Angkor where? Angkor Wat!
Tree roots, Ta Som
Originally uploaded by aitchbee. New photos for Cambodia. Des also has his Cambodia photos up now as well.
We have spent the last few days exploring the vast temple complexes of Angkor near the town of Siam Reap. When I arrived I thought that Angkor Wat was the only sight, and now after 2 solid days of templing I can say that I was definitely wrong!! The area that the the temples cover an area 15 miles x5 miles. It's huge!
We got our pass the evening before our first expedition into the temples， but that meant that we could see a sunset "for free". Our driver took us to Phnom Bakheng for the sunset. We walked up the hill with the other coachloads of tourists and then scrabbled for a spot to see the sun set over Tonle Sap lake. Then it was a dark walk back down, avoiding the snakes! Well we did only see one cross the path...
The next morning we saw dawn over a lake that was built as a resevoir. Beautiful oranges and pinks in the sunrise. Would have been wonderfully romantic... except for the hordes of children trying to sell us stuff... "wanna buy a book sir" "wanna buy a scarf madam" "if you no buy a coffee from me i'm gonna cry", and they wouldn't leave us alone!! there must have been at least 7 around us at one stage. They were quite funny, and Des gave in and bought a coffee, a t-shirt and also a book. As we were there for over half an hour waiting for sunrise we were sitting ducks!
We got to explore our first temple early before any other tourists were there. Very lovely as the dawn light slowly lit the carvings and towers. Then we set off on the "Small Tour Circuit", a whirlwind of nine of the major temples. We saw: Baneay Kdei, Ta Phrom, Ta Keo, Chau Say Thevoda, Thommanom, Angkor Thom, Bauphuon, Bayon and finally Angkor Wat, the most famous of all the temples.
The ruins ranged from wonderfully preserved (or reconstructed) to falling down. Ta Prohm was one of my favourites. It has been left with massive trees growing down into the walls with huge roots looking like columns holding up the walls. It was very atmospheric and also quiet as we were there early, after dawn. The Bayon temple was also very cool, it has about nearly 40 towers, most with giant faces carved on each side, so wherever you stand the king is watching you from 4 or 5 different sets of eyes.
Then there's Angkor Wat. It's surrounded buy a moat with a causeway, then it's walled around and there is another causeway crossing a grassy area and finally the temple is in the centre. It is beautiful with a sillouete of three towers as you approach. Once you are inside the walls are carved with many heavenly nymphs (devatas and apsara dancers) as well as some gigantic bas-reliefs.
Our second day we took in the Grand Tour circuit with a couple of extra, further out temples. We saw: Prasat Kravan, Pre Rup, Banteay Srey, Banteay Samre, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Kahn. Highlights were the carvings in the reddish rock of Banteay Srey, the "lake temple" of Neak Pean and the large Preah Kahn which was pretty derelict but had trees like Ta Prohm growing into the walls.
Our guide Chantha drove us around in his lovely tuk-tuk or remorque-moto - a colourful 2-seater trailer pulled by his moto (wee motorbike/scooter). It had pink frills on the sides and some pink fluffy dice at the front. He bought us interesting food to eat - rice cakes, noodles for breakfast (which didn't agree with des at all), some kind of bamboo root. The most interesting was when we stopped and watched palm sugar being produced by the roadside. The people get liquid from the palm fruit, then boil it off till it looks like melted fudge. Then they set it in wee moulds and when it dries it's palm sugar. Tastes a lot like fudge too - 100% sugar!
Yesterday we went to see the floating village on the Tonle Sap lake - interesting but a bit of a rip off, and to a silk farm which I really enjoyed. It's run by Artisans Angkor and is a kind of training centre for Cambodians where they can come and learn all aspects of silk production from growing mulberry trees, to raising the silkworms, to dying and weaving the threads. Then they can take the skills back to their community. It was fascinating to see how the fibre is extracted from the cocoon of the caterpillar. They are soaked in hot water and the outer layer for raw silk is pulled off. Then they are moved to another hot bath and the fine silk is removed. By this time the caterpillar is dead and is a tasty treat for the worker!
Now we have had a couple of reaxing days chilling in cafes and shopping before heading to Laos tomorrow morning.