One Year Away

Joseph

There are photos of our visit to the Angkor temples and Siem Reap in the Cambodia album.

The main reason tourists come to Cambodia is to visit the temples of Angkor.  The Khmer empire peaked in the 12th century and left behind huge temple complexes with dozens of temples scattered around the jungles of northern Cambodia. 

The rapidly growing town of Siem Reap is the base for visiting the the Angkorian temples.  We arrived here by bus from Phnom Penh about 6 hours away over one of the few paved highways in the country.  Once here we were swarmed by tuk tuk drivers at the bus station offering to be our drivers for the duration of our stay.  A tuk tuk is a motorcycle which pulls a covered carriage.  It is the most popular way to travel between sites here.  We found a driver named Kimsan who we immediately liked because he was shy and reserved as opposed to the usually loud drivers. 

Kimsan drove us around to see the temples for the next two days.  The temples were built during a time of heavy Indian influence and were initially constructed in worship of Hindu deities.  As the influence of Buddhism grew, the temples started to be devoted to Buddha and it is interesting to see the way that the two have grown together.  It is common to see a temple here with carvings of Vishnu on the exterior and a statue of a seated Buddha in the central chamber.

Our first day started with an early visit to Angkor Wat, the largest and most famous temple in Asia.  It is actually said to be the largest religious monument of any kind in the world.  We arrived before the sunrise and walked along the causeway across a moat in total darkness.  Then we found a place on the inner wall of the complex and sat back to watch an incredible show.  The sky slowly lightened and the silhouette of the majestic temple appeared in front of us.

For the next two days we visited temples, each different in their own way.  Some are restored, some are still covered in jungle, one has such detailed stone carvings that it is said that it could only have been built by women and one is widely known as the "Tomb Raider" temple because it appeared in the Angelina Jolie film.  I’ll spare you the details and instead post pictures in a new album.  Enjoy!