Today we got up early again but were able to get a bit more sleep since we booked a private tuktuk and already had our tickets but we were still up at 4:30am. We got in our tuktuk and headed toward Angkor Wat. We were not allowed to enter the temple prior to sunrise as we had hoped, so instead we watched it from the front again but this time from the south pond instead of the north. It was again a stunning experience and right at 6am we were at the gate to get into the Angkor Wat temple itself. We were able to see all of the bas reliefs today and get more time to just explore the temple. We were hoping to get up to the top level but it was closed when we first entered and by the time we came back around to check, there was a line around the corner and we did not want to wait for an hour to do it so we headed out towards the front. We were also able to see the cool giant Vishnu statue (Hindu god with 8 arms) at the front of Angkor Wat on our way out. It is a fascinating combination of Hinduism and Buddhism since the current Cambodians have decorated the Hindu statue with a golden yellow robe that they would normally put on a Buddha statue and they have the same incense, etc available to pray in front of the statue. Reportedly couples clip locks of hair as an offering prior to marriage to ensure good fortune.
Next we moved on to Angkor Thom, which means ‘large city.’ It is a complex of temples surrounded by a huge wall with 4 huge gates you can drive a car through. The entrance way to the south gait is over a river and has been restored with 54 huge demons and 54 huge gods who are in an epic tug of war along the causeway to represent the Churning of the Ocean Milk. The serpent Vasuki was used as a rope with the gods on one side and the demons on the other to churn Mt Mandala, which churns the water around it and extracts the elixir of immortality. We saw the large central temple Bayon yesterday so today we had our driver drop us off and we just walked around to all the other smaller temples. It was fantastic since there were almost no other people and we could just explore slowly on our own. The temples include: Bauphon, the royal enclosure, Phimeanakas, Preah Palilay, Tep Pranam, Terrace of the Leper King and Terrace of Elephants.
The first temple was Bauphon. It was taken apart for restoration but work stopped during the Khmer Rouge and the records were destroyed so when work was restarted 20 years later there were 300,000 stones to put back in place! It has been well restored and is a 3 level pyramidal structure with a huge 200m elevated stone walkway. The pyramid shape represents Mt Meru which is essentially the Mt Olympus of Hinduism and it was initially built as the center of the capital prior to the rest of Angkor Thom being constructed and Bayon becoming the center.
Next up was the royal enclosure and Phimeanakas. The royal palace was built of wood near 2 large pools. Unfortunately only the pools remain but they are beautiful. Phimeanakas or ‘celestial palace’ is another pyramidal temple representing Mt Meru again but is in a poor state of repair and they do not allow people to climb to the top anymore but it was still very cool. There are so many huge trees surrounding the area and it was a beautiful walk.
Next was Preah Palilay which was a Buddhist temple, although the original large Buddha is long gone. Tep Pranam was situated next to it and isn’t much to see. There used to be a wooden pagoda that is long gone and a Buddha. The Buddha has been recreated and placed in a new pagoda for active worshipers.
Next we saw ruins of several smaller temples or palaces that were in poor shape but still fun to walk around and were in there own section across the main road.
Lastly there were two terraces. First was the Terrace of the Leper King which is a 7 meter high platform with a naked sexless statue on it. The name has several theories but the first is that two of the kings had leprosy (less likely explanation) and more likely the statue was that of Yama, the god of death, and the terrace was the royal crematorium. This terrace is cool because there is also a second older terrace behind it that was covered when the newer building was built. They have uncovered the old one and it is essentially a terrace within a terrace with some amazing carvings. The original old terrace carvings were not all completed so some of them have lots of rough markings but are not smoothed out and completed like the rest.
The second terrace was the Terrace of Elephants. It was used to be used as a viewing stand for the king to stand on during public ceremonies. There are several almost life-sized elephants carved in to the side as well as huge garudas. Garuda was a sacred bird in Hinduism and is seen all over the temples in various carvings. These were by far the biggest ones we had see though!
After Angkor Thom we headed to Preah Khan or ‘sacred sword’ temple. There is a long walkway into the temple with a depiction of the Churning of the Ocean Milk (like the depiction outside of the Angkor Thom gate.) The temple itself is huge and partially consumed by the jungle, similar to Ta Prohm that we saw yesterday. There is a large stone stella that had and inscription detailing its use as a center for worship and learning. Unfortunately, the stella is no longer in the temple and has been moved to the national museum. The center of the temple has several holes all along the wall that used to hold the plaster that coated in the inside of the temple walls. This temple is also an interesting fusion of Buddhism and Hinduism again with the eastern side having equal sized doors and dedicated to Buddhism but the west side is dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma having successively smaller doors emphasizing the unequal nature of Hinduism. We spent about an hour at this temple before feeling overheated (it was the hottest part of the day by now) so we got in our tuktuk and headed home.
We spent the rest of the afternoon eating lunch, relaxing and planning our next travel steps. Michael hasn’t been feeling the best so he was able to get in a long nap as well. After naps and rest time we headed out to the market for dinner. We found an incredible Turkish kebab stand last night so we headed there again and did some shopping after dinner, including buying a small aspara for a Christmas ornament. Overall it was another great day but we are definitely looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow!
Mera and Michael Travel 