Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor

Time is still running. So it's about time to write something about my Thailand and Cambodia trip in December. Maybe you heard about the besieging of the Bangkok international airport. I was actually quite lucky that I wasn't affected by that. I was flying to Bangkok only one week after it was reopened. After spending a day in Bangkok (pictures to follow) I made my way to Cambodia.
This was actually the first trip I did on my own. It was an interesting experience and you meet many new people. But I'd say I prefer travelling in a small group with people I know - its more relaxing and you don't always have to be alert about scams and other hassles.
Speaking of scams: Of course I fell for the bus/visa scam on my way to Cambodia. I payed way too much for the bus ticked and they overcharged me for the Cambodian visa. But at least I arrived in Siem Reap before night - I heard much worse stories about that. In the bus I met a Russian guy (Alexander) who spends 9 months a year travelling. He is financing that with a job he can do anywhere just using his laptop - pretty amazing in my opinion. He was accompanying me on the tours around the temples.

To give you an idea of what these temples are all about I will just cite the introduction of the Wikipedia article:

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonle Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern day Siem Reap (13°24'N, 103°51'E), and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach two million annually. In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 3000 square kilometres. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was between 100 and 150 square kilometres in total size. Angkor could have supported a population of up to one million people.

So you can imagine that the whole thing is damn big! The outer wall of the most known temple Angkor Wat alone is 3.6 km long. In addition to that the temple is very well preserved / restored so that it is definitely the most impressive one. If been there three times in total. Once in the early morning, once around noon and once in the evening. It is amazing how the colors and the atmosphere changes with the time of day. Its incredible how a building as sophisticated and huge as this could be built in the 12th century. Especially all the carvings in the walls are very impressive. The bas relief - total length of more than 100m - is incredibly detailed and tells a lot of stories of the Hindu mythology (On the left you can see the churning of the milk sea).

Another very famous temple is the Bayon. Its huge faces carved into the stones are very impressive - interestingly archaeologists couldn't determine for sure who's face it is meant to be.

The temple Ta Phrom is famous for the massive trees growing on and in between its walls. I really liked the atmosphere of this temple - you could feel this kind of struggle nature against man. It is amazing to see how the huge trees are growing on top of the temple walls. The roots are literally interweaved with the stones of the temple - in fact the temple is partly hold together by those trees. In the beginning of the restoration they tried to cut the trees and the affected parts of the temple collapsed.

One day we had to see the sunset on Phnom Bakheng of course. The sunset over the plains of Cambodia is definitely impressive. But it is not exactly lonely on this rather small hill temple...

As I already said the whole Angkor site is incredibly huge. The two days I have been there were just enough to get a rough idea about the place and to see the most important temples. I think if you really want to have time to explore them you should stay three days. And if you are keen on archeology than probably even a week is not enough! Anyways I enjoyed that place very much - on of the most impressive places I ever visited for sure. (I think I use this sentence quite often in my Blog - but seriously it's true!)
I just realized that I didn't include any pictures from the town Siem Reap itself. It is actually a nice small town, but incredibly touristy. Because of the popularity of Angkor Wat tourism was really boosted there. The have even a small airport now and a lot of hotels and restaurants. The prices have of course adjusted to the number of tourists. But at the street hawkers you can still get a meal for 1 USD - I won't complain about that. On the whole the town has everything to make your stay in Cambodia nice and comfortable.