Angkor: Day 1

Heyo,

This post will cover our first day in Angkor seeing the big circuit, or some of the smaller temples. Angkor Wat is covered in the post on day 2 and day 3.

So our first two days in Cambodia were spent exploring Phnom Penh. Our initial plan was to spend three days in Phnom Penh and four days in Angkor, but after seeing the disruption caused by the king's funeral and the general havoc in Phnom Penh, plus Kate and Michelle reading more and more about Angkor, we decided to spend an extra day in Angkor and cut our visit to Phnom Penh short.

The gateway to Angkor Wat is Siem Reap, a town about six hours northwest of Phnom Penh. Its a charming little town, mostly backpacker hostels and resorts, and overwhelmingly touristy, but it still has a bit of charm. It feels like Siem Reap has embraced its fate as a tourist destination whole-heartedly, and  has managed to become international without being too kitschy.

I have been to Angkor Wat before, about two years ago, with my family. It was one of the coolest places I've ever been and I was really excited to go back. Besides, I had only gotten to see the major highlights, and none of the smaller temples.

A visit to Angkor Wat is unusually expensive for the normally budget-friendly location of Southeast Asia. A ticket to explore the temples costs $20 for one day, $40 for three days or $60 for a week. Throw in the cost of hiring a tuk-tuk driver ($12-15 a day) and you could pay for room and board for a week for the cost of two days at Angkor. However, I advise any of you who have the opportunity to shell out. It's well worth the price. 

Angkor is divided into two circuits. The small circuit contains the largest and most impressive temples--Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm. The big circuit has many smaller and lesser known temples that are still very impressive, and are often less crowded. If you only have one day, you have to go on the small circuit. But since we had more time, we did the big circuit first. I had never done the big circuit before, so I was as excited as Kate and Michelle!

We opted to go without a guide, as we had a Lonely Planet guidebook, and I had been here previously on a guided tour with my family. The hope was that the combination of the book and my residual knowledge would be enough, and that the extra knowledge from a guide would be outweighed by the extra cost and the possibility of an annoying guide. 

The road to Angkor

While the site of Angkor is currently overgrown by jungle, it wasn't always like that. The banyan trees around Angkor grow incredibly quickly, reaching their full height in a few years. Site maintainers are constantly cutting back the forests, which would not have been the case when 1 million people lived here. 

However, all the trees give Angkor a wonderful Jungle Book effect. You're driving on a tuk-tuk, surrounded by trees, nice cooling breeze. 

Nothing much to see until...

WHAT

Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire. Considered to be the largest pre-industrial city in history, with an estimated population of 1 million people, Angkor was a city of palaces, temples, and massive walls, centered on the largest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat. 

The first temple we visited was Pre Rup, a 10th century temple that served as the royal crematorium

Entering Pre Rup

Pre Rup temple

Climbing the stairs

Inside one of the shrines, with a headless buddha

View inside the shrine looking up

Top of Pre Rup

A shrine to Buddha, almost all temples have these now. Light some incense, get a bracelet for luck. Then get asked to make a small donation ($1). Bit of a racket, but it can't hurt your karma, right?

From the top of Pre Rup

The temple was built as a series of smaller squares, with a lotus-shaped tower at the corner of each square, culminating with a tower in the center

One of the many towers of Pre Rup

Exploring the ground floor

Wandering around a temple

At its height the Khmer Empire covered Cambodia, Laos, Southern Vietnam, Eastern Thailand, and parts of Burma and Malaysia. It was the most powerful empire in Southeast Asian history. The Khmer Empire ruled from 802-1431, with its zenith in 1150 when Angkor Wat was completed. 

The Khmer Empire in Red. (Source)

Next up was the Eastern Mebon, another 10th century temple about 20 years older than Pre Rup

At the Eastern Mebon 

The walls of the Eastern Mebon 

At one of the gates

From the top of Eastern Mebon

With one of the elephants, one on each corner of Eastern Mebon

Next was Ta Som, 12th century temple. considered one of the most photogenic temples in Angkor. 

The entrance to Ta Som

Kate stares in wonder

Contemplation

Inside the first gate of Ta Som

The trees in Angkor grow almost everywhere, including in and around the stone. This can lead to big problems, as growing trees threaten to rip apart the sandstone temples. 

However, some trees are so deeply woven into the superstructure by this point that removing the trees would damage the temples even more. So some trees are allowed to remain, leading to pictures like this:

Damn tree hugger

Carvings of apsaras, holy dancing girls in Hindu mythology

Another shot of Ta Som

Up next was Preah Neak Poan, another temple constructed by Jayavarman VII. Construction at Angkor began in 889 when Yasovarman built his first capital around Phnom Bakheng, now the best place to view the Angkor sunset. Angkor Wat was finished in 1150 by Suryavarman II, and construction of new Angkorian temples continued under Jayavarman VII with the building of Angkor Thom in 1295. After Angkor Thom was completed, nothing more was ever built at Angkor.

Coconut break

Preah Neak Poan, a temple surrounded by four pools

Our last stop was Preah Khan, a fusion temple of Buddhist and Hindu influences. 

One of the things I really love about Angkor is that for the most part, the temples are entirely free reign. You shouldn't climb on the temples, and any excessive going off the path is frowned upon. But otherwise, you are free to wander wherever you like. The temples are exceedingly symmetrical, and so you can wander around event he smallest temples for hours. No guards, no rope lines, no signs to break the illusion that you are in a ruined city. 

Honestly you see very few of these signs in Angkor, and only at major major sites

Frankly, I'm sort of conflicted about this. On the one hand, having people clambering around the temples cannot be good for the preservation of the temples. I'm sure conservationists have to work double time to undo the damage caused by tourists roaming free. On the other hand, the immersive experience you get is really, truly wonderful. Angkor has a fantasyland air to it, and being able to fly around these awe-inspiring temples is a feeling to make anyone young. 

My inner historian dislikes the careless and damaging wanderings of thousands of tourists. My inner child thinks this is absolutely freaking amazing. 

Sometimes you have to let the inner child win. 

The entrance to Preah Khan, the courtyard is lined with ornamental statues

One of the statues, depicting a garuda at the bottom

Bridge into Preah Khan

The naga balustrade on the bridge. The gods are depicted pulling the giant naga in a scene from Hindu mythology, the churning of the sea of milk.  

One of the few gods remaining with a head. The rest of the heads have been chopped off by looters and sold around the world. Some of them are probably in a museum near you. 

At the outer gate of Preah Khan

A random, beautiful structure on the way to Preah Khan

Michelle inspects more closely

As powerful as the Khmer empire was, war with the Vietnamese to the east and the Thais to the west put intense pressure on the empire and it began to crumble. The Thais sacked Angkor in 1351 and again in 1431, the second time pushing the Khmers to abandon Angkor and found a new capital at Lovek, near Phnom Penh. Angkor was abandoned, with only Angkor Wat still maintained by monks. 

Preah Khan

At the gate to Preah Khan

The first hall of Preah Khan is called the hall of the dancing girls, because each pillar in the hall is covered with beautiful carvings of apsaras. 

The mantle was also a beautiful apsara carving

Kate does her best apsara impression

I had a surprising encounter in Preah Khan. I saw the guide who had first taken me and my family on a tour of Angkor Wat, Mr. Sendu! He works for Journey Village and is an amazing tour guide, part of the reason I first fell in love with this place. It was great to see him again. 

Heading towards the main area of Preah Khan

A shrine inside Preah Khan

The main area of Preah Khan is one of my favorite places in Angkor, because it allows the sort of crazy running exploration I love. The place is a labyrinth, with every intersection leading down different corridors, coming out to places in the temple you never expected to see. 

For getting where you want to easily, it's a pain in the ass, and there isn't much of special significance historically or artistically down most of these corridors. But for exploring?

Which

way

will

you

 

go?

You won't be disappointed, no matter which direction you choose

And you can find places like this

And this

Probably wasn't even supposed to be here

My own little corner of Preah Khan 

After seeing Preah Khan, it was time for us to head off to see a good Angkor sunset. 

Last shot of Preah Khan

Kate and Michelle wait patiently for a motorbike to pass by

Yes, that is a giant ornate Angkorian gate we are about to drive through via tuk-tuk

The most common places to go view the sunset at Angkor are Phnom Bakheng and Pre Rup. The sunset there is spectacular, but the problem is that it becomes absurdly crowded. Instead, we opted to go to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. The sun doesn't set behind Angkor Wat, so most of the crowd leaves as we were heading there. Sometimes dodging the crowd is the biggest thing at Angkor. 

We got there, and I bought a bag of mango as we sat down to watch the sunset

First tantalizing view of Angkor Wat

Sunset over Angkor

And that was it for our first day! Saw the entire big circuit, and got ready for the sunrise tour and the small circuit the next day! Kate and Michelle got their first Angkor experience, and I had never gotten to see any of these temples before. We were all tired but also enthusiastic and happy! It was a pretty great first day.

We celebrated with MEXICAN FOOD! Siem Reap has a great restaurant called Viva that actually serves pretty good Mexican food. Nothing like the food back home, but it was pretty amazing nonetheless. 

Arguably more exciting than one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We've been in rural Vietnam for a long time, okay? 

Tune in for the next post about Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the rest of this amazing ancient city!

Much love,

Jefferson

Angkor puppy!