Temples

The main reason, of course, to be in Siem Reap is to visit Angkor Wat and the other temples.  There are apparently over 300 temples around Siem Reap, although not all have been recovered enough to be opened to tourists.  We had one day dedicated to temples where we visited the 3 big draws and then added another temple as part of a visit to the sacred Mt Kulen on the following day.  It was back to just me, Claire and a guide.  Our guide was very good at explaining the history of the temples and the myths depicted in the carvings etc.  it turns out he used to be a teacher, but gave it up 3 years ago to become a guide which is much better paid unfortunately.  Oh, we had a tuk-tuk driver to ferry us around as well.

This, you may or may not be pleased to hear, will be quite a short post.  I'm sure you'd finds lots of photos of stone temples pretty dull and the only thing really to tell you about would be the history and stories around the temples and I'm not sure I could remember them properly and those interested can easily look them up.

We started with Angkor Wat.  It was Angkor Wat that led to us selecting Cambodia as the country to visit in the first place and it was certainly spectacular, and popular.  This is the biggest individual temple and is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu.  The carvings depicted various stories including the battle between Rama's monkey army and the king of the demons.

Here's the classic view of the temple.

And here's the same view ruined by a couple of tourists.

We had to queue for some time to ascend to the highest level representing heaven. The steps are very steep so that people arrive suitably prostrate.  It's times like this that you remember how annoying swarming parties of Chinese tourists are, squawking like the seagulls the Cambodians call them.  Here they are climbing the steps.

The next temple was Pra Thom, whose defining feature is how nature has reclaimed it with trees growing over and through the stonework.  It also appears in a tomb raider movie.

Finally, on the first day of temples we went to Angkor Thom.  This means big city and is a huge complex with a temple at the centre.  This is a Buddhist temple and characterised by being covered in big carved faces of the Buddha.  In many ways it was the most spectacular of the lot. 

On the following day, we added Bantreay Srei.  This is another Hindu temple, this time dedicated to the god Shiva.  This one is made from pink sandstone rather than the grey/black of the others and has the most intricate and deep carvings, as hopefully you can see below.

That's it for temples and pretty much completes our time in Cambodia.  We just had one day left at this point which was a free day that we used to explore Siem Reap and pick up some souvenirs at the market.  I'll put up a short post with some market pictures because I'm a sucker for them.