Angkor Wat: One-word, WOW!

Cambodia is a country that has been pillaged and plundered of its richness in culture and natural resources for eons, and that has not stopped totally even today. Our trip to Siem Reap was to see Angkor Wat. We weren't disappointed with the stuructures of old and we were also impressed with the friendliness of the Cambodians. Angkor Wat is one temple in a vast city of temples built in a city that grew and grew in the 9th-11th century. Places of worship built in stone, with practically no remnants of human dwellings such as palaces or houses as these were wooden. Most of the temples have a common basic structure, they all reach for the heavens.

Travelling only with your partner makes it hard to have pictures taken together so having a small digital camera helps as you can check if the composition and lighting is ok there and then, especially if you just flag down the nearest tourist/bystander to snap away. A stranger you've never met before nor will ever again has played a hand in capturing a memory for the rest of your life....DEEP!

We always travel with our own cameras. During this trip, I had the dinky digital camera while the Zizzster held on to our non-Digital SLR so more pictures were taken on film than digital as my camera had limited storage. Hence why I now have my own Digital SLR with 1GB memory. This picture is of her trying to capture one of the temples' reflection in the moat. We never realised how cliche it was until our guide said everybody she took there would look for similar angles.

You'd think that big structures like the Angkor Wat is impressive enough for people of that era to build but check out the details on the walls. Angkor Wat has whole walls carved intricately telling stories of Ramayana and Mahabrata spanning hundreds of yards. Nowadays people have problems building flyovers without having to close it again for repairs after a few months.


This dude with us is the caretaker and probably the only guy who lives in the complex apart from the handful of Buddhist priests on pilgrimages. He is featured on the frontpage of Lonely Planet's Cambodia guidebook. He was more than happy to sign our copy. We were thrilled to be in the same frame as a celebrity!

This has to be my favorite photo of the trip. Why? You decide.

Remember Angelina Jolie and the Tomb Raider movie? This was the temple that was featured. The jungle has swallowed the temple structures but ironically it is the trees that are holding together the stones. Didn't Jolie adopt a Cambodian kid and named him Maddox?

Different Kings have different styles in architecture and even by the select few pictures shown in this posting, it is possible to see. One dude built a few temples for his mom, dad, wife, teacher, so the temples have similar proportions and footprint. Different eras will also determine the type of stones used, volcanic rocks, granite or even sandstones. Some poor soul working in a quarry hundreds of miles away had to bring the stones to the King. They didn't actually have DHL back then.

If you are an architecture student you will probably pay enough attention on how these temples were built. Back then, they have not adopted the European style of arches in their building plans. Stones were carved and stacked on one another to form the roof. The problem with this style is that limited weight can be supported and you cannot have expansive halls unless the roof was wooden. Hence, narrow passageways and buildings that are no more than raised dais to house deities. Impressive, nevertheless...

My advice, go see Angkor Wat before the temple is either ruined by the ravages of nature or the millions of tourists that will flock eventually. At the moment Siem Reap is still a quaint little town and is a unique adventure. Go before they open-up a Starbucks in one of the temples. Also be polite if enquiring about the Khmer Rouge. It is without a doubt, a sore patch in the hearts of all the people there.

PS: Forgot to mention that this trip was in October 2004