We landed in Siem Reap mid-afternoon on the 12th
after a super easy flight from KK. First impressions?...What a cool city. Busy
busy busy, with mopeds and tuk tuks all over the shop, refreshingly low-rise, plenty
of smiley faces and cheerful waves, and lots of new smells, colours and sounds
for us to investigate….I can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into this country!
We spent our first day in Siem Reap, relaxing and exploring…and
yes, indulging a little (with a pool in our hotel, $6 full-body massage, and 1
dollar beers, you can hardly not, can you?!).
Then we decided to take a 2-day tour of the Angkor Wat temples
with a rather cheery and very softly-spoken fellow fondly known as “Meester Ton”
who drove us around in his tuktuk. Our first day at the temples started with a
4.45am pick-up to see the sunrise. Joy. But oh my wow, was it worth it!
These temples are incredible! They were built between the 8th and 12th centuries as Hindu and Buddhist temples for the Khmer Empire, and are impressively the largest religious monuments in the world. They are simply mind-blowing. Some are in a better state than others…many have been restored (sometimes impressively, sometimes shambolically!), and some have been given up long ago to nature which now engulfs them in a slow-mo Jumanji-style that reassuringly reminds you that ultimately, nature wins.
These temples are incredible! They were built between the 8th and 12th centuries as Hindu and Buddhist temples for the Khmer Empire, and are impressively the largest religious monuments in the world. They are simply mind-blowing. Some are in a better state than others…many have been restored (sometimes impressively, sometimes shambolically!), and some have been given up long ago to nature which now engulfs them in a slow-mo Jumanji-style that reassuringly reminds you that ultimately, nature wins.
Tootling in our tuktuk!
Go nature!! (Photos from Ta Prohm Temple)
Our two-day adventure was some-what thwarted by Bro falling ill with some unidentified illness, which meant I had an enforced day by the pool (poor me) while he floundered in bed (I did play nurse when needed), before dragging his still-poorly bum around the second round of temples before our 3-day pass ran out. Definitely worth putting him through the discomfort though, as it’s not every day you get to see something this spectacular.
Despite buying (and reading!!) a guide book, I'm not going to tell you anything about the temples, as I'd only be copying and pasting from wikipedia, so I thought I'd put a load of decidedly average photos up to give you a sense of how amazing it is, instead!! As usual they in no way do it justice!
This is one of my favourite temples- Bayon -it has 216 faces carved into the stone.
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