Our quick pit-stop in Bangkok was over, and it was time to leave Thailand heading east, to Cambodia.
The lengthy bus ride brought us across the border and to Siem Reap, home to Cambodia’s most famous attraction. It’s even on their flag! Of course, I’m talking about Angkor or Angkor Wat. The term Angkor meaning city, and Angkor Wat refers to the main, most famous, temple. The people who work at Angkor argue it’s recognised as the 8th wonder of the world, which of course they would, but it isn’t a ridiculous suggestion. I mean if the Colosseum is in the seven then Angkor should be too. While I’m on the seven Christ the Redeemer is also pretty weak imo.
We checked into our hostel in the late afternoon. Tickets for the temples are fairly expensive, so opted to just get a day ticket. However, if you enter the complex after 6 your tickets don’t get stamped. So we could go to a specific temple for sunset then still enter the next day as usual. That was our plan, and very happily we made a friend on route, Delphine. She joined us, sharing the tuktuk cost in three which was welcome. In Cambodia I encountered a new type of tuktuk. Of course it’s still essentially a motorbike, however instead of being encased into a traditional tuktuk (Citroën Piaggio style), they’ve just strapped a chariot to the back! And for me, as a fairly tall guy, this design is much better because I can actually see out the sides. I’ll include a photo of our very smiley tuktuk charioteer and his trusty steed.
We made it in good time for the hike to the sunset temple, while our driver left the metre running (metaphorically that is – we’d agreed a fixed price). We found our seats amongst the at least 100 tourists already waiting for the sunset. Sunset came and went behind the rolling hills of the jungle canopy. I’m sure it was beautiful but it was pretty much entirely obscured by clouds. Not ideal, but we move on.
We dropped Delphine back at the hostel where we met her and headed to the circus. Now when Steve first suggested to me “let’s go to the circus!” I looked at him like he’d suggested slowly drowning a pig for fun. He then quickly clarified “a people circus and not one with animals.” Reassured, I agreed, although I did have my doubts for sure. However, once the show began it really was good fun. The ‘actors’ (?) performed various scenes telling abstract stories, through impressive acts of acrobatics and circus feats. The towers of people and flips high through the air were obviously the main events but the diabolo tricks were likely my favourite. (The egg timer thingy on a string that spins loads.) The bloke was v nifty with it, at one point throwing the diabolo in the air, then letting go of the string with one hand and catching the diabolo with a whipping action while somehow retaining control.
With our evening’s entertainment complete, we headed to bed ahead of our very early morning.
Our alarms, well my alarm, rang a good hour or so before dawn. Once up I shook off the confusion and regained some level of general comprehension. I woke Steve and we got dressed. From reception we were picked up for our tour trip of the temples.
Now, so far on this trip I’ve steered clear of most tours that aren’t free. However, in this case Steve managed to persuade me to join the tour through the hostel instead. And it really pains me to say this… it does hurt… but Steve might have been right on this one. The tour made things very easy, and meant instead of simply looking at the temples we were given the stories and history behind them.
It helped that our tour guide Mr ‘David’ was the loveliest guy, and a really good story teller.
We arrived at the main temple in time for the first moments of dawn before the sun had risen. This time we joined a huge group of tourists waiting to see the famous sunrise behind the Angkor Wat temple (with the reflections in the lake). In true ancient wonder fashion the centre tower aligns with the sun equinoctial-ly. Once the sun had mostly risen we began our exploration of the main temple. Our first stop was the gallery area, which was a covered walkway where the wall was covered in a huge carving of a battle scene. Looking in more detail you notice the participants of the battle aren’t human, instead its demons vs monkeys.
Now I’m not saying christianity is boring or perhaps a bit light on excitement, however it could use more battles between monkeys and demons for sure.
On this occasion I’m not going to butcher the story behind the battle. However, if interested google ‘Hanuman Rama Ravana battle’ and I’m sure you’ll find it (Rama here is one of the avatars of Vishnu).
Leaving the main temple complex and heading towards some of the slightly lesser known ones. Bayon was next up. The Bayon temple is most notable for the 100s of gigantic smiling faces covering it. The over thirty remaining towers are all adorned with these huge smiling faces. Quite a cool sight, and it being partly but not fully ruined added to the aesthetic.
The third temple we visited was another famous one, featured in a Tomb Raider movie. I am not sure what its actual name is, but it went by the Tomb Raider temple. This temple was on its way to ruins however, life had found a way to thrive. Firstly I should add, the entire Angkor temple complex was lost for a long time (by the western world at least) until the French rediscovered some of it a couple hundred years ago. The temples had been lying dormant in isolation and nature had partly reclaimed them.
In the tomb raider temple saplings had taken route in the cracks of the stonework and fast forward many years, huge trees tower out of the temple and reach into the gap in the jungle canopy the temple provided. These silk-cotton trees have a whitish gold bark with roots that sprawl out across, and even through, the temple. A very cool sight once again.
The tour continued and we saw a few more temples, which were all pretty. But how many temples can you really write about?
The rest of our time in Siem Reap we spent on the very literally named – Pub Street. Great place, two draft beers for $1!
And he’s back! Great blog Hugo. It’s a great comfort for mum and I to read these knowing that you are still having fun, four months in.
With all these temple visits I expect you to least convert to Buddhism.
Do you have the exact address to Pub Street and do you think I could get an Uber there?
Take care of yourself Hugo (abd glad you resuscitated your laptop. Xxx
Yeah the time is flying by. I cant beleive its july already!! Well its actually called Pub Street – but they use Grab over here not Uber. You could always try though.
But id stick to spoons if it was me
Xx