Day #8. Temples galore! Siem Reap, Cambodia.

 

It has been a loooooong day. I wanted to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. So I did. But it came with a price, actually a lot of prices. Waking up at 4:30, biking in the complete dark, surrounding myself with huge groups of tourists, and setting myself up to be really tired for the rest of the day. But, it was worth it as the sunrise was absolutely fantastic. Once the sun was basically up, I went behind Angkor Wat to see the stones in a different light and it was absolutely beautiful. Thanks for that tip Lili!

Here I am just hanging out at Angkor Wat.

This is where Lili told me to go :)

I decided to go back to Ta Prohm to spend more time there. Since at this point it was only 7:00 there was basically no one else there. I was having so much fun exploring the ruins and trying to take cool photos and I didn’t need to worry about tourists getting in my way. It was paradise. Then around 8:30 I heard a megaphone and it was just downhill from there as tourist group after tourist group came pouring in. There was 1 group in particular that I kept running into. I easily recognized them because their matching straw hats. I guess that’s the point though. I left Ta Prohm and moved onto some of the smaller temples. A really cool temple that I hadn’t planned on visiting but stumbled across was called Ta Keo. This is actually an unfinished ruin. Of course, no one actually knows why it was never completed but it may be because lightening struck it during construction. Regardless if it was finished or not it was still incredibly beautiful.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Keo

Preah Khan

 Finally, I made it to Preah Khan. At this point it was 10:30 and I had been awake for 6 hours. I decided to fuel up before even attempting to take on the massive and extremely complex Preah Khan. I felt recharged after eating but not enough so I could spend hours wandering around. I know all the temples are very different and unique in their own way, but after seeing Ta Prohm, Preah Khan just wasn’t doing it for me. It is such a big ruin that I got turned around and couldn’t find the right exit where I had left my bike. One thing that was really cool was the doors successively got smaller. I overheard a tour guide say this is because it naturally makes people bow to the Gods as they reach the center of the temple. Cool! 

the doors get smaller.

Terrace of the Elephants

Now I was down to only one more thing on my checklist- Angkor Thom, “Great City.” This is where the people actually lived, all one million of them, but of course the houses no longer stand as they were built of wood since stone and brick were for Gods and royalty only. The whole “city” is 10 square kilometers and has five different entry points with humongous sculptures of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. It was actually really cool when I biked by the first gate and saw the statues, because I did a double take thinking Hey! I actually know what that means! So I explored Angkor Thom, which is really on one stretch of the central square. There is the terrace of the Lepers, Terrace of the Elephants, Baphuon, Phimeanakus, and Bayon. Something that I found rather interesting was the story behind Baphuon, which was the greatest temple of all back when Angkor Thom was a functioning city. Anyways, Baphuon was in the process of being restored when Khmer Rouge came into power- so obviously restoration paused. Khmer Rouge destroyed the records of how to put Baphuon back together again, (the restoration team had kept detailed records while they took it down stone by stone). There were 300,000 stones they had to try to fit back together. The other rather interesting building is Bayon, the purpose is still unknown. There are 54 towers in this building and every face of each tower has a head that greatly resembles King Jayavarman VII, probably the most famous Angkor King. The building was constructed by him. I can’t imagine wanting a building with my face carved into it 216 times, but I guess its good that I don’t want that because it would definitely be wishful thinking.

Bayon

I rode my back back to Siem Reap, took a shower and packed. I was walking to the post office when a tuktuk driver said something about taking me to Angkor Wat for sunset. I figured, why not!? So I finished my day watching the sunset at Angkor Wat. A full circle. Only problem: My camera died. I may not have proof of the kids flying kites before the big orange sun setting in the west, reflected in the north pool on Angkor Wat’s front lawn, but the memory will last forever.