Today was our last full day in Cambodia and we were up early, really early, 4:30am early. The reason for this was to go and see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. There were only 5 of us that signed up for this excursion as we are scheduled to see the sunset at Angkor Wat this evening. However, with the weather being what it is (with the possibility of rain all the time), Mum and I thought that we’d like to make sure that we’d see either the sunrise or sunset at Angkor Wat. If we’re lucky we’ll see both!!
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a wide moat which is usually crossed over a causeway. However, restoration work is being done on this bridge so we crossed via a wide floating bridge, in the dark, clutching our umbrellas, torches and cameras! The sky was just starting to get light as we entered Angkor Wat – it was quite atmospheric.
Picture 1 – Sunrise over Ankor Wat
After a hot drink we make our way to the front of the main building (the sun will rise from behind this), the crowds were starting to arrive but we got a good spot in front of one of the pools. Although the clouds meant that the sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been it was still pretty amazing. Any we got some good pictures of the temple without the hordes of tourists that will likely descend in the daytime.
After the sun had risen we exited the temple through one of the Elephant Gates, across the floating bridge and back to the tuk tuks that would take us back to the hotel for breakfast!
We didn’t have any planned excursions this morning, Mum wasn’t feeling too good so she went for a snoozle whilst I went for a swim and continued sorting photos and writing this diary.
This afternoon we continue our visit of the temples. The first temple we visited was the Bayon, the temple of faces. This is one of the many temples built during the Reign of King Jayaverman VII within the fortified city of Angkor Thom, which is also the location of Ta Prohm which we visited yesterday. The city is surrounded by a jayagiri (square wall) and 100m wide jayasindhu (moat), with five gates decorated with stone elephant trunks and crowned by stone faces of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva or Compassion.
Bayon temple is located directly in the middle of Angkor Thom and, according to the lonely planet guidebook, “epitomises the creative genius and inflated ego” of King Jayaverman VII. The temple is known as the temple of faces due to its 54 towers being decorated with 216 smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara. On the walls surrounding the temple are bas-reliefs that depict scenes of everyday life in 12th century Cambodia. The carvings were amazing.
Picture 2 – Bayon Temple
From Bayon we returned through the South Gate of Angkor Thom where we stopped for a brief toilet break and photo opportunity. Each of the gates have a causeway over the moat, decorated with 54 gods (to the left of the causeway) and 54 devils (to the right of the causeway).
Picture 3 – South Gate of Angkor Thom
Once we had all our photo’s we returned to the coaches to travel to the largest temple, Angkor Wat. We arrived and, for some of us, retraced our steps across the moat. On the way it started to rain so we all were busy juggling cameras, bags and umbrellas. This time we were allowed to enter through the main entrance, rather than pretending to be elephants.
Despite the weather, it was a lot busier than this morning. From the main entrance we made our way down the walkway, between the two library buildings into the temple proper. On our way we were told more about the construction of the temples. The stones used to build the temples would be either “male” or “female” and would fit together. Kind of like male and female sockets. To prevent the build-up of water in low lying roofs, the stones have small channels that would send the rain water into reservoirs which would then drain into the moat.
Picture 4 – Angkor Wat
Compared to other temples, a lot is known about Angkor Wat and how it was built by man and elephant. The reason for this is that there are Sanskrit carvings on the walls documenting how it was built.
Similarly to Bayon, there are bas-relief carvings on the walls. This time depicting epic vents such as the Battle of Kurukshetra and the Churning of the Oceans of Milk (the inspiration for the gods and devils at the gates of Angkor Thom). We went up a set of steep stairs to the third level of the temple and some of us decided to climb even further up to the central tower which even steeper steps. The lonely plant guidebook supposes that this may be due to reaching the kingdom of the gods being no easy task. There were some nice views from the top (which would have been lovely if it hadn’t been raining) but I didn’t enjoy descending back to the 3rd level. I had to keep reminding myself that, as part of my work, I go up and down scaffolding all day! It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that I was wearing a long skirt (you have to cover your knees when visiting the temples). Next time I’ll wear trousers.
Picture 5 – View from the Top of Angkor Wat
My legs were really sore when I got back to the 3rd level. When we were descending further down the temple I had to use an umbrella as a walking stick. Due to the weather it was a quicker visit to the temple. I wouldn’t have minded longer as would Mum. However, we are both historic building geeks. We didn’t stay to see the sunset – the rain and cloud cover meant that we would have seen anything anyway. But at least we had pictures of the sunrise!
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