Angor for Wat!

Think of Lil' John's "Turn down for what!" and substitute "Angor for Wat" and there's the theme song I had running through my head for the past three days in the amazing wonder of the world, Angor Wat. Thanks, Amy.

Angor Wat is actually only one specific temple in a massive temple complex in Siem Reap. Without going into much of a history lesson (as we didn't know much either), the temples of Angkor were built to honour ancient gods of the Hindu faith or of the "God-Kings" of ancient Cambodia. There are hundreds of temples which you can explore and we had a three day pass to do so.

Exploring the Temples of Angor

We decided to leave Angkor Wat until the end. It is the biggest and most famous and if we had seen it first we may have not been as impressed with the others. Instead, we started with the "big tour", named such for the fact that we saw about 6 temples and drove around in a tuk tuk to the great distances between them. At our first stop, Amy and I bought the tourist pants... Kinda like super thin, loose fitting, colourful hammer pants. I definitely got swindled with a two for $16 deal (which I had bargained down from $18) when we saw at the next temple they were selling them 2 for $5.  White people problems.  About an hour later, I found out how thin the material that the pants I bought were as they ripped right down the middle. Pretty awesome to have random Japanese tourists point at you and laugh...

We started off at the "funeral temple" in the blazing Cambodian sun. We climbed high, posed for pictures and marvelled at how impressive these buildings were. That's basically what we did for the next 5 temples too. We had lunch at a super touristy place (99% sure our tuk tuk driver gets a cut from the ppl there) where I had a delicious but expensive Khmer Curry at $5.50 US. Considering beer is $0.75 at our hostel and breakfast was a sizeable portion at $1.50, we may be a little spoiled there. 

The Fab Four

During our visit to Banteay Srei temple ("the ladies temple") we were introduced to the selling techniques the Cambodians employed to trap tourists. Basically, they send these cute kids to follow beside you saying more or less the same script where they half guilt, half pressure you into buying "10 postcards, $1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....". "Hey lady, got good price." For some reason, they seemed to flock to Simon, our 6ft2 tall ginger. ;)

On our second day of temples, we explored the "small circuit" of Angor Thom, with the highlights being Phimeanakas and Bayon. Angor Thom was the last and most enduring capital in the Khmer Empire. Phimeanakas was a "celestial temple" built at the end of the 10th century in a pyramid structure. It was a little scary climbing such steep steps to reach the top! Bayon was a temple built to honour the King Jayavarman VII and is comprised of 216 faces carved throughout its structure. Creepy and beautiful at the same time. I think Bayon was my favourite temple. 

The faces of Bayon Temple

The last highlight of day 2 of temple madness was Ta Prohm, aka the "tomb raider" temple (as scenes were filmed there). In most temples, the structures remain intact and unaffected by nature but in this temple, trees and nature have grown up surrounding and overpowering it. It's the definition of architectural ruins and quite impressive to behold.

Wanna raid some tombs?

That being said, the most impressive temple and most famous of them all is Angor Wat. We decided to heed the guidebooks and friend recommendations to view sunrise at Angor. If you know me well, you know that I am not a morning person. Nevertheless, I woke up at 4:30 and tuk-tuked over for the 6:30 sunrise. We had some cloud coverage so it wasn't a picture-perfect view but it was still worth it. After the sunrise and a snack, we explored Angor Wat in more detail.

Sunrise at Angor Wat

It's huge. Not area wise (Angor Thom had more temples) but in height. It's crazy to think of how they got the sandstone from 50miles upstream (still a mystery), let alone build it without concrete or any modern building tools. We climbed to the top of the middle tower (? I like to call them acorns) and had a great view of the surrounding area.

After three days of temples, I can say I'm officially templed-out. I understand why it's placed on the  UNESCO World Heritage list. I'm so glad I've been blessed to be able to witness it in person.

Angor for Wat!