Angkor Wat - memorable day

Oct. 21, 2008 - PRLog -- Some people take a leisurely week to discover Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, but we decided to take it all in in just one day.

Hiring a tuk tuk guide, we set off from Shadow of Angkor at 8am - already, the main entrance was beginning to pack out with tourists of all nationalities - Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, Germans, Americans, Canadians, Thais and a handful of locals.

We began at the central collection of temples dotted around Angkor Thom. By far the most impressive is the Bayon, built by King Jayavaraman VII as his state temple. It contains endless numbers of towers, each with the four divine faces of Avalokiteshvara intricately carved into the stone.

After 800 years, its amazing how well-preserved it all was - structurally, the place was as sound as the Empire State building. The temple was arranged in long wings containing a series of small square rooms, boundaried by large stone doorways. Some of the rooms had buddha shrines - it's a multi-faith affair here at Angkor - complete with incense and a donation box. I made several offerings to Buddha throughout the day.
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Other rooms were clearly designed for different purposes - we even discovered a stone squat toilet at one point. Next, we explored surrounding stone ruins, including the terrace of elephants. This is really a long walkway supported by stone columns, topped with royal war elephants and warriors, which are being swiped by tigers from below.

The nearby Baphuon is an example of the religious intersections at Angkor. Originally constructed by King Udayadityavarman during his reign between 1049 and 1065, there are some amazing hindu friezes that show scenes from the Ramayana. But in the 15th century, parts of it wre dismantled so that a 70m reclining buddha could be thrown up in its place.

Ta Keo is situated a few moments down the road - we met up with our tuk tuk guide who took us over. This temple has an interesting story. King Jayavarman commissioned the building of the temple, but it was never actually finished because it was struck by lightning before all the stone carving work could be completed, which is massively bad luck in hinduism so the project was abandoned. It has an enormous central tower, which you can access via an extremely steep set of steps that look like they belong on a ziggurat.
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Ta Prohm is hidden away in the trees of the jungle. The site where Tombraider was filmed, it is a unique mishmash of nature versus the built environment. Huge trees grow straight out of the stone walls and crumbling towers of this mossy-covered establishment. It was built in 1186 - comparatively late in relation to the other temples - again by King Kayavarman and dedicated to his mother.

I loved the wildness of this temple, and the amazing result of trees intertwining with stone. Apparently there is sanskrit script on the walls telling of the enormous treasure kept in the temple - although I hardly believe this because if you did have treasure, as it you'd advertise it! But it purportedly held thousands of pearls, precious stones and golden dishes weighing nearly half a tonne.
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We stopped for lunch, which was twice the price of normal Cambodian food, and then continued to Banteay Srei, another treasure. Also known as the Citadel of Women, its dedicated to Shiva and contains some of the best carving I'd seen that day. There were several stone courtyards covered in top to toe of Shiva in various poses. At the back was another enormous tree growing out of a stone wall.

But the jewel in today's crown was of course the mighty Angkor Wat. Surrounded by an enormous moat and ringed with trees, the five towers rise out of the centre, standing nearly 40 metres high. The towers are meant to represent the five heavenly peaks of Mt Veru, where Vishnu lived. The towers are surrounded by three levels of colonnades, all impressively carved on the outside. But the inside of the colonnades was even better - the whole length of the four corridors was plastered with amazing friezes of Vishnu and other devas fighting away demons on horseback, with elephants, spears, bows and arrows. Although the frieze was in fact built much later - about 400 years - it fitted in perfectly.
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Unfortunately we weren't able to ascend the final flight of super-steep steps up to the tops of the towers - very disappointing! Clearly people had been able to do so in the past. Climbing down, we went round to the front for the ubiquitous view of the wat's towers - the money shot. We didn't have time to hang around until sunset, but nonetheless it was breathtaking - and again, the million and one pictures we snapped during the visit won't go anywhere near to doing it justice.

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