be a huge undertaking.  We met up with our tuk-tuk again and continued on to our next stop.  As we went, we passed many other temples which we did not stop at.  We did stop at one random temple.  There were few people, and it appeared to have a good view from the top.  The stairs were tall and narrow, but had good handholds, so climbing was easy.  The height and scale of the temple were very impressive, but we had to continue.  Climbing down was more difficult than climbing due to the narrow steps, but it wasn’t too bad.  As we left we passed several delicate Japanese women, who looked like they were going to attempt the climb.  Good luck.

Climbing the steep, narrow stairs.

The next stop was Ta Prohm, which was a major filming location for Tomb Raider.  More interestingly to us, the entire temple is covered in trees.  As in, trees are growing on top of and through different parts of the temple, which gives it a very eerie and cool feel.  Walking through this temple, it was amazing to see how it just kept going.  Whenever we thought we had seen the whole thing, there was more of it around the corner.  Thanks to the power of mother nature, much of this temple was destroyed by the tree roots, which meant there were piles of fallen rocks everywhere.  However, most of the temples in the complex have been adopted by a country, which is working to restore it.  This particular temple was being restored by India, so they had stacked many of the fallen stones, which others were laid out and numbered for rebuilding.  They had already finished renovating some areas, so we could get a sense of what it looked like new, but it was also cool to see in a crumbling state.  The use of the original material in most of the repairs has helped keep things looking similar, for the most part.

The not-so-perfect nature of the temples was part of what made them so cool.

Trees grew out of this temple.

After Ta Prohm, we headed to the main event, Angkor Wat.  We went during lunch time, which was great because that meant there were very few people at the temple.  This massive temple was most impressive knowing the way it was built, simply one stone on top of another, without any mortar.  We climbed up and looked out over the surrounding land and moat, in awe that such an amazing building was built in the 12th century.  Despite being a huge temple (the biggest in the world), there wasn’t actually a whole lot of space inside, presumably because it needs tons of the support for the tons of stone of top.  Still, it was very impressive, and as we walked back towards the road, we could see the temple along with its surrounding wall (and its scaffolding!) and moat, just like you see in the photos.

Angkor Wat from the back.

And from the front.

Back at the hotel, I jumped in the pool to cool off and relaxed for a while.  In the evening, we successfully retrieved our laundered clothes, and dropped off the rest of our dirty clothes.  It started pouring very suddenly just before we were to head out, and it looked like it could go on for ages, but in about 15 minutes, the rain started to slow, and within 30 it had stopped all together.  I guess that is monsoon season for you!