Met our tuk tuk driver Robbie at the Dancing Frog at 7am after dumping our bags there. Getting to Angkor Wat didn't take too long as only around 10k away. Spent longer going through the ticket purchase with masses of Koreans on organised tours. Before you get your ticket, they take a photo and you wait for it to be printed off. We bought the one day ticket at $20, (with options for 2 days at $40 and 4 days at $60). Whilst waiting for our photo ID ticket, one local asks Craig's height. They are fascinated by his size. He exagerates at 2M and there are gasps of " tooo meetaa!". Arriving at the front of Angkor, there is a large moat and crossing the stone bridge, the heat is already intense. Possibly the hottest place I've been and water being drunk constantly. Once we entered the main city walls you start to appreciate the scale of the grounds of this temple. Inside the walls before the courtyard, you can walk along a corridor, the level of detail etched into the stone is staggering. Outside in the courtyard there are large stone libraries. Impressive structures in their own right. It would be incredible to come in the rainy season where the ponds have life and flowering lilies growing. We make our way to the 2nd wall and the corridors nestled inside, which we walk along just to cool down. In this heat a 5am start would have been better. Dodging the tourists we hear a guide explaining about the intircate detail. Too much to go into here but I will be reading more about it when I get home. I pass a wall with a large Sanskrit tablet. Writing that makes my own look like an elephant signing autographs.
We exit through to the 2nd courtyard at the left hand side and miraculously find ourselves alone. Without the humdrum of tourists, a real sense of peace can be found with the jungle noises echoing over the walls. There are more libraries here but the insides are quite damaged. Walking all the way round we enter the central complex where there are large pits and possibly what appears to be a throne. Apparently it was used for battles to the death. The central locust temple has had a wooden staircase built up it. The stairs all through the temple are steep anyway but these must have been challenging before this. They represent the ascend to heaven should be a challenge, from a snippet I heard from a guide. Several shrines at the top with many paying their respects. The views of the surrounding jungles only display the sheer scale of this one temple. We still have more of the site to see with one temple being around 40k away.
Back to the tuk tuk, with several litres of water drunk, we eventually find Robbie who takes us away from the central wat and out to Angkor Thom. Passing over a large decorative bridge we stop. Not as impressive being smaller and more damaged but starting to see the scale of the Angkor site. The temple is joined by another temple called Baphuon with a fantastic walkway called the Elephant Terrace. Large elephants carved into the outside of the wall. Robbie's dodgy english leads us astray slightly when trying to find the tuk tuk. We watch around 500 Cambodians line dancing in a grass field and find out its part of the New Year celebrations starting on the 13th.
Finally spotting the tuk tuk amongst hundreds, our driver is fast asleep in a hammock strung up inside. We head to the outskirts 40k away, knowing that we have just seen around half of the inner segments. Makes the pyramids seem quite unimpressive and stone henge merely a prank by students. The drive to Bantrey Srey (the Queens Temple) shows off some of the countryside and how rural this part is. Heat is starting to get to both if us and after getting to this site we quickly look at the pink coloured walls of the damaged temple and head back to our ride. Stopping for a welcome lunch where I am really starting to see how great the food is. We head back for more temples with the highlight being the one used in Tomb Raider (Ta Prohm). A lot of work being done here as the film connection seems to bring the tourists. You can't enter large sections and braces hold collapsing walls. Huge trees growing out of the brickwork and this was one of my favourite locations. (see blog photo).
We head back exhausted but in awe of what we have seen.
Next blog about our night out!