29th December 2014 - 1st January 2015
Angkor Whattttt?!
When we first arrived in Siem Reap, we talked to a few people and found that the Tuk-Tuks are run by some sort of gang/mafia, so they control what transport the tourists can use to travel to the temples. This essentially means really expensive Tuk-tuk trips or get on your pushbike. This is also not helped by the local council banning tourists from riding scooters. We did a bit of googling and found that you can hire electric scooters which you can also peddle (fine on flat ground but if you needed to get up a steep hill may be a bit hard) these scooters had a max speed of about 40km/h but were most economical at about 20-25km/h.
Shahn can tell you her experiences in riding motor bikes later on in the blog, long story short we booked two of these sweet as rides and ventured to explore Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat was built between 1113 and 1150, it covers nearly 200ha (a rectangle of 1.5km East to West by 1.3km North to South) - though the temple itself is approximately 9ha, so as you can imagine it takes a very long time to explore!
One thing you can take from us, is that we suck at taking photos and wish we were so much better, but practice makes perfect!
Near the top section of Angkor Wat, we found that the columns often had what appears to be graffiti or at least text which has been laid down a fair time after construction. It was often in different alphabet/script.
The highest point of Angkor Wat.
This was really high up and impressive.
The steps down on the left side of the image, these are steps in an out of the pool, the bathing area used for the King and Queen - they each had their separate bath, filled with people, slaves, harem etc it sounded like a pretty excellent party. There were four of these large baths on the top level of the complex.
Close up of the highest point
Shahn was always super excited as you can see, there were a lot of supports all over the temples to keep it safe.
Hornets nest
It was really cool to see carving that have lasted so long against the elements. In some cases, they seem to have worn away so quickly but in others you could almost believe that that were recently completed with the detail being so clear.
Really impressive these Apsara carvings have been around for such a long time, almost completely exposed to the elements and 2 million of tourists per year.
Walking around the Angkor Wat complex, in which we must have only seen half, we were just running out of time. It was massive, I think these are the outer walls, which are full of carvings and interesting little nooks, must have been 4km in total. It really is huge.....
Detailed carvings
The steeps were really steep (I think 2m vertical for one horizontal and very narrow). I'm not sure if they are designed for security,but im impressed if you were trying to attack or sneak in it would not have been easy.
The shear weight of the stone roof is awesome, it would have taken so long to put this place together. They built a massive moat around the outside so they could float the stone down the river into the moat so they could build this structure.
In some places I think you could see the original painted stone, although it was very faint, I was not sure if the red colour was original or if it was just some lichen/ algae?
Guardian lion
The depiction of the lions at each temple were different and I think they used the styalised depections to determine the dates of construction. As many of these temples had multiple construction periods, with add ons etc.
Angkor Wat swimming in tourists
Shahn looking good
Naga (snake with many heads) missing bits, and looking toward the wall and entranceways. These entrance ways form part of the roughly 4km wall that encompasses the main temple.
Shahn leaning on the Naga body/balustrade and over looking the moat.
Elbows and knees must be covered at all times in the temples as a sign of respect, just in case you were judging the attire!
Men fishing on the Moat.
It is really hard to comprehend how long it must have taken to organise the local work force/ slaves to excavate the moat, not to mention transport the rock for up to 50km away by hand and then erect Angkor Wat. And some of the rocks are massive... Mind blowing!
Angkor Wat in the back ground with the boundary wall the moat.
The stone bridge was suffering from collapse and you could see its' starting to open up.
Restored Naga heads,
These were originally on every balustrade, its part of the mythology that they rescued a deeply meditating monk from drowning by coiling up underneath his crossed legs and lifting his head above the rising water.
Demons that helped churn the milky ocean
You can identify the demons (asuras) from the good guys (devas) by looking at their faces (not friendly) and their hats (crown like). Where as the good guys (devas) had cone hats and smiling faces. The story was quite interesting, See below the Devas on the left holding the tail and the Asuras on the right holding the head. (Samudra manthan)
One of the gates as we left the Angkor Thom complex
Electric scooters, we rolling. Shahn is just bad to the bone. See safety sam in the back ground with his gopro... In all honesty you could quite easily get around to all the sites on a push bike but we were really pushed for time. I can understand people getting sick of looking at old carvings and stone monuments. But I honeslty found that if you wanted to see all of the sites in a brief but "take your time approach" you will need 5 days to get around, we only had three days and we missed a fair bit and found that we were rushing on our last day just to see the big temples. Also I found the small unpopular temples to be the best, you had free reign and felt as if you could go and see what you wanted. Where as at the large but much more impressive sites I found that you were just part of the mob.
Bayon was really cool, like a maze really but poorly constructed compared to Angkor Wat.
Our nice green bikes, we parked next to the tourist police and had a quick yarn before we went in. We should also mention the kids hanging around always trying to sell you either bananas, coconuts, cold drinks or illegal copies of books.
The bikes were super cool, a good way to get around and if you wanted a fresh battery you could call in at the main office and get a fully charged new one. It was really handy, as they take a few hours to reach full charge and lasted pretty well.
This is Shahn, Michael has written most of this blog. The green bikes were very good to get around on, we didn't want to have to deal with Tuk Tuk drivers giving us attitude and having to barter prices etc so we decided this would be a better option. I can ride a push bike but struggle with two wheelers generally, haven't ridden a scooter/motorbike much before so this was a real adventure for me! We took our green bikes out East to the Preah Ko temples and that was an almost 2 hour round trip just to get there along the main highway (National Route 6 - Siem Reap to Phnom Penh road) so that was pretty intense. Next day we got up at 5.30am to see the sun rise at Angkor Wat which was beautiful. We spent the whole day cruising around on our bikes and on the last 5km back to drop the bikes off, I crashed the bike on a dead flat road with no one around. Sat on the side of the road crying like a baby with a skinned knee, the things I do for you Cambodia! I broke the mirror off the bike and smashed the headlight, cried in the shop while dropping the bike off and they only fined me US$10 for all the damage, I was peaking out thinking they would fine me US$200.
Green bike injuries, scraped & bruised but worst still was the battered ego!!
A lot of missing pieces from restoration sections, put together again.
Base floor of Bayon
Michael taking a break from photography at Bayon
A great deal of restoration has been done here, as much as can be salvaged. Many of the temples have parts that have been lovingly restored. Weathered carvings.
We think these holes were drilled into the walls to lift the stone into position. Although talking listening to the guides it turn out that Angkor Wat was used as an ammunition store during the Khmer Rouge period and battles were fought within the ground of the Angkor archaeological park.
Dancing Apsaras.
Beautifully intricate carvings on the walls, these are carvings made a thousand years ago!
Story carvings, we are not sure of the tales but you can see the Aspara dancing, warriors etc.
The Bayon budda faces, every single one is different!
This is a meditation monk sitting on the snakes coiled body and the Naga heads protecting him. This room has been restored but I can't remember if this statue is original or not.
Hallways under the main Bayon Temple
Every tower face generally has 4 unique faces on each cardinal point (though some have 2 or 3 faces). Originally there were 49 towers, now only 37 remain. You can see they wooden framework supporting the towers, some are incredible fragile and this is all part of a large conservation effort.
One great example of the tower faces
Michael right in his element, exploring around the temple. As you can imagine, checking every hole and hallway for new things!
Yip, this is why you need more than 3 days visiting the temples!! Maybe its just us!
One interesting thing, just above my head there is an image missing you can just see how it was chipped out. This occurred when the Buddhist and Hindu religions fought over the temples and land during the periods of construction. One would build a temple and remove deities of the other religion from the walls.
One interesting thing, just above my head there is an image missing you can just see how it was chipped out. This occurred when the Buddhist and Hindu religions fought over the temples and land during the periods of construction. One would build a temple and remove deities of the other religion from the walls.
I think this is an Apsara?
Buddha statue draped in finery
The sun falling onto a smiling Buddha head at Bayon
So many tourists, crammed in and clambering over one another at Bayon.
The many doorways leading to different hallways, Bayon was such a maze!
Exterior walls of Bayon
Eaky standing in a doorway leading to the outside walls of Bayon.
Beautiful wall carvings and tiny doorways.
Drain hole for the upper levels of Bayon, looking into the guttering, as you do....
That beard and that smile!
Moss/algae on the walls inside, multiple levels in one hallway. Can only imagine how effective this is when it rains
Stopping for a breather by the waters edge. It was quite a warm day and we were just escaping the sun for a beverage. This lake was man made 'Srah Srang' a baray/ reservoir, very cool.
Beautifully executed waters edge that is so old, just incredible to see such engineering! on a huge scale.
The moat around Angkor Wat.
The gods holding nagas (snakes) body , also acting as a bridge edge.
Most of the heads have been removed and since been replaced with concrete replicas, beheaded to be sold on the black market during the Khmer Regime so that starving Cambodians could feed their families.
Shahn on top of a bridge/causeway at Baphuon.
Underneath the bridge.
Getting underneath the bridge, I think this floods in the rainy season or maybe its just to be on one level to enter the temple?
Man made lakes which would have been used for bathing/ponds etc. Michael exploring.
Another day, another temple. Sitting in a window admiring the Baphuon in the background while Eak was furiously taking photos.
Each piece of stone was numbered.
Turns out a few of these restoration project were well under way during the 1990's and when the Khmer rouge took over and started making a mess of the country all of the international restoration teams pulled out often during pulling apart or cataloguing collapsed parts of the temples. Taking much of the knowledge/ plans with them and for it never to return. So this is what was left behind, piles of stones that have no place.
Just showing a bit of scale, these blocks are not small and definitely not easy to place. I did not get a cool photo of original wooden doors which were still present in some parts of the temple. In this photo you can see in the top left a groove cut out of the rock for a large wooden beam to sit which inturn had holes for the wooden hinges to swing the door.
Just cool, that is all.
Safety first - at most of these sites, really its crucial, as the original stone steps are considerably worn and now slope ever increasingly downhill.
This carving is very detailed considering it has been out in a tropical climate for a couple of hundred years. You can still clearly identify the pig, some type of pheasant/ bird, a human, a bull and they all show some sort of movement although fixed in stone.
A lot of these carving around the place, clearly a female bosom. In many of the temples, the statues with large breasts were worn smooth. People are weird.
Just taking it all in, my first thought was "When this was originally made, was it waterproof?"
These hallways were cool impressive that they were still standing after +/-1000 years and these were on top of one of the temples.
Outside hallway. This originally would have had a roof exactly like the picture above.
Incredibly intricate detail on the edge of the pillars. Baphuon has had a lot of restoration, in some places you can see reinforcing steel set in the concrete/stone blocks. I am glad that they are trying desperately to restore these structures
The very top of the Baphuon temple. Beautiful amongst the trees
Outside the Baphuon walls, making our way to the Royal Palace area.
