Vientiane and the trip to Angkor Wat

If left Luang Prabang on late morning flight the changed to an afternoon flight (Laos airline is notorious for its scheduling and delays. I arrived in Vientiane just as the major sights were closing and with an early morning flight (6:30 am), I missed seeing much of the city. Yet another place to put on the list of places to return to.

After arriving at Siem Reap (the small city just outside Angkor Wat in Cambodia) and arranging lodging and changing money I was off to see the temples by noon.

Angkor Wat is just one temple complex among many around the Siem Reap area. Angkor was the capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire. Between the 9-13th centuries the Cambodian "god kings" tried to better their ancestors by building massive temples - which culminated in the building of Angkor Wat - the world's largest religious building. The population of Angkor in its hey day was about 1 million (when London was only at 50,000). The temple area is one of the most sacred and a point of immense Cambodian pride. The "lost city" of Angkor was rediscovered by a naturalist Henri Mouhot in the 1860's. From 1908 until today there has been a long term international effort begun by the French to restore Angkor and prevent nature from taking over the grounds.

The first place that I visited was Ta Prohm a Buddhist temple built in the 12th century. My first impression of the area was wonder. It is unfathomable how many people it must have taken build such elaborate and large temples. The skill and ingenuity was amazing. Ta Prohm is famous for being one of the only temples that was left as it was found in the 1860's. It is maze of narrow corridors that is slowly being devoured and reclaimed by the jungle. The temple is covered with extremely large cotton and fig trees whose roots have undermined the foudation and begun to collapse its many covered walkways. In some areas it was difficult to even locate some of the stones through the dense vegetation. It looks like something out of Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was a great place to start and left me wanting more for the second day of touring.

I stayed in the touristy area of Siem Reap, with many cheap guesthouses and multiple internet cafes. Getting dinner on one of the main streets of the area, it seemed like many of the southern beaches of Thailand where western culture was imported and most of the people around were foreign. These little pockets of westernism seems to more and more frequent in SE Asia. I usually don't like these places for long, because it is easy to get caught up in the comforts of home, stay for a week or two and miss the country you came to visit. On the other hand it was nice not to have to struggle with my fledgling Cambodia and relax with familiar sights. I even went as far as watching a terrible pirated copy of Mission Impossible Three. Wow what a contrast between the quiet, peaceful feeling in the temples a few miles away and multiple bars blaring loud western music and advertising happy hours.

The next day the rest of the major must sees in Angkor Wat - in my opinion. You could easily spend a week touring the temples and not see the same one twice. They sell passes for 1/3/7 days at 20/40/60 dollars respectively. At 40 this was by far the most expensive entrance fee/tour that I went on. It was all worth it.

I woke up bright and early 5am to begin touring and see Angkor Wat with the sunrise. Wandering the ancient hallway and visiting the many shrines scattered throughout with hardly anyone around was wonderful. It was easy just to immerse yourself in the experience and the peaceful surroundings. Angkor Wat has a massive central tower that is surrounded by 4 smaller towers. It is built in a square pattern with 3 distinct levels culminating in the central tower and shrine of Buddha being the highest point. The walk from the outer gate to the shrine is thought to symbolize ascension into the heavens. All of the hallways and domed ceilings are carved with ornate bass reliefs that depict the many of the teachings of Buddha or symbolic scenes, or scenes of everyday life (similar to many of the paintings from the renaissance period but with a Buddhist twist).

Next stop was Angkor Thom was built by Angkor's greatest king (Jayavarman VII). Angkor Thom is another ancient fortified city center with multiple buildings and temples within the vast complex. The first main temple was
Next stop was Angkor Thom was built by Angkor's greatest king (Jayavarman VII). Angkor Thom is another ancient fortified city center with multiple buildings and temples within the vast complex. The first main temple was Bayon. This temple was built in the exact center of the city and contains multiple heads of Avalokiteshvara - the Buddhist god of compassion carved into the top of it's towers. Some say many of the faces bear a resemblance to the king. I thought this temple's reliefs were amazing with their intricacy and detail. It was also with the ascending pattern with the center containing a 50 meter high tower with the biggest sculpture of Avalokiteshvara on the outside.

The next was Baphuon - the center of the city before Angkor Thom was built. It is a temple with similar style to Angkor Thom, but most known because the French began to take it apart and restore it just after its discovery. They took copious notes but with the beginning of the civil war in the 1970's the Khmer Rouge destroyed their notes. It has become the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, with stones lay out all over the entryway of the temple. It was schedule to be renovated and closed for approximately 20 years - this began in 1995. So I only saw the outside of the temple and the massive construction project underway. How long the initial building of the temple must have taken without modern technology and machinery.

Finally, I went to the Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King. The terraces where originally constructed with wooden pavilions on top as a place to watch parades, public ceremonies and served as the kings entrance hall. The outer wall reliefs on these were amazing with the elephants trunks forming the pillars of the lower level. They are truly well preserved and show how ornate the carving could be.

The scale and beauty of Angkor was amazing and it is easy to see why this is a must see in SE Asia.

Now off to Phnom Penh - Cambodia's capital - for experience of a different sort. Phnom Penh is was the capital city of the Khmer Rouge and the sight of the killing fields where
So a bit of a heavy day then flying off to Bangkok, my vacation will be at an end and I begin my public health program in Thailand.