Angkor Wat - Part 1

If you are wondering why the previous post ended abruptly, it's becos I am going to document my trip to Siem Reap & the Angkor ruins in 5 or 6 parts; yesterday's post was part 1. Here's part 2:

In order to appreciate Angkor, checkout the short history lesson below:

The temples of Angkor were built between the 9th and 14th centuries AD (600 plus years), when the Khmer civillisation was at the height of its extraordinary might, productivity & creativity. From the Angkor region, the Khmer kings rule over a territory that extended vertically from the tip of the Mekong Delta (modern-day south Vietnam) northwards to Yunnan in China; horizontally from West Vietnam to the Bay of Bengal, India. I guess they were a superpower country in Southeast Asia during that time...something like USA now...

Jayavarman II, the 1st ruler of the Angkorian period established himself as a "god king". In doing so he created a cult of god kings, known as devaraja - a basis for the main religion practiced by future kings in Cambodia. Their all-reaching power were supposed to express god-like qualities of the Hindu god of chaos, destruction and rebirth, Shiva - giving them religious credence for their royal authority. As the earthly manifestations of Shiva, they commissioned "temple mountains" to be built to mirror Shiva's mythical dwelling place, Mt. Meru - symbolising the centre of the universe in Angkor.

The Khmer empire went into decline after the death of Jayavarman VII, in 1219. Angkor was totally forgotten as the Khmer empire reconsolidated their power base at Phnom Penh. The temples were slowly eaten up by nature and only to be rediscovered again in the 1860s...

Anyways, we managed to wrap up our meeting and reach Angkor Wat at about 11am. Which gives us about 3 hours to visit the sites, considering we have a 4-5 hours drive back to Phnom Penh (the drive back has to be done during the day cos there's no street lights on the national highways).

As usual, click the thumbnail for bigger pics. I'll try my best to describe the photos but that breath-taking experience of my first glimpse of the Angkor Wat is simply indescribable...


Locals get in for FREE. Foreigners can get 1 day pass (USD20), 3 days pass (USD40) or 5 days pass (USD60).
For foreigners 1) that look like the locals and 2) speak the Khmer language with excellent enunciation - don't buy the day pass. When approached by the entrance guards, just converse in Khmer.


Expanded Overview of Angkor Wat - courtesy of Photocopy Lonely Planet Cambodia
Try to use this overview to better navigate when viewing photos below:


Here's the same scene in the daylight. I'm at the main entrance, with the sandstone causeway ahead of me. Tourists everywhere -yeah, that's a Jap chick. The sky was pretty cloudy, fortunately it did not rain that day...


Angkor Wat is surrounded by a massive moat, 190m wide, forming a 1.5km by 1.3km rectangular area. Very impressive...


Entrance to the outer walls of Angkor Wat. They are doing some restoration work on the causeway, hence the green tarp. Lastly, a closeup of a kickass Naga balustrade.


These amazing intricate stone carvings greeted us at the gate of the outer temple walls...


Cold stone corridors of the outer temple walls. Giant buddha statues litter the corridors. To my left is an old lady, calling out to us, offering some joss sticks to us. We politely rejected her and she sorta posed for me. I think she was smiling... To my right, there's another huge statue...


It's a giant statue of the Hindu god of mercy & preservation, Vishnu. This very imposing statue of eight arms Vishnu is about 3m in height, apparently hewn from a single block of sandstone. That's my sales supervisor, on his knees, offering prayers to Vishnu.

They say your visit to the Angkorian temples should never be rushed - take your time to savour the brilliance of the ancient ruins. So we will stop here. Be sure to come back for the next installment - where I venture pass the outer walls into the inner temple area; experiencing one of the most breathtaking sights in the world....