To get to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, you board the bus at 4:30. Then drive a bit before coming to the ticket distribution center, where they take your picture and put it on your ticket. The ticket is definitely a keepsake -- much nicer than your average entry card.
Then you drive over to the entrance to Angkor Wat, but you don't reach it, because buses are slowly dropping off people all there for the sunrise. From the drop-off it's about a half mile walk to the viewpoints of the temple reflecting in the water (there's two ponds, we went to the less-crowded north pond and got front row seats standing room.)
Carol learned about all this stuff long before I did. She's wanted to go to Angkor Wat as long as she remembers. Me? I don't remember when she first told me about Angkor Wat, but I never really believed we would get there. Cambodia seemed like such an unlikely place for tourism, but as we went other places that were unlikely for us, such as Antarctica and the Arctic, and we saw the grandeur that is Granada, the beauty that is Barcelona, and spectacular South Island of New Zealand, I started to change my tune and moved it from the "unlikely" to the "Louie, Louie" list of place to travel ("oh, oh me gotta go"), so when friends brought this trip to our attention, we jumped at it.
Alas, our friends ended up having to cancel a week out because of health issues that happily have been resolved since, but there's no question they made the right decision given the situation.
Anyhow, back to Angkor Wat. This was the number one reason Carol was going, and while I didn't have as much focus on Angkor Wat as she did, it was clearly a selling point to me.
First, some background. Angkor Wat is the largest surviving religious temple in the world. What people (and by people I mean me) don't fully comprehend until you are there is Angkor Wat is just one (the big one, I'll grant you that) of more than 70 temples that consistent of over 1,000 structures. None are pristine, in the shape they once were in, but all six of the ones we went to are stunning, each in their own ways.
Google "Temples in Siam Reap" and you will come across endless lists of the "ten best," "11 must-see," etcetera (as the Romans would say).
Focusing for now on Angkor Wat, to the surprise of absolutely no regular reader of the blog, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which, of course, is translated as "UNESCO Means 'You Must Go!'" (Trademark pending).
(Editor: You hit a significant number of UNESCO sites on the trip, and yet this is one of the few times you've gone to your patented "UNESCO Means 'You Must Go." move. Writer: Gotta pace myself.)
It appears "Angkor" refers both specifically to the big temple, but also to the region containing all the temples within four hundred square kilometers, which is nearly 100,000 acres, or approximately 200,000 times the size of the Bolger homestead in Alexandria, Virginia.
Built between the 9th and 15th centuries, when the area served as capital(s) of the Khmer Empire, the Angkor Wat temple (translated, the last two words mean "temple temple" which seems obvious to readers but it is to distinguish between the building structure itself and the whole complex of temples. Clear as mud?)
The temple was originally built as a temple to the Hindu God Vishnu, but just as the Moors in Spain repurposed many churches as mosques (and then the Christian repurposed many mosques as churches), the Buddhists repurposed Hindu temples to Buddhist temples. You can still see carvings of Vishnu and other Hindu gods mixed in with the carvings of Buddha/Buddhists.
With that as background, the sunrise proved to be underwhelming, as thin clouds kept the sun from appearing. I still got some decent photos of the morning glow behind the temple, but the jaw-dropping shots of a sunrise over Angkor Wat temple did not materialize.
We took a break for our boxed breakfast, and then hit the temple with renewed vigor. After getting a background briefing from our local guide Dat (pronounced "Date"), we went up into the temple, taking in the amazing wall carvings. Again, when you see how perfectly crafted the wall carvings are, you wonder how they didn't seem to make any mistakes.
Given my lack of fine motor skills, after I had messed up my section of the wall carvings, I would have been put to death. Guaranteed.
We then went into any number of inner courtyards, enjoying our time taking selfies with a group of monks who were there celebrating their high school graduations. It reminds me of how American teens celebrate their graduations, by going to holy sites and staying completely sober. (Editor: Yeah, just like that.)
Little-known Cambodian folklore: One king who lived in the temple had a terrible temper, and would take it out of the palace staff by yelling and screaming. One staffer was beheaded after saying to a colleague, "Angkor Wat? More like Angry Wat when the boss loses it, amirite?
(Editor: My guess is that your Cambodian folklore story is so little known that you made it up.)
We climbed up to the top open section of the highest tower. We were given 15 minutes from when we started to get back down. They keep the number up top to around 100, but we never had to wait in line and we didn't have to hurry back down. The climb up was steep, and it seemed even steeper coming down (it's not, but looking down is scary than looking up). You make the climb on wooden steps to both protect the stone steps and because people would die falling down the stone steps.
What pleasantly surprised me about the top is that it was huge, with six courtyards of its own. I was expecting a little square area that was crowded, but it was neither little nor crowded.
I won't go into every detail about our visit, but it's just mind-blowing how large it is. The temples are being reclaimed from the jungle. Angkor Wat was not unknown to people -- those who lived nearby knew it was there, so it's not like it was found by an Indiana Jones-type deep in the jungle.
The complex was used, then it was abandoned, but never unknown to people.
2 comments:
Our guide’s name is Dat not Ron, Glen 😂
Yikes -- thanks. Fixed! Isn't the first time I got a fact wrong.
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