Angkor Whaaat?

After an interesting introduction to Cambodia, we were feeling a bit skeptical.

But nevertheless we had to venture out into Siem Reap... We explored the streets around the old market area including the infamous Pub Street.

Angkor Sunrise
(Click to enlarge)

Our main reason for going to Cambodia was to visit Angkor Wat. A huge complex of stone temples built for king Suryavarman II as the capital city and state temple hundreds of years ago.  The first major building began around the 12th Century and continued for 5 centuries.  The stone was transported over 40km and building for Angkor Wat specifically took only 40 years, however one modern engineer estimated it would take 300 years to complete Angkor Wat today.  The most well known of the temples is Angkor Wat, however there is said to be over 1000 temples in the 150sq km area that makes up entire complex.

Mr T

Angkor Wat was incredible, Rick was keen to get a sunrise shot so we arose at 4am and Mr T; our tuk tuk driver drove us to Angkor. We had seen photo's and researched a bit, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As we walked over the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat, all you see is an immense silhouette, it's quite mysterious as you're wondering if it's really that big! The sunrise was a non event, but worth getting up early because as more light filters through you gradually see more and more of how amazing Angkor Wat is. We explored all the corridors and the chambers inside of Angkor Wat and just marvelled at the amazing construction that the Khmer had somehow built over 800 years ago.

Bayon, Angkor Thom

We moved through South Gate onto Angkor Thom, to the Bayon temple. The construction was far more haphazard than Angkor Wat, and seemed to be less thought out. Bayon was built by a different King and seemed to add areas onto the temple as he saw fit. It was by far our favourite temple, with multi levels and peaks with huge four sided faces. Access to upper levels was unrestricted if you could make your way up the tiny steps made for little asian feet.

Ta Prom

After some pineapple from a street stall and a few not so significant temples we headed to Ta Prohm, the temple made famous by Tomb Raider, was also very cool. For the most part it was far less restored, though our visit was interrupted by a lot of workers and scaffolding. The trees were taking over, they were growing amongst the green moss covered stones as if they were claiming back their forest. The massive tree roots were growing through the stones and toppling over whole walls and choking entire buildings! Photo's without a group of 30 typical camera clutching tourists proved difficult, however Rick still managed to fill up 12GB worth of memory cards.

Monkey vs Tuk Tuk

There is so much to take in, it's really mind blowing and by 1pm we were brain fried! We headed back via the monkey's which proved to be Rick's highlight of Asia! Masses of monkey's lined the road, waiting to be fed by tourists, who bought banana's off the street stall hawkers. As soon as we stepped off our tuk tuk there were monkey's all over it, tearing at the canvas and playing with everything.

We trekked back to Pub Street and refueled on a traditional Cambodian barbeque, chowing down snake, crocodile, prawns, beef and chicken. All washed down with a few glasses of 50cent Angkor Pilsner beer. 

Sweet Bar