Angkor, Day One: Angkor Wat

We went to Siem Reap this weekend to see the temples at Angkor. Angkor was the seat of the Khmer Empire, a state that ruled most of southeast Asia from the 9th to the 15th century. During the glory days of empire, the rulers built massive temples; these temples were largely forgotten for almost a millenium, until French explorers found them in the nineteenth century. Today, the temples are a UNESCO world heritage site and are visited by over one million people every year. The largest temple, Angkor Wat, is featured on the Cambodian flag (the only flag to have a building on it); it is the largest religious building in the world.

Siem Reap is the local city, and as you can imagine, it is very tourist-friendly. We took a Mekong Express limosuine bus from Phnom Penh (6 hours, a quick stop for lunch, Khmer karaoke videos all the way). People in Siem Reap speak excellent English, much better than in Phnom Penh, and it's much better set up for tourists. There are tons of restaurants and bars, and because there aren't very many creepy sex tourists, the atmosphere is much nicer.

I had been warned that Siem Reap's tuktuk drivers were very aggressive, but I was unprepared for the bus station. As the bus pulled in, a crowd of drivers surrounded the bus while yelling about their tuktuk services. In the past, tuktuks have gained a reputation for trying to steer you to guest houses that pay them commissions, so now they all yell "any guest house, no hassles!" They also offer ridiculously low rates, one sign said "500 riel, any guest house"--that's about twelve cents. I think the reason is that they want you to pay them to drive you around Angkor (approx. $12/day), so it's worth it to them to take the chance. Fortunately, our guest house sent a tuktuk driver to pick us up, and while the crowd was blocking the bus door, they were nice enough to get out of the way.

We stayed at the Peace of Angkor Guest House. It's nice--run by a talented British photographer, they organize photo tours of the temples, which is exactly what I wanted. The room was nice, a few mosquitos, but we were taking Malarone. Firm pillows. When we first arrived, the owner sat down with us, talked about what we wanted to do there, and then made some suggestions for an itinerary--that was very helpful. They also put us in touch with a tuktuk driver who spoke English and took us around the temple complexes.

Tickets for Angkor are expensive--$20 for a day, $40 for three, $60 for a week. If you buy them after 5pm, though, they start the next day, but you get that day's sunset for free. We showed up at the ticket booth at 4:30, and sure enough, there were maybe 30 or 40 people standing around looking at their watches.

Since we only had an hour or so before sunset, we decided to go straight to Angkor Wat, the largest of the temples. Angkor Wat is the only one of the temples that was never abandoned--it has been in use as a temple since its construction--and so it's in the best shape. It was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II, who although he governed a Buddhist country, wanted to use Hindu concepts such as king-as-incarnation-of-gods to legitimate his rule. The temple was thus dedicated to Vishnu and constructed as a Hindu temple (the theory is that it's supposed to resemble Mount Meru, home of the gods). It was converted for use as a Buddhist temple in the 14th or 15th century (when Hinduism became unfashionable).

Our tuktuk driver, Savin, dropped us outside the wall (there's a spot outside each temple where all the drivers wait). First you cross a long stone bridge that spans the moat. The bit in this picture is the outer wall that surrounds the temple complex.

You cross the moat and go through the gate, and then the temple rises up out of the mist. Very impressive, though the effect is slightly ruined by the massive crowd of people.

Once you get through the gate, you're in a large walled-in field with Angkor Wat at the center. There are two reflecting pools on either side, very convenient for photography.

The central towers of Angkor Wat were clearly intended for people with feet much smaller feet than mine. The climb up and down the tiny, steep steps is one of the more harrowing things I've done. It was only later that I found out they have installed a railing on the south side. Sadly, the sunset was clouded over, so no good sunset photos.

There are a lot of children selling postcards and other random things at the bottom--bracelets, noisemakers, etc. There are a lot of them, but they're not especially persistent, and they're very polite, so it's hard to get upset about it.

We had dinner at the guest house--acceptable, not stellar--and then an early night. The guest house had a photo tour of Beng Mealea the next day, and I was eager to go.

I had many adventures that you can read about on day two of my Angkor trip.