The main reason people come to Siem Reap, is of course to go
to Angkar. We decided after many recommendations to watch the sunrise at the
main temple; Angkar Wat. With our alarms set for 4am we headed off in the dark
with our tuk tuk driver. As we arrive, we see this is not going to be the
peaceful sunrise we’d imagined but a place for pushing to the front for the
best views, being harassed constantly by café owners if we wanted breakfast,
shop owners if we wanted scarfs or bracelets and Steen getting in an argument
with a European girl… oops :-/
The crowd bustling for the perfect sunrise pic
Inside Ankor Wat
There was 4 of these massive carvings stretching all round the temple, depicting massive battle scenes
Although it was busy, the view of Angkar Wat is beautiful
and once we headed away from the crowds and over to the temple itself you start
to imagine and realise and appreciate just how remarkable this place is. All
temples built by kings, many are across Angkar with Angkar Wat being the
biggest. The walls are covered in pictures of buddists and battle scenes and it
is hard to imagine building something like this in the present time let alone
hundreds of years ago!
As our tuk tuk driver took as around the temples I think it
is fair to say each had their own unqiue and awe-inspiring look about them
however without a doubt our favourite temple had to be Bayon.
This raised viewing platform stretched on for about 800m, in the time of the kings, the area in front was used as a parade space to show of the might of the Anker empire
Ems holding on tightly as she heads down the steep steps ;-)
With its many smiling faces towering high on their four
levels and palm trees all around this temple is like something out tomb raider
(in fact it was actually used in the tomb raider film!)
THE BAYON TEMPLE
The entrance used in the Tomb Raider film
Tight buns ;-)
Even the gates you
enter before seeing Bayon are amazing… We both imagined what it would be like
if you were a pheasant back in the day first seeing these temples… you’d shit
yourself!!
The mighty gates built by the same king as Bayon.
At each set of gates (4 in total) would be a representation of the churning of the seas. 54 gods and 54 daemons locked in an epic tug of war. Here is one close up and you can see the whole line on the top pic
The pictures do not give what an awesome place this is!
After Bayon we head onto a series of temples that are all
different shapes and size, exploring and climbing up the narrowest, steepest
steps that surely would be illegal to climb in England for health and safety
reasons! We had a lot of fun feeling like little monkeys!
One of these temples included the jungle temple. These
temples were built but with the civil war and Khmer Rouge hitting Cambodia
hard, it was difficult to keep them maintained and so what you see below is the
pure power of the jungle. With their roots the size of trees you’d find at home
intertwining around the bricks and pushing their way through the concrete you
have this incredible sight!
As always, at the entrances of each temple there were numerous
of stalls and children trying to sell you postcards, bracelet’s and other bits
and bobs you don’t really need. Most of the time, although they are young
children ranging from as young as 4years old to 20 years old, saying no becomes
a habit and your guilty conscious of how poor these people are subsides.
However one girl took us both by surprise. As she talks to us in very good
English, compliments me on my hair, tells us a few facts about London, asks our
names and gives us one of her bracelets as a gift we both know this is all for
us to buy a drink from her stall. Having just eaten and bought water we didn’t
need any drinks and as usual said no. As we carried on walking away from her,
her previous chirpy self suddenly saddens as she asked us more desperately for
us to buy a coca cola for our driver for 50 cent! Sticking to our answer we get
on our tuk tuk and drive away.
I know what your thinking – how horrible!! It really is
difficult because if you said yes to everyone you’d be out of pocket within
5minutes so we said ‘no’ most of the time. However this time our consciences caught
the better of us after realising how much more effort she’d gone to to talk to
us than the others and as we ate dinner that night we both said we’d go back to
her tomorrow and find her to buy a drink and agreed if someone does do
something out of the ordinary we would not automatically say no.
After our amazing day at the temples, in the evening we head
to a restaurant along the river to watch a puppet and dance show for a charity
that helps the death and blind children in Cambodia. Not really expecting
anything, this evening was so fantastic and inspiring! Having studied performance
and taught dance for the last 9 years I was absolutely amazed to see these
children dancing in complete unison and professionally. And then to find out
the children were deaf was astounding! I love the children I teach to bits but
they cannot dance in time like these children could! ;) it really goes to show
what great rhythm and discipline these kids have! When they had finished Steen
encouraged me to go and speak to the dance teacher. Although she could not
speak any English, my translator, the doorman on the restaurant, helped me have
a lovely conversation with her about how she teaches the children almost just
the same as you would any class just with a few differences! A fantastic
evening and end to the day!
