Day 14 – The Land of Angkor
For one of Southeast Asia’s most famous tourist
destinations, the Angkor complex is not easy to navigate. It is very spread
out, nearly 9 kms between the first temple (Angkor Wat) and the furthest (Preah
Bhat). This doesn’t make it impossible to navigate by foot, but the walking
time between temples isn’t really factored into the suggestion to spend 2-3
days there. I decided against a guide for a few reasons. The first is a place
like Angkor Wat is more about what you see, the history in what you can feel and
touch in the complex. I can read about the history of the Angkor culture if I
want. The other is a guide will severely slow me down. From my reading of the
complex, the amount of time estimated for each place is a little much. If I do
it alone, I think I can maximize my 1.5 days there. I decided to have lunch at
the Lodge, in what they call the Lotus Lounge. The beer is cheap ($1 for draft
of Angkor), and the food is cheap as well. The Khmer Curry Beef I ordered
wasn’t the best, as it wasn’t nearly as spicy at it should be, but with the
convenience and price, the combination worked. The beer was absolutely
refreshing on a hot day like today, which makes up for the fact that Angkor
beer is essentially Kingfisher, just labeled differently, which means that it
is great when you are hot and need to cool down, but subpar in any other
circumstance. I went back to the room to freshen up, but I would soon find out
how pointless any attempt at cooling down is.
The Angkor complex is big and hard to navigate. I didn’t see
anyone walking from one group of temples to the others. Some rented Bicycles,
some had cars, but most were in Tuk-Tuks, which is where I found myself. I had
about four hours to finish the three most famous spots in the complex, Angkor
Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Phrom. I decided to start with the sprawling Angkor
Thom, to get the hard one out of the way early. My Tuk-Tuk driver that would
shuttle me from place to place told me that Ta Phrom should be done before the
sun starts descending because it can get dark, so to do Angkor Wat last. I was
a bit nervous with this idea, as I didn’t want to run into a situation where I
had too little time to experience Angkor Wat properly, but that wouldn’t be a
problem in the end.
One of the entrances to the Angkor area, quite modest comparatively.
Angkor Thom means ‘Big City’ in English, which is a good
place to start. The Angkor Thom is really just a walled off plot of land where
many different temples and buildings lie. The main ones are the Bayon and
Bophrun Temples, the Palace, and the Elephant and Leper King Terraces. Because
I was a little pressed for time, and because it was way too hot to venture off
into the bounds of Angkor Thom (the walls enclose a very big space), I decided
that those places would be the extent of my stay. I started with Bayon, which
is probably the most impressive. It is a temple that is moderately big, really
open and contains many little corridors leading to isolated courtyards to hunt
out. It is amazing that all of this was built back in the 1100-1200’s. The one
big danger is the steepness of the steps – this was there at all the places,
not only Bayon, which requires extra attention to climb. Bayon was the palace
and the religious center of one of the more recent Kings in the Angkor era, and
while that distinction made Bayon just 800 years as opposed to 900 years old,
it makes a difference as Bayon definitely seems to be the most airy and open of
all the temple grounds.
The next stop was Bophrun, which is more notable for how it
is rather than what it is. What it is is just another temple, but it is the
oldest one, and was discovered destroyed, with the pieces of the temple strewn
about across the Angkor Thom. Slowly, the Cambodians have worked to put the
temple back together, and there is no certainty that the original temple looked
like the current one does. This temple was very closed, with a long staircase
ascending to the top, which gave a nice view of the rest of Angkor Thom. Almost
like a pyramid, it definitely seems the most primitive of the temples in the
Angkor Thom.
Next to the Bophrun, enclosed inside another set of walls,
is the palace, where most of the Kings that ruled during the Angkor Kingdom
lived, but the palace itself is quite small. That was a little disappointing
because I was expecting more from the palaces, but I guess back in 12th
Century Cambodia, the Gods got better accommodations than the Kings. Outside
the palace ground was a long wall where at the end housed two of the ‘terraces’
which really act as elevated patios. They are called the ‘Elephant Terrace’ and
the ‘Terrace of the Leper King’, and both names are apt. The Elephant Terrace
has six ornate elephant heads carved into the stone on the back, while the
Terrace of the Leper King has a statue in the middle of a man, ostensibly the
Leper King, although there was little evidence of any Leprosy. After this I met
my Tuk-Tuk driver drenched and tired, and bless his soul, he had my waters kept
chilled in an ice-box. I tell you, there is little better than ice cold water
when you are dead tired. I finished one bottle before he got 100m away.
The next stop was the Ta Phrom temple, but that was a ways
away, and there were quite a few temples in between that lended themselves
nicely to picture opportunities. The best was the Takeo Temple, which was
currently closed, which was a tall pyramid like structure with ornate stone
work all around it. Some others were
less memorable but still quite beautiful. What you immediately realize when
driving around the Angkor complex is not only how large it is, but how well
maintained. There were people working all around it, especially a team of
gardeners watering and tending to the lush greenery. That is part of the charm
of the complex. The fact that these old, ornate temples are hidden inside this
forest makes the Angkor complex really work as a great way to spend 1-3 days.
We finally reached Ta Phrom and I quickly understood why my driver wanted me to do it second. Just inside the entrance gate is a tree-lined street, with the trees going 4-5 deep in every direction. The walk to the temple is almost completely tree covered, which would have made it rather useless had it been later in the day. The Ta Phrom temple is smaller than the Bayon, but more complexly designed, and the greenery is incorporated within it, with many different courtyards and even towers built around and through large trees and fronds. The Ta Phrom temple apparently has some connection with India, as the restoration and maintenance of the temple is a co-venture between Cambodia and India. India’s inclusion in the project makes sense, as Ta Phrom is probably the least well maintained, but the structure woven through the scenery is beautiful nonetheless (and far, far cooler than any of the other temples because of the tall trees).
The drive back to the Angkor Wat was a nice drive parallel
to the river that the Angkor Wat is along, and when you reach the Angkor Wat,
you know immediately you are there. The three-towered temple stands out above
the perimeter walls, and the hoards of people indicate its popularity. The walk
inside the complex is on a sturdy bridge over the river, adorned with Lions’
heads. The building that serves as the entrance gate is as ornate as many of
the other main temples. Inside is a giant open courtyard with smaller side
temples, and ahead lies the real Angkor Wat Temple, the one that is famous the
world over. Pitiably, they were doing some renovation work to the front so the
façade was slightly altered, but it still stands out as quite an imposing
structure. The Angkor Wat temple itself is larger, taller, more complex and
more ornate than any of the others. It really is incredible how detailed some
of the stonework is on the temple when you consider just how old it is. I must
have taken more pictures inside it than the rest of the Angkor complex
combined. There are just so many courtyards, so many towers, so many great
views. It only gets better when you go at either dawn or dusk. Dawn is more
popular because the sun rises on its façade, but considering I am what I am,
dawn is also far more impractical. So I settled for dusk, and it was beautiful.
The only negative I can see with the Angkor Wat experience
was that the view from the top of the towers is average, and not worth the wait
in the line to climb it. The work inside the towers makes up for it, even
though people are so busy trying to get a view outside it is a precarious task
trying to get a picture. Angkor Wat isn’t the Taj Mahal, or the Roman Coliseum,
or many of the more popular sights, but it is well worth seeing, and I am most
glad that I was able to see it during my lifetime.
I got back to the Lotus Lodge at 6:00, and with a few hours
to kill between now and my dinner at VInoth’s, I decided to venture back to the
Lotus Lounge – who can pass up a $1 draft of Tiger. To my benefit, there were a
few Australians in the lounge, and I got to chatting with them. They were most
interested in my upcoming trip to Australia (sadly, they were from Brisbane,
not one of my stops on the trip), and even gave me some tips for what to do in
each place. They already had a reservation for dinner, but I found out they
were leaving from the Lotus Lodge at 10:00 to go out, and because I had little
else to do, I decided to join them after dinner.
Viroth’s is not really as it sounds. The name conjured up
something a little shacky, one of those “don’t judge it by what it looks like
outside” type places. This is probably because it has an Indian name. I quickly
realized that I was way too harsh when judging it. Viroth’s is fancy. It is an
outdoor restaurant (part of it is covered with a canopy) with intimate lighting. I feel like I
have been to similar restaurants in other places, but I can’t pinpoint where
right now. The strangest part of Viroth’s, then, was how cheap it was. The main
courses were all between $5.00-6.50. There were no real appetizers to speak
from, but there were three pages worth of main dishes, all between that price
range. I decided to order two of them, and I am glad I did, because the one
complaint I can give Viroth’s is that the portion sizes are small.
I ordered Minced Pork wrapped in Kubla Leaves (a Khmer
specialty) and ‘Spicy Squid’ which was basically Squid in a sauce of lemongrass
and some other flavors that I didn’t recognize. Both came together, which was a
little sad, but since they were both main courses, not unsurprising. The minced
pork was still rolled into a loose kebab, and the leaves really had their own
distinct taste. That was an excellent dish. Probably not quite as good as the
wrapped beef dish that I had in HCMC, but something close. The spicy squid
wasn’t too spicy, but still very good. It was a little safe on my point,
because it wasn’t a distinctly Cambodian dish and would have been at home in
any normal Thai restaurant back home, but it had a lot more of the squid legs
than squid dishes back home, which is an always welcome surprise. The place,
like most in Siem Reap, was clearing out close to 9:30, and I had to make my
way back to the Lodge to go out with those Aussies (Geoffrey, Katie and Emily
are their names), so I hurridly got the bill and left. The meal probably didn’t
measure up to yesterday’s, but as good as the atmosphere was at The Sugar Palm,
Vinoth’s was better in that regard. If I was here with a significant other,
this would have been a great place to go to.
I got back before the Aussies (seem very Australian to not keep to a set time), and when we met up we took a Tuk-Tuk to Saigon Spring, the only real ‘club’ that isn’t a seedy sex-shop in Siem Reap (might be an exaggeration). The club was basically quite close to a NYC club, with a good DJ, low lighting (probably brighter than most NYC clubs), and a flowing bar that was affordable – in that respect, it was nothing like NYC clubs. Nothing special happened that night, but it was an all-around good time (I’m kind of purposefully skimming over this part) with some fun people. They are leaving tomorrow, so alas this group relationship has no lasting power. I connected with them on Facebook, and they said they’ll let me know if by some chance any of them are in Melbourne, Cairns or Sydney when I am. I hit the sack around 1:30 AM (the club closed at 12:30 – by force, not choice), ready to get up for my 10 AM start to tomorrow’s tour around the rest of the Angkor Wat complex.
It's a meaningless photo, but it seemed quasi-professional to me, with the light cascading through the open walls.
