Angkor
I’m sure that most people are aware of Cambodia’s recent history, but here is a brief summary. In 1975, the Cambodian Communists (known as the Khmer Rouge) and Pol Pot took charge of the country. They almost immediately started to remodel the country into an agricultural state and marched people to rural communities to work as slaves. Anoyone considered Western, intellectual or professional was considered to be an enemy of the state and one quarter of the population were killed by the regime. Even speaking a foreign language was reason enough to be killed. Landmines are still scattered across the country and there is a horribly high number of people with disabilities.
Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979, but it was only in the late 1990’s that Cambodia became a peaceful country. The day before we arrived in Cambodia, the first senior Khmer Rouge leaders were finally brought to justice and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Things are slowly getting better here, and the people we have met have possibly been the most friendly and helpful so far. In Siem Reap most locals have excellent English and many are multilingual.
Long before these attrocities, for almost half a millenium, the Angkor civilisation reigned supreme. Angkor was the capital in the 9th century and became a centre for worship, scholarship and the arts. The site of the temples was originally Hindu and is now a Buddhist site. Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. The temple of Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the World.
Visiting the Angkor temples was the main reason for our trip to Siem Reap. In order to beat some of the crowds, we decided to head there early. Lots of people want to see the sun rising over Angkor Wat, but after having to get up at 04:30 for our bus the day before, we decided that 7 am was a better start time. Most people take a guided tuk tuk ride around the vast site, but we decided to do it by bicycle. It is amazingly cheap to hire good quality bikes here – we paid $3 for a 24 hour hire. Even very early in the morning the roads are quite busy, and it took us a while to get used to the driving style favoured by locals. Nominally, you are meant to drive on the right hand side. In reality, scooters use every part of the road in any direction. Junctions are total chaos – no-one in particular has right of way, and no-one pauses at the intersection. The first rule of cycling here is to never stop. You can slow down or swerve, but you should never come to a standstill as you will never get back into the flow of traffic. Once we mastered this we were flying! Despite all of this madness, cycling felt reasonably safe as there is a wide shoulder along the side of the road and the drivers are so used to the many scooters that they are very observant and leave reasonable space around bikes.
It was about a 6 km cycle to the start of the site, and the temples are spread over a vast area (400 km2). We decided to stick to the small ‘inner circuit’ but still visited several temples. They were all beautiful and breathtaking, and each one was unique as they were built over a long period of time. Here are some highlights:
Ta Prohm is a 12th century temple, which was used in the Tomb Raider film. The jungle is taking over the ruins and there were trees growing both in and on the stones. The entire site is undergoing re-building, and is esentially an amazingly tough jigsaw puzzle. There are thousands of stones lying around which were originally used in the temple before it crumbled which are to be re-used. However there is no plan of what it once looked like, and the blocks have weathered over the centuries, adding to the challenge.
Ta Keo is a 5-tier pyramid shaped temple. There are four stairways which lead to the top, and the stairs are continuous and very, very steep.
Baphuon – this temple makes the Ta Prohm puzzle seem like a walk in the park. Baphuon was taken apart by a team of archaeologists before the civil war, but the meticulous records they made were later destroyed. Painstaking research has been carried out and they are now restoring this beautiful temple.
Bayon has 54 towers decorated with 216 faces.
Angkor Wat is by far the most famous of these temples. It has been almost continually used since it was built so is in a very good state. This is the biggest tourist trap of them all, and for that reason we spent the smallest amount of time here. It is very impressive, and an incredible site, but I preferred the peace and serenity to be found in some of the less famous temples.
I would highly reccommend cycling around the temples. Although it is a 25 km circuit, and it is ridiculously hot and humid, the road is ceompletely flat. It also allows you to take it at your own pace, and stop at as many or as few of the temples as you wish. We did have to drink 3 L of water though and I don’t think I have ever sweated that much!