Angkor Temples

The last time we came to the Angkor Temples was in March 2004 and we only had one and a half hurried days to explore, so it was always on our agendas to return but we both didn’t think we would be back this soon. We had arranged to use the same Tuk-Tuk driver that Marc & Donna had been using the last few days. So he picked us up at our hotel and took us to the ticket checkpoint so that we could get our three day passes for the temples. If you get your pass after 4:30pm you can get sunset at the temples and your three day pass starts from the following morning.

Our first destination was Phom Bakheng not because it’s a particular great temple but it has the best views over Angkor Wat and surrounding countryside as the sun slowly slips into the night. When we got to the foot of the mountain and jumped out the Tuk-Tuk we were engulfed with swarms of kids trying to sell us soft drinks and postcards. The place was more like a fairground than an ancient temple as the smell of the food stalls blended with the stench of Elephants, which if you’re feeling lazy or just very rich you can hitch a ride with to the top of the hill. The climb up the hill was a lot steeper than I remembered from the last time and a bit rockier, or maybe it’s just me that’s aged a year in the last few days.

From the top of the hill we took some photos of Angkor Wat before climbing the temple to get the best view of the setting sun, but we weren’t the only ones with the same idea as we waited in turn with the multitudes to climb the steep narrow steps to the top. A few thousand people had got there before us so there weren’t that many great vantage points, but it was quite chilled watching the sunset. As soon as the sun had gone the crowd evaporated back down the side of the hill into the arms of the waiting hawkers, we managed to give them the slip and find our driver and head back into town.


We had arranged to meet Donna & Marc for dinner as it was their last night before travelling south to Phnom Penh. None of us were feeling that up for a big night, so we had dinner in the Red Piano bar again and headed to another bar to watch some football. After a couple of drinks we said our farewells again and headed back to our respective hotels.

Next morning we headed to the Ta Prohm temple which is quite famous now after it was featured in the movie Tomb Raider starring Angeline Jolie. Unlike most of the other temples in Angkor the 12th Century Mahayana Buddhist temple has been left just as it looked when the first French explorers set eyes on it over a hundred years ago, as the jungle has been left to overrun the place. We didn’t get too many great photos as it had clouded over but it was nice and cool walking under the canopy of the trees. We spent over an hour here before it got too busy with coach loads of tourists whizzing through snapping furiously as their guides machine gunned out the history of the jungle sanctuary.

We had a short journey to the centre of Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple which from a distance looks like a large pile of rocks. This changes as you get closer you suddenly realise that hundreds of faces are observing your approach. The temple has 216 massive benignly smiling faces carved into dozens of towers so no matter where you stand you cannot escape their stony gaze. The faces are said to represent the then King Jayavarman VII who was hoping his omnipresent moniker would keep his subjects in check predating George Orwell’s Big Brother character from his classic novel 1984 by over 800 years.


We had a good wander round and we stumbled across a sad looking old monkey sitting forlornly in a shaded corner. Marc had heard from a local guide that it had fallen out of a tree the previous week and that the rest of its family had abandoned it, so it now stayed in the temple and was being fed by the tourists. At one point we seen it sneak into one of the Buddhist shrines within the temple and try and pinch some of the offerings of fruit, but a elderly female monk chased it out with a broom and started shouting at it. There was also a fashion shoot going on with an Asian lady in a shiny suit with a gargantuan scarf draped over her shoulders giving all her best moves to a cameraman who had more lenses than Black & Lizars. After a stroll along the terrace of elephants and the terrace of the Leper King admiring all the impressive carvings, we decided to call it a day as we had still to move into our next hotel and we also planned to make it for sunrise the following morning.

We got picked up at out hostel at 5am and we made our way through the dark deserted streets of Siem Reap, as we approached the temples we could see quite a few other Tuk-Tuks heading in the same direction. Torch at the ready we made our way into Angkor Wat passing through the perimeter walls and climbing the first two levels. Luckily I remembered from our last visit that it was easier to climb to the highest level on the right hand side of the temple because of a hand rail, at this point we had about half a dozen people following us as we seemed to know where we going. We made it to the top quite quickly, it was probably made a bit easier because the torchlight only lit a few meters ahead and you couldn’t see how high and steep we were climbing.

We managed to make it to the top level in one piece and get a decent spot to sit and wait for the sunrise. After about an hour the sun was over the trees and the largest religious building in the world was now bathed in the orange glow from the morning sun. After a while we headed down the steps to get some breakfast and some photos of the lilies which were slowly opening up in the ponds in the moat surrounding the temple. We then headed back into the now almost deserted Wat and quickly found a spot to sit and sketch and chill out for a few hours. At one point a small kid who was collecting used cans and bottles became interested in our drawings and was curious to hear what I was listening to on my MP3 player, now there’s a ten year old Celtic supporting Cambodian boy running about saying he’s a massive Smog fan.




We then had an hour’s drive out to Bantay Srei, which was quite bumpy in the back of the Tuk-Tuk. When we got there Joanne headed to the toilet and I had a wander about, when I found a large algae covered pond. Just at the same time a herd of water buffalo decided to have a dip in the luminous green swamp, I tried to shout Joanne but she couldn’t hear me. It was amazing watching the lumbering giants straining to keep their heads above the waterline, but after a few minutes they had enough and climbed out the other side of the pond. Just as last one disappeared into the woods Joanne appeared missing the show.


Bantay Srei isn’t the biggest temple but what it lacks in size it makes up in detail, with almost every square inch of the pink sand stone walls covered in intricately carved scenes from Khmer history. After about half an hour it was back on the Tuk-Tuk and the bumpy trip back nearer to Angkor. We then visited three more temples; Ta Keo, Ta Som and the extensive Preah Khan. One of the nice things about the temples is that each one usually has a small band near the entrance playing amazing rhythmical music that really gives the place a nice atmosphere merging with chorus of million grasshoppers and other insects humming along. By the time we left Preah Khan it almost 4 o’clock and our driver was about to take us to another temple when we decided to change plans and head back to the hotel as it felt like we had been tramping temples for days.


One of the reasons we packed so much in to the second day of our Angkor pass was so that we could have one day just relaxing and enjoying the temples without feeling we had to rush round and see as much as possible. So today we didn’t bother with sunrise and headed to The Baphuon temple just after breakfast. The temple was painstakingly taken apart piece by piece by archaeologists before the civil war but the meticulous records were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. So when the archaeology teams returned they found thousands of stones but no idea where they should go. The temple seems like a giant jigsaw puzzle but an ambitious project is underway to stabilise the partial ruin and complete it.

Next to The Baphuon was a large clear pool where some local kids were swimming with some of the more acrobatic one’s where somersaults and back flips into the cool water. When the kids noticed us watching their antics they came round to our side of the pool and put on a show of even more complex dives and moves, some of them even posed like pumped up musclemen before performing their daring stunts. We knew where this was heading and pretty soon one of the kids was up asking for a dollar for each of them, we declined his invitation and to be honest they didn’t take it too bad as they waved us goodbye.


We then wandered along a dusty path behind The Baphuon and stumbled on to two other temples we hadn’t seen before, both were in a state of disrepair but what they lacked in finesse they made up in character. The second temple which we think is called Preah Palilay has massive trees growing alongside the main tower and the place is covered in spider’s webs with quite a few of the eight legged freaks darting about. We then stumbled on a small Buddhist temple where an old monk was throwing water over a family and their motorbikes. We found out from a kid selling coke that the family had come for a blessing to give them luck, they also brought their bikes to get blessed as it was cheaper than insurance.


In the afternoon we went back to The Bayon temple to sit and draw the giant faces. Before we left Scotland I don’t think either of us had drawn, sketched or painted since school which was quite a few years ago now. But after picking up some pencils and notebooks in China we have really enjoyed taking some time out to sketching in some scenic spot or chilled out bar. To be honest our drawings aren’t that good but that’s not really the point, as it’s one of the most relaxing ways to spend an hour or two in the sun. We managed to find a spot just above the throng of bustling tourists and once I plugged in my MP3 player, I didn’t even hear the Japanese guides shouting at their groups. I’m quite glad they haven’t adopted the megaphones that Chinese guides use with great gusto from the Great Wall to the Three Gorges.

As the sun slowly started to set we headed into Angkor Wat to take some photos with the late afternoon glow, once again climbing the dangerously steep steps. As we got to the top we realised there was a massive queue to get back down the steps with the hand rail so we decided to not hang about too long and head down other steps without the handrail before it got too dark. We got down safe enough but it did take quite a bit longer as we gingerly placed our feet carefully on each tiny ledge. We then headed out to the lily pond for our last photos of Angkor Wat as the day turned into night. Our Tuk-Tuk driver had said he would take us to the airport the next morning so we headed back to the hotel and for our final night in Siem Reap.