Siem Reap, Cambodia - The ruins of Angkor

Further to my earlier post on planning for Angkor, here's how we spent our day there:
 

Sras Srang

It was pitch dark when we got here. Snufkin, who was carried from bed to tuk-tuk in his pyjamas, woke up. We gave him a torch light and he was no longer sleepy. It was pretty cold then and even colder in the moving tuk-tuk earlier. On hindsight, I would have brought a thick shawl to cover him up and slathered mosquito repellent before getting off the tuk-tuk as as the little buggers were having a pre-dawn fest.

Sras Srang is a man-made lake located across the road from Banteay Kdei. The stand-out feature was a landing platform/terrace with serpent balustrades flanked by two lions. It was built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII as a royal bathing pool.

Alas, it was a cloudy day so the sunrise was not spectacular. But we were there with only a handful of other people so it was a serene way to watch Angkor wakes up to a new day.

Sras Srang at dawn

Ta Prohm

I have seen photos of Ta Prohm teeming with crowds and it was like a scene from a horror movie.  But Ta Prohm in the morning, with no other soul in sight, is magical and other-worldly. Crumbling walls, slabs of stones piled on top of another, giant roots of silk-cotton trees wrapped around roofs and pillars, carved doorways leading to impassable corridors - it was all somewhat surreal. You would have to be extra careful if you were travelling with young children as you would have to step over rubbles in many parts of the temple. I can imagine that it would be a Health & Safety Inspector's worst nightmare.

But it's a small price to pay to entertain the budding young explorers. Snufkin got himself equipped with a stick as we went from one corner of the temple to another. I am not sure whether he was pretending to be Indiana Jones or Lara Croft - I hope it was the former.

The single best advice I would give is: Make sure you get to Ta Prohm first thing in the morning when it opens, or else you would not be able to take the photos below without having 10 other people in it holding up their fingers in the "V" sign.

Man-made and nature at one



The "Tomb Raider" tree that we spent ages to locate



Solitude in Ta Prohm

Angkor Thom and Bayon

Next, we past through one of the entry towers into Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer Empire, via a long causeway flanked by a row of stone figures on each side. At the heart of Angkor Thom is Bayon. The most distinctive features of Bayon are the faces carved out of the stone towers. Everywhere you turn, you would see these faces smiling somewhat knowingly. Or was it smugness since they are older than all of us there put together?

Not to be missed are the two galleries of bas-reliefs depicting scenes of legendary and historical events.

By this time of the day, the crowd was swelling up. But Bayon has many nooks and crannies where you could just escape to. Your option of said nook and cranny is increased the more stairs you are willing to climb.



One of the 216 stone faces carved into the stone towers



Apsara dancers posing for photographs

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is vast and it deserves its title as the largest religious monument in the world. The causeway over the moat leading to the West entrance extended for a quarter of a mile. French explorer Henri Mouhot wrote:

"One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome..."

He, of course, had the fortune of not having to share it with thousands of other people.

This mostly sandstone monument is made up of three levels, with the third level supporting five lotus flower towers - four in the corners and one in the middle. The series of stairs to the upper level are frighteningly steep, with impossibly narrow steps. It gives a new meaning to the phrase stairway to heaven. When we were there, only one flight of stairs was opened and you have to queue to go up. They have erected wooden stairs right on top of the original ones, complete with handrails and all, no doubt to cater to the rising number of tourists. But even then, I don't think it's suitable for young children. I held on to the handrails for my dear life as I descended from the upper level.



The famous view of Angkor Wat over the water basin



The (still) steep stairs to the upper level



Gallery of the bas-reliefs - Depicting scenes from the 

Ramayana and Mahabharata 

View from the upper level

Altough we spent close to 8 hours in Angkor, we were finished by 1pm. I know many tourists make full use of the day-pass by returning in the evening to continue their temple tours. But we were done. We went back to the hotel, ordered room service and slept the afternoon away.

The architecture and the artworks in Angkor are astounding. And to think that all that was built in the 12th century, that's doubly impressive. I'm just glad that Pol Pot, in his psychotic craze to obliterate anything related to culture, arts and religion, left Angkor pretty much alone.