February 23, 2004

They have heads?

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The ruins of Angkor beckon. Spread over a very large area about the only way to get around is by moto. We'd decided to take a tuk-tuk with space for the three of us. The most popular spot for sunrise is Angkor Wat itself, the main temple. We decided to head to the less popular, and less crowded, Bayon. Sunrise is early in these parts, about 6am, so we asked our tuk-tuk driver to pick us up at 5am. Even for a Cambodian that was too early so he convinced us to start at 5:30am.

It was still dark as we headed out, my main regret was that I was travelling with these two very beautiful ladies and no one could see it! Oh well. We picked up our US$40 three day tickets for the site and headed to the Bayon.

It was still dark when we arrived. Our driver indicated the direction we should go and we started walking, soon hitting the outer walls. We continued in to the complex, breaking out the torches and finding ourselves in a building of multiple levels and many steps and corridors. We explored as well as we could in the dark, looking for a place that might be good as the sun rose. After half an hour or so we finally chose a spot and as the light began to appear on the horizon I was amazed to be surrounded by huge heads. The girls laughed at me as this is the feature for which the Bayon is most famous.

The chosen spot turned out to be excellent and we spent a couple of hours exploring all the nooks and crannies and taking photographs in the rising light. We finally headed down from the upper levels and looked at the huge and detailed reliefs running around the outer walls.

A late breakfast and then it was off to explore the rest of Angkor Thom, the 10 square kilometre walled city for which the Bayon was the main temple. Some seven hours after being dropped off we finally went looking for our driver who quickly found us and prepared for the next place.

We shot off down the road in our little tuk-tuk to take in the temples of the Little Circuit. A 17km journey in total. The most amazing thing about the Angkor ruins is how extensive the site is. At it's height the population of the region was probably around one million and the size of the site reflects that. The other thing that impressed me was how different each temple was. There were steep pyramids, single-story buildings, straight structures, twisty structures, some with pools, some without. Every one was unique and fascinating.

We finished the day with the hordes at the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng, known for it's sunset view.

Our second day started the same way, in the dark. This time we headed for Sras Srang, a large artificial lake facing the sunrise. Of course, the local vendors had beaten us to it and we had to run the gauntlet of offers of breakfast and postcards. "I don't want breakfast now, just the sunrise". "Okay, I leave you alone then you have breakfast". "Maybe". This back and forth maybe a dozen times until the sun first peeks out above the low clouds. "Sun has risen now, time for breakfast!", they triumphantly cry.

Luckily we were distracted by the quite bizarre site of an entire local village getting in to the lake a short distance away. It turned out they were clearing the water in preparation for, well, something. Whatever it was it was important because there were a couple of hundred people involved in great long lines.

After all that excitement we headed off to the main attraction, Angkor Wat. A huge temple in fantastically good condition. We spent a few hours exploring but at the end I felt strangely underwhelmed. I preferred some of the smaller, more overgrown temples.

And there were plenty more of them to see on the Big Circuit, a 26km excursion taking in a whole new set of temples.

We ended the day back at Angkor Wat, trying for a photo of the elusive orange-robed monks that still wander the grounds. Hard to get without the ubiquitous check-shirted tourist.

Posted by David at February 23, 2004 08:57 PM