After Angkor Thom we went back to the hotel to wait out the hottest part of the day and had lunch at the hotel then my parents lounged by the pool while I took a nap (getting up for 7:00am flights is not easy now that I’m back in college-sleeping-habits mode). We met Mr. Bobo at promptly 3:00pm to resume our sightseeing (the heat had not subsided) and headed to Angkor Wat.
Like I said before, Angkor Wat is the mack-daddy of all the temples in the area. It is the largest, the best preserved and the most famous. The actual temple is surrounded by a wall which is surrounded by a moat which is surrounded by park-like lawns. There is one main entrance to get into the complex, a bridge that crosses the moat and is supposed to represent the pathway to heaven. The moat itself is similar to the Ganges River in India in that it was full of holy water used for washing away sin rather than for boating or other fun things. Angkor Wat is the most well preserved because up until the French took over in 1914 monks continued to live in the tomb, so they took care of it and kept the jungle at bay. When the French came, they moved the monks to new housing beside the temple.
It is document on a wall inside the temple that it took 385,635 workers, 40,000 elephants, and 7000 bamboo rafts thirty-five years to build. The temple itself has many different areas, including a section with four pools representing the four elements, numerous passageways, and a central tower. Unfortunately, the central tower was closed due to a national holiday so we couldn’t go up it, but we wandered about for an hour or so admiring the facades and many Aspara carvings (Aspara was the celestial dancer and the supreme concubine of the gods). I was again surprised at how uncrowded Angkor Wat was and enjoyed our time there.
After Angkor Wat, we went along with the masses to a temple atop a hill where we were poised to watch the sunset over Angkor Wat. Mr. Bobo and the other tour guides had to stay at the bottom of the hill to try to ease the crowding up top. We hiked uphill for about a half hour, only to discover that the temple was way too crowded and you could barely even see Angkor Wat from it. We stayed up there for about 15 minutes then hiked back down and had our driver take us to the lawns in front of Angkor Wat. It being a Sunday and a national holiday (the king’s birthday – a three day celebration in Cambodia) there were groups of families and friends picnicking all along the moat. We found ourselves a good spot and hung out until we realized we were facing the wrong direction for the sunset so there wasn’t going to be the spectacular show we had hoped for. As we were sitting there, a cute little boy sort of inched his way over to us and I invited him to sit next to me. He was really cute until he got up enough courage to start begging for money, and he was insistent until we left. There are a lot of child beggars in the temple complex, and Mr. Bobo urged us not to buy anything from them because “what helps them today hurts them tomorrow”, meaning if the kids can make money by begging it will encourage their parents to keep them out of school. When I couldn’t take the begging anymore we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.
That night we went into town for dinner, and ate at one of the many restaurants lining the main pedestrian street in Siem Reap. The total for two appetizers, four beers (dad is becoming an alcoholic I think), two Diet Cokes, and three entrees was a whopping $25. The food was the cheapest in Siem Reap out of any place I’ve been to during my year abroad.
Pictures: Angkor Wat; Aspara carvings; Families picnicing outside Angkor Wat
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