Day 230 June 27th 2007, Angkor - Siam Reap

We had the opportunity to start our tour of the Angkor Temple complex yesterday, but after a 6 hour bus journey and sudden luxury we were going no where. With over a million visitors a year the temples, even in the rainy season can become extremely crowded. There is no control on visitor numbers like you would find at somewhere like Machu Picchu. Looks like they are just going for the money and worrying about the preservation later. This is highlighted in this article from the Observer. As a result best time to visit is very early in the morning or late afternoon, this also reduces the effect of the hot and humid conditions.


So after a sleepy breakfast at 6AM we headed off with our guide on one of the hotels tuk tuks (above) to the temples. Angkor in Khmer means city, the Angkor empire flourished between the 9th and 15th century, Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century. Since the decline of the empire in the late 12th century the temple complex was engulfed by forest until discovery by the French in the alte 19th century. Restoration continued up until the start of the Khmer Rouge regime, when temples were actively destroyed. Work began again in the 1990's and many of the temples are being reconstructed stone by stone.

Our tour started with some of the outlying temples, the trees which live on the stones are called sponge trees, they feed off the lichen growing on the stone.




Surrounding Angkor Wat are a set of gates, the road to each lined with a scene from Hindu culture, the churning of the milk sea. The gates themselves have four faces of Avalokitesvara, facing North, East, South and West. Over the centuries religious beliefs have changed from Hinduism to Buddhism and back again, both are represented with the temples, worshipped side by side.




After a few hours break at the hotel we headed out again to visit the temple of Bayon (below), the temple has 54 towers each with 4 stone faces of Avalokitesvara.


Our tour guide Tek an expert on the temples knew all the good places for a photo.




Although Shelley and Tek's artistic photos above are great I think the award for photo of the day has to go to myself, as the light was fading this young monk kindly posed in front of Bayon for the photo below.


Highlights: The whole complex is impressive but Bayon is incredible