The Temples of Angkor

Angkor was the old capital of Cambodia until it was moved to Phnom Penh. It is estimated that up to 2 million people used to live there. Now the area is a jungle full of temples and surrounded by rice fields. It is clear that everything here is geared towards the tourist industry, with most buildings being hotels, shops, restaurants or bars (except for the outskirts, which is where the locals must live).


We got up nice and early and rented some bicycles so we could get around easily between the various temples. I don't think that we really knew what we were getting ourselves into by deciding to ride bicycles in the heat. In actual fact it turned out quite well, as the roads were good and quite flat and mostly shaded by trees. Using bikes made it easy to stop wherever we wanted to take photos.

First we rode to Angkor Wat, probably the most famous of the temples of Angkor. It was built in the 12^th century and is depicted on the current Cambodian flag. Its five spires are built to represent a closed lotus flower. It’s a shame that the middle spire was being renovated as that took away the possibility of the cliché tourist photo in front of the impressive temple. The temple itself is full of intricate carvings that remind me of the ones I saw in India on the temples there. 

The next temple we rode to was the Bayon temple in the ancient city of Angkor Thom. The Bayon temple was built in the late 12th Century and consists of multiple towers all with serene faces watching over you wherever you walk. The temple was built as the state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII - some say that the faces on the spires are of him in deep meditation. 

Angkor Thom itself contains various smaller shrines and one larger one (Baphuon) which cannot be entered. The area covered by the city is quite large and must have housed a significant community during its peak period. 

From Angkor Thom we rode on towards Ta Prohm, also known as the jungle temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. On our way we stopped at Ta Keo a smallish temple in the area that it covers, but with an extremely high spire which can be climbed, giving a view of the jungle surrounding the temple. The climb up was already a challenge, but getting down was more of a nightmare, especially seeing that the steps were very regular and wide!

Ta Prohm, the jungle temple, is impressive in showing the force of nature. Massive trees and their roots are intertwined with the temple buildings, making for impressive pictures and scenery. The beauty of the temple lies in this mixture and understandably the temple itself is nowhere near what I would imagine to be its glory of old.

After having cycled around and seen the above, we were quite exhausted and started on our 11km bike ride back to the hotel, which we reached at about 4 pm, at which point we realised that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and that we had been either walking or cycling since 9.30 am - we found that quite impressive. So yea, pot noodles and a swim were in order and then dinner and drinks later.

We were then ready for a fresh start in the morning by bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.