Now it is a popular tourist spot, as it is home to the famous Angkor Wat, a city in itself of impressive and well preserved magnificent Temples.
After a day of wandering around the the cities 'Old Market' Center, which largely caters for tourists, I decided I was going to do a one day cycling tour of the temples. Many tourists like to hire a tuk tuk for the day. It's not possible to walk the site, it's simply too big. The temples can be quite far apart. It was not the idea of cycling over 35km in the 33 degree heat that made me decide to do the cycling option. I had met an elderly couple ( over 60 at least) who had spent three days cycling to all the temples. It was the stubborn voice in my head that said if they can do it, then so can I. That plus I figured I might need it after lazing on beaches and in Hammocks for the last week.
I decided to book with a tour group rather than doing it solo, mainly because I liked the idea of having a guide who would explain the history of the temples. I went with Grasshopper Tours, who I really can't recommend enough. There was about 19 of us in the group, it was a good combination of families and younger people. Nearly all American and expats living in Vietnam. It was Tet (New Year) in Vietnam, and so a public holiday. Although not as heavily celebrated as Tet, it was still Chinese New Year in Cambodia, and of course China, meaning floods of Chinese tourists in Angkor Wat.
To visit the temples, you can buy a day, 3 day, week or month pass. Two days would be perfect I think, but they are clever enough not to sell this. Khmers get free entry all year around. A one day ticket costs 20 dollars, a three day 40. They get milllions of visitors a year, but shockingly the money does not go to the Cambodian government. They sold the site to a private company, and I can only imagine the profit this company is making.
We visited Angkor Wat first, which is the main attraction. I've seen a couple of temples since arriving to Asia, but I can't imagine ever seeing anything that will compare to Angkor War. It's enormous, and nothing short of splendid. The structure still stands as it was when it was first built in 1113-52. Made entirely of stone, it's many walls are decorated with engravings. It was built by Suryavaram who built the temple in devotion to the Hindu deity Vishnu. Subsequent Buddhist kings removed the Vishnu statues to replace them with the Buddist statues which remain today.
Next we cycled off road along the massive surrounding wall of Angkor Thom, to the temple itself. Along the way we stopped at one of the four small corner temples, built to guard the larger temples inside the walls. Angkor Thom's is a fortress inside of which are many beautiful temples, the main one being Bayon.
In some ways I preferred Bayon to Angkor Wat. Inside this temple and large rocks carved with the face of Avalokiteshvara on each of the rocks four sides. It's got many hidden rooms and compartments to nose around.
After we went for a well earned lunch at one of the many outdoor restaurants which can be found a couple of meters from any temple. The food was amazing, and I had what was probably the best Amok I had in Cambodia. Amok is the Cambodia's most famous local dish. It is a type of coconut curry, and was definitely my favourite of the Khmer foods. Mostly food in Cambodia lacks any real spiciness, which I've decided is what makes Asian food so good.
After lunch we went to our final temple of the day, Ta Prohm. This is also now known as 'the Tomb Raider Temple' as it was one of the locations used during filming of Tomb Raider. Our tour guide told us a story of how he once met Angelina Jolie while filming was going on. She came into the souvenir shop he was working in. He asked was it her and she said yes. He said she bought lots of things and with admiration told us didn't haggle for anything. He said people don't believe him because he didn't get a photo with her. I decided to believe him!
This temple has large and beautiful trees growing right through it, the stones mixed with the tree roots. Sometimes then trees strength wins over the temple and you can see where walls have crumbled to give way to the tree. The entanglement of the two are what make this temple special, and beautiful.
After we began our hour long cycle back to the office, during which we did our fair share of off road mountain biking. There were many more temples at the site that I hadn't, and would love to have seen. I debated returning during my stay and spending another day cycling the temples but somehow it just didn't happen.
That night I met the Americans for some well earned cocktails.
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