Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia
12 February 2014
Photo: Temple at Angkor Wat
Our Cambodian adventure started early as we were met at Yacht Haven Marina by our taxi driver at 05:30am in his brand new taxi. He told us he had picked the car up the evening before and we were his first customers, as he gingerly drove us to the airport. We arrived to find big queues at the check in counters, so Brian asked the counter clerk where we could check in for our flight which was due to leave in an hour. She indicated the desk next to hers would open for our flight to take anyone who had not yet checked in. Gail stood first in line as Brian lined up in the other queue, when the desk opened we were processed first and headed to Immigration to clear out of Thailand as we would be in transit in Bangkok. At Immigration, Gail was in front of Brian and the Immigration official looked perturbed when he inspected my passport. As we had sailed into Thailand we needed a stamp in our passport which would allow us to fly out leaving the boat behind, we had done this at Phuket Immigration. Brian realizing what was happening, stepped forward and presented a piece of paper he had in his passport which Gail didn’t, the officials face lit up and we were duly processed. We got to the departure gate as the final call was being made for our flight, phew.
Arriving in Siem Reap, Cambodia we joined the queue for our Visa on Arrival. The process is slick and the official who handed back the passports, made it a fun experience as he tried to pronounce the western names. After clearing Immigration, we took an authorized taxi to our hotel. As we arrived at the hotel, Lyfrath, our driver, showed us a card with rates for hiring him for 1, 2 or 3 days to visit the temples, he explained he wasn’t a guide and couldn’t come into the temples with us, but would lend us a guide book “Ancient Angkor” and the days would be from 08:00 to 18:00 if we wanted. We agreed to 3 days, starting at 09:00. After checking in, we went for a walk around Siem Reap, a small town with a ‘tourist’ centre, the main street being Pub Street, lined with cafes, restaurants and bars, a refined version of Bangla Street in Patong, Phuket.
Siem Reap is the place to visit the Temples of Angkor Wat. In 3 days we visited 16 of them, and there were many we didn’t see. The temples are all very different and date from the Eighth to Thirteenth century.
On the first day we started with Banteay Srei, or the pink temple. This is one of the smallest in Size, built in the late tenth century with ornate carvings in pink sandstone. We came to recognize, with all the temples we visited, that they almost all had four entrances – North, South, East and West, many had moats as well as outer and inner courtyards and remarkable symmetry. You could stand at one end of the temple and look through all the windows or doorframes and see out the other end. After visiting a couple more temples we went to Kampong Phluk village in the afternoon. The village is a stilted village on a river that leads into Tonle Sap Lake, it was a highlight. The houses are all built on stilts about 20m above the water, we were there in the dry season. In the wet the water laps just unde the actual houses. We saw women walking down the wooden ladders with babies in their arms, with nothing to hold on to, flowers were planted in containers on the decks, children played at the water or on platforms, fishermen cleaned and repaired their nets, it was normal living only above and on the water.
Day Two we visited the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat, built in the early twelfth century, it is the world’s largest religious monument. It took us several hours to walk around. Angkor Wat and the temples we visited on day two were closer to Siem Reap and had more locals trying to sell souvenirs, food and drink. At one of the temples, a girl asked Gail to buy something to which she replied “I don’t have any money”, the girl, with a big grin on her face, pointed to Brian and said “he does”!!. In the afternoon we visited Angkor Thom with the Leper King Terrace and Elephant wall, another amazing site. Bayon, a temple within Angkor Thom, had 37 towers with four faces on each, facing North, South, East and West, it did originally have fifty seven towers.
Day Three we saw some of the smaller temples and South Gate. We both agreed the temples of Angkor equal anything else we have seen in Italy, Greece and elsewhere. The Cambodians are restoring the temples and protecting what is a great asset.
We left Cambodia, happy we had visited.