Siem Reap

After a couple of full on days, we flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (about an hour) on Wednesday. Siem Reap is nice - parts of the city are very colonial with very western restuarants, bars and cafes with wireless internet and great food, while other parts are more poverty stricken and more...well, real Cambodia, I guess. It's funny, when you think Cambodia you don't really imagine a modernised/westernised Cambodia - yet there is it. We spent much of the afternoon on tuk tuks touring the city - out to a lake where all of the locals were swimming, to a couple of charity craft stores and an art/craft factory that sponsers Cambodian kids as apprentices in wood and stone carving. We spent Thursday and Friday at the Angkor Archaeological Park checking out the various temples built by the Khmer between the 9th and the 15th century, after which Cambodia was invaded by the Thai and both the construction and use of the temples was temporarily restricted. There are around 200 temples in the archaeological park which spreads across 400sqkm and we managed to get around about 8 of the larger temples. It was hot work given temperatures reached 40 degrees and we had to dress conservatively (shoulders and knees covered). We especially loved Preah Kahn - the temple of the sacred sword - much of which is now in ruins from both the vegetation overgrowing and destroying the building and from vandalism during the rule of the Khmer Rouge - the temple is huge with long tunnels and windows everywhere and a couple of monks for good measure. It was truly beautiful and so hard to explain in a way that does it justice. Interesting also, that following the retreat of the Thai, the French lost a large number of men who were restoring the temple due to tiger attacks. Also very cool was Ta Prohm - the tomb raider temple - which is a buddist temple and was discovered deep in the jungle with massive strangler trees intertwined with the carvings, the various buildings and wings of the temple. It was gorgeous. There were Cambodian kids everywhere around the temples selling postcards, books, scarves, clothing etc etc who were really playful and completely adorable. They would ask us where we were from and when we told them they would tell us the capital city. We tested them a little by giving them different countries but they knew all of them! Needless to say, we were suckered into buying around 50 postcards and a book on the archaeological park. We left the hotel on Friday morning at 4.30am to watch the sun rise over the famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat covers 4sqkm and is as amazing as you imagine. It was originally a Hindu temple and took 30 years to build. There are designs and carvings throughout the temple, which is massive, are so intricate and details that it would have taken a million men to finish it within that 30 year period. Eventually, over the years, the second floor gallery was converted into an area for the worship of Buddha. The third floor gallery is referred to as "paradise" and was only open to monks, priests and the king. We walked the stairs "to paradise" used in those times which are unbelievably steep, terrifyingly so, and on which a couple of tourists have died from falling. We also visited the Angkor Thom City which stretches across 9sqkm and has a huge brick wall around the perimeter to ensure that only those that should be allowed in are. They used to cut off the feet of criminals and it followed that if you had no feet, you were not allowed in. Inside the walls of Angkor Thom City, there were monkeys running around the park areas and you were able to ride elephants if you wanted to. By far, the most impressive sight of Angkor Thom City is the Bayon which is a massive temple depicting the face of King Suryavarman VII and Budda (combined) 216 times. The temple plays on the number 9 which is, apparently, a lucky number - there are 54 towers (5+4 = 9), representing the 54 Cambodian provinces at that time (21 that have now been lost to Vietnam and 9 lost to Thailand), each with 4 faces, adding to a total of 216 faces (2+1+6 = 9) and also 54 gods (5+4=9) vs 54 demons (5+4=9) in a tug of war (and 9+9 = 18 which is also 1+8 = 9). It is an absolutely amazing and beautiful place. We love Siem Reap - it is such a neat place! Photos to follow soon.