Angkor What?

Sunday, September 12, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Post Phnom Penh we hit Cambodia's second biggest city, Battenbang which didn't have much going for it apart from being the official venue of mine and Simons birthdays. Had some cheese and biccies with everyone for my birthday was very sophisticated for being in a typical Cambodian city. The main reason for heading hto Battenbang is for the boat ride to Siem Reap which trundles through some wee floating villages.


Siem Reap is the tourist town which homes the hoards of foreigners which descent on Angkor Wat daily but is actually a really funky town, full of street stalls, restaurants, bars and markets. 


You'll probably recognise Angkor Wat from Tomb Raider film plus it also closely resembles Temple of Doom and is absolutely stunning. Even being dragged out of bed kicking at screaming at 5am was worth it to catch this wonder at sunrise. Nothing quite prepared us for the sheer scale of the place and just to get round the main sites requires a full day tuk-tukking and a week is long enough to tick of the extended sites. I was also a victim of monkey terrorism when the monkeys which reside within the temple grounds stole my breakfast. Decided it was not worth risking being bit in order to save a peanut butter sandwich, but one day I shall find that monkey and steal his breakfast.


We spent a couple hours early morning exploring the low levels and galleries walking around the perimeter - very quiet and peaceful. Angkor Wat was built to honour Vishnu and was absolutely amazing trying to figure out how it was constructed. They were built between the 9th and 13th centuries with Angkor Wat being the largest religious building in the world. In fact in its heyday their were around 1 million people living here when London was a measly 50,000. 




Next on the list was Ta Prohm ie the Tomb Raider temple, where the trees have strangled the temples leaving a kind of film set to wander through, although when we visited it had been descended on by the Japanese and their endless group tree hugging ceremony photo shoot.


Surprisingly enough we were herded to a local eatery for lunch, which as expected was ran by their uncle/brother/friends dogs friend and food was pricey but none the less superb! Last on the temple checklist was Angkor Thom which houses the Bayon temple and the Terrace of Elephants.  Bayon temple consists of 54 towers, each carved with a face. Feels like you are actually being watched wherever you walk, in fact I'm sure one of them winked at me.
            
  
Well this is our last stop in Cambodia, a real country of contrasts going from human genocide one week to Angkor Wat complex the next, a real highlight of the trip! 




P.S. Photos have been updated on the signpost above.
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