Angkor Wat Day 1

To get to Siem Reap from the islands took us approximately 30 hours of travelling, we arrived very dirty and tired on March 5 in the evening, found a guesthouse (the excellent Apsara Steung Thmey), got dinner, and fell into bed. Danny, another teacher from Nakprasit, joined us in Bangkok for the journey to Siem Reap to see the temples.

The next morning we were up with the dawn to see the temples. Here is Angkor Wat itself at dawn. Angkor Wat was built during the 12th century and is the best preserved of all the temples near Siem Reap. Here it is at sunrise.

Angkor Wat was built to honor the god Vishnu, and may have been built to serve as a final resting place for King Suryavarman II. 

Here are some of the trees there. I'm not sure what kind of trees they were, but in the heat, even shortly after dawn, we were glad of their shade. It was 90-100+ Fahrenheit every day we were there, and extremely humid as well.


Here is a smaller temple in the grounds of Angkor Wat.

These are devatas, dancing goddesses of some sort. They are carved into the sandstone everywhere, with stunning detail.

Every window was barred with stone columns like these, worked on a lathe perhaps. Many of them were missing or broken, but quite a few remained.

The towers are all shaped like lotus buds. 

The temple is in excellent shape, considering its age. But even though parts of it have undergone some restauration, it is common to see rubble on the ground.

Some larger examples of the columns in the windows.


Angkor Wat encloses 203 acres, and takes several hours to explore properly. We arrived at 6 am to see the sunrise, and left around 9, but we probably only saw half of it during those three hours.

The hallways are amazing, doorway after doorway after doorway, with threshholds to step over each time. 

The outer wall of Angkor Wat.

A view through the trees to the center.

At this point, Evan pulled out the Lensbaby and took some shots with it. I really like this one. I believe this is part of a naga, or sea serpent, something similar to a hydra.

After 2 hours there, we stopped for breakfast. You feel like every child in Cambodia must be there, competing to sell you postcards, or cold water, or hot coffee, or ten bracelets for a dollar. You can try to avoid them as much as possible, but eventually we had to choose a stall for breakfast, and were swarmed for a few minutes until they understood we weren't in the market for anything but food. (Although, after that, Danny and I bought hats, my mother bought a book, and we all bought water. So we weren't as hardened as we thought we were.)


Another Evan and Lensbaby shot.

After breakfast was over, we left Angkor Wat, for we had many more temples to see before the day was over. To get to the next temple we drove over this bridge in our tuk tuks (more about the tuk tuks later).

Other people chose the slower and slightly stinkier option of travelling by elephant. I believe it is only available between two of the temples, and for a premium, but it did look cool. I snapped a shot of all the elephants' rear ends.

The next temple we went to is called Bayon. From what I understand, Bayon is the most architecturally interesting of all the Khmer temples. I remember it for the huge stone faces and mountainlike shape. 

These monks below wanted to take a picture with us. I was nervous because they wanted me in the picture, but they are not allowed to touch women. I was concerned I might accidentally bump into one of them. So I stood on the outside.

Here are some more apsaras on a column. I am not sure if there is a difference between apsaras and devas, but I think these are apsaras.

One of the huge faces at Bayon.

All of the Danger signs seem to have suffered an injury. In some ways, it makes them more convincing.

This is a temple in the central court, so we are not at Bayon any more. I don't remember this one's name.

Danny, Mom, and I taking refuge from the sun. At this point, it was about noon, and we were dripping with sweat from every pore. This, the first day, was the hottest, with limited shade and a lot more walking than other days. But we gamely continued.

Another temple in the central court, partially fallen down.


This temple's name I also don't remember, there are so many in the central court that it's hard to keep track. 

It did have some cool carvings on the columns, though.

This, I believe, is part of the Leper Terrace, or somewhere closeby. These are, again, apsaras, I think.

Evan persuaded a passerby to take a picture of the four of us. 

This is the view from the Elephant Terrace. Notice that there is not much shade until you get to those trees in the distance.

Another arch with huge faces on the way to the next temple. You can also see part of the tuk tuk and the head of our driver.

A picture of us taken in the tuk tuk. 

This is Ta Keo, built in the very beginning of the 11th century. It is the first temple to be made of sandstone.

And Mom and I in front of Ta Keo.

This stunning shot, I am jealous to say, was taken by Evan with the Lensbaby.

And finally, my personal favorite temple of the day, Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is incredible because of the huge strangler figs that grow out of the temple itself, breaking it apart but also at the same time holding some of it together.

Here's Evan, showing off the temple Vanna White style.

Don't go in there. 

Here is one of those strangler figs I was talking about. Bet you wouldn't like it to be strangling you, would you?


And here's a deva, or apsara or whatever, with a spider web. Just because it's a really amazing temple, that doesn't mean spiders don't need a place to put their web there.

Another Danger sign that seems a little the worse for wear.

And the final picture of Ta Prohm.

The first day was the longest. We woke up at five, met our tuk tuks at 5:30, were at Angkor Wat at 6, had breakfast at 8, saw a bunch of temples, had lunch around 3, saw Ta Prohm, and were back at our hotel by 6 pm. And we were exhausted.

I'll have to tell you about the tuk tuks and the amazing Khmer food in another post, as well as the second and third days at the temples, but until then, enjoy these pictures. It was an amazing day.