After a traumatizing (ask us in Aug) and frustrating day layover in Kuala Lumpur, we finally touched down at Cambodia's Siem Reap airport and anxiously awaited our ATM rendezvous, where we'd withdraw actual US dollars! We were thrilled! (not sure why since it's the ugliest currency we've encountered, by far, but a sense of "home" overcame us) We settled in at a guesthouse then set out on foot to hire a tuktuk driver for the next few days. As an aside, you actually don't have to search for a tuktuk driver in Siem Reap, about twenty drivers will offer their services before you could walk 20 feet. And so, as it goes, we turned everyone down until we ran into the "right guy." The repetition of "Lady! Need tuktuk? Tomorrow? Cheap price for you!" gets old real fast, so we shook our heads and continued on our way until we heard the perfect offer..."Excuse me miss? Maybe you need a tuktuk tomorrow?" I replied "No thank you" and kept walking when I heard "Ok, thank you, goodnight," then things changed. I turned to P and said "That's our guy." So we negotiated the obvious fair price for the next two days and had ourselves our very own chauffeur in a nice, spacious tuktuk for our visits to the ancient temples. As SE Asia was being struck by a serious heat wave, we sweated through it and made it to about 10 temples before we began to feel "templed out" at the end of day 2.
The massive size of Angkor Wat was mesmerizing and though P had been there before, it had us both in a trance in no time. We explored the endless halls and details in the stone work for a few hours before heading out to the next temple. Our next stop was Angkor Thom, an ancient royal city guarded by a 3km stone wall and moat. To enter the ancient city, you enter through one of 5 gates crowned with 4 giant faces. We entered via the south entrance, took the obligatory gate photo and made our way to Bayon, a temple within this enclosure. P recalled Bayon temple as her favorite and as we rounded the corner putting it in our view, this was reconfirmed. With hundreds of smiling faces carved into massive stone stands staring down at you, it's hard not to smile back. The mix of Buddhist and Hindu influences really make for an interesting experience.
What's also amazing, is the sheer power of tree roots. Many of the temples are being engulfed by various species of massive fig trees, which literally upturn boulders easily weighing in over a ton. The muscular tree roots are pushing stones aside to reach down for more ground, growing through cracks, widening gaps and knocking down parts of temples along the way, it's quite a site. Ta Prohm is a fascinating example of these powerful trees...we found ourselves holding our breath as we hurried through the few corridors that remain standing at Ta Prohm (as if this would keep the boulders from crushing us).
A visit to the temple ruins around Siem Reap is a definite must on anyone's SE Asian adventure. Just bring lots of water and endless amounts of patience...you'll need it to ward off the sweet Cambodians trying to sell you EVERYTHING!
(we ended up with more Kramas than we know what to do with)
The massive size of Angkor Wat was mesmerizing and though P had been there before, it had us both in a trance in no time. We explored the endless halls and details in the stone work for a few hours before heading out to the next temple. Our next stop was Angkor Thom, an ancient royal city guarded by a 3km stone wall and moat. To enter the ancient city, you enter through one of 5 gates crowned with 4 giant faces. We entered via the south entrance, took the obligatory gate photo and made our way to Bayon, a temple within this enclosure. P recalled Bayon temple as her favorite and as we rounded the corner putting it in our view, this was reconfirmed. With hundreds of smiling faces carved into massive stone stands staring down at you, it's hard not to smile back. The mix of Buddhist and Hindu influences really make for an interesting experience.
What's also amazing, is the sheer power of tree roots. Many of the temples are being engulfed by various species of massive fig trees, which literally upturn boulders easily weighing in over a ton. The muscular tree roots are pushing stones aside to reach down for more ground, growing through cracks, widening gaps and knocking down parts of temples along the way, it's quite a site. Ta Prohm is a fascinating example of these powerful trees...we found ourselves holding our breath as we hurried through the few corridors that remain standing at Ta Prohm (as if this would keep the boulders from crushing us).
A visit to the temple ruins around Siem Reap is a definite must on anyone's SE Asian adventure. Just bring lots of water and endless amounts of patience...you'll need it to ward off the sweet Cambodians trying to sell you EVERYTHING!
(we ended up with more Kramas than we know what to do with)
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1 comment:
What's a krama. I can't believe you posted four posts since I last checked. This is awesome. I am going to comment on every one.
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