Angkor Wat: Our Vacation Exploring Ancient Jungle Ruins

In early November, Heather and I took the plunge: we went on our first vacation without the kids since Elli was born.  We have a wonderful helper, Nerissa, and we felt completely confident that she would be able to take care of the girls for the five days we were away. Both Elli and Sienna also have a wonderful relationship with Nerissa and like her a lot.  So we took off and flew to Cambodia to visit one of the world's most impressive and massive complex of ancient ruins and temples: Angkor Wat.  

Angkor Wat is located right outside the small town of Siem Reap in Cambodia.  We stayed at a decent hotel.  Thankfully it had A/C, because even in "winter" time, Cambodia is HOT and HUMID.  There are way too many things to share about Angkor Wat.  The religious background (Hindu/Buddhist) of the temples are especially fascinating.  But instead of trying to share everything we learned, I will instead only share bits and pieces and let those who are interested look up the rest on the Internet.  

By way of a short introduction, Angkor was the center of the Khmer Empire that lasted from the 9th to the 15th century AD.  As the main seat of the empire, Angkor had an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of at least 400 square miles with a series of well-known temples at its core. This made Angkor the largest preindustrial city in the world.  The closest rival to Angkor is the Mayan city of Tikal, which was around 40-58 square miles.  At its height, Angkor had a population of about one million people.  It was able to do so due to a highly advanced system of hydraulics pumps that enhanced agricultural production.  

Angkor has thousands of temples and ruins surrounding it.  Many lie undiscovered and covered by thick jungle growth.  Heather and I spent two and a half days from dawn to dusk exploring temples.  The sheer scale of the buildings and of the city as a whole was trule amazing.  Here are some pics.  As we looked at the sculptures and carvings in the temples, we were amazed that they had lasted for over a 1,000 years in some cases.

DAY ONE:
We started our first full day at the less popular original front (east) entrance of Preah Khan.

Cambodia, as you might imagine, has a lot of poverty.  So outside many of the most popular temples were groups of adults and kids playing music.  The adults were all mine victims.  Mines still cover several rural areas of Cambodia.  Very sad to see, but the music was actually really nice.

Preah Neak Poan outdoor fountain/temple consisting of multiple pools and sculptures, including two intertwining serpents at the center.

Ta Som ruins.

Eastern Mebon temple, famous for its elephant sculptures.

One of our favorite temples: Ta Prohm - the so-called "Tomb Raider" temple since it was featured in the first movie.  The jungle had claimed a lot of this temple, but reconstruction efforts have slowly puzzled the pieces back together.  Preservationists have kept many of the old trees in the complex, however, giving it a mysterious atmosphere.  Many areas of the temple are still in ruins, however, and so more so than many of the other ruins in Angkor, Heather and I climbed all over this temple.  Very fun.

We ended our first day by going to the most iconic and famous of the temples to watch the sunset: Angkor Wat.  The architectural style for ancient Angkor called for a bridge or balustrade that lead up to the front door of each temple.  The seven-headed serpent called naga typically formed the end of each side of the balustrade.  Here is a picture of the one (a restored version) at Angkor Wat.

The massive moat surrounding Angkor Wat.  When it was originally built, the moat was filled with crocodiles.

The Angor Wat grounds are replete with thousands of carvings of heavenly female nymphs called apsaras.  Each one was uniquely made.  And there was only one that had its teeth showing.  It took us a little while, but we found it.

On the second major temple level, a monk came out dressed in bright orange and sat in this position.  Of course, all the tourists nearby (and there were dozens) immediately went into a picture taking frenzy.  I bet the monk loved the attention!

Although we spent over two hours at Angkor Wat exploring before sunset that day, we still could not finish everything.  So we spent a morning there as well, watching the sunrise and then spending over another two more hours looking at the temple's incredible and famous bas relief carvings, the longest in the world.

That night, we had dinner while watching a dance performance of traditional Cambodian dances.  They were interesting, although nothing too spectacular.  Heather disagrees with me.

DAY TWO:
The largest concentration of temples is in Angkor Thom, which is a city just north of Angkor Wat containing many ruins.  One of the most famous temples is Bayon, which boasts dozens of towers, each tower with a large carving of the ruling emperor at the time facing each cardinal direction (so four faces per tower).  Kind of an eery tower with so many faces watching you.

Baphuon, which according to historic records was covered in bronze and shone like a beacon.

The terrace of elephants.

Heather as a naga.  Very similar, in my opinion.

Preah Palilay.

The gate surrounding the royal compounds where the emperors lived.  Unfortunately, stone was only used to build the houses of the gods (temples).  Emperors built their palaces from wood, so none of those structures lasted.

Phimeanakas.

The south gate of Angkor Thom city.  The gate depicted the Hindu creation myth, which shows the gods and demons in a huge tug-of-war match pulling on a naga.  The tug-of-war was center on Vishnu who was in the form of a massive tortoise and churned an ocean of milk.  The resulting action created the apsaras and human life.  Below, the gods are on one side of the bridge and the demons are on the other.  This scene is depicted in most of the bridges spanning moats around Angkor.

We ended the second day with a long couples massage, at a very inexpensive rate.  This was my first "professional" massage, which was an interesting experience I will probably not repeat.  As a highlight, the girl massaging me started playing with my chest hair at one point.  And that was only one of several awkward moments.  Heather got a four-handed massage, which was fun for her.

DAY THREE:
We started the day by mixing it up with a trip to the country side to explore one of the nearby water villages.  Near Siem Reap is a massive fresh water lake.  Villages have formed inside the lake built on stilts.  It was fascinating to see.  This 14-year old boy who looked like he was maybe 9 was our boat driver.

He let both Heather and me drive for a little while too.

After the lake village, we went to another one of our top three favorite temples: Banteay Srei.  Locals claim that the carvings in this rather small temple are the finest in all of the Angkor area, and were so delicately carved that the must have been done by the smaller hands of women.

The last temple we visited was Phnom Bakheng, which was built on the only hill for miles around.  As a result, it is the must-see place to watch a sunset.  We decided to leave, though, right as literally hundreds of tourists started the trek up to the top of the temple complex.

At the base of the Phnom Bakheng was another temple: Baksei Chamkrong.

This was the driver we hired for three days.  He drove us to each of the temples and waited to take us the next one when we were done.  It was awesome having him around so we could determine our own schedule rather than be at the mercy of set tours.  The best of all was the A/C in the car, that gave us a much needed break from the heat between temples.

Our last night there, we visited a few nearby markets.  One of the attractions at one of the markets was a pool full of little fish that eat the dead skin from your feet.  Heather did it for 20 minutes, and she loved it!

Overall, Angkor Wat was an amazing experience.  It was well worth the expensive flights and time to go.  Seriously, one of the most memorable trips we've ever taken.