Relief of Hindu Gods in Angkor Wat
One of the many Buddha faces at Bayon.
The four of us spent about two days touring various ruins of Angkor Wat, a temple complex and archeological park that covers 400 square kilometres (about 150 square miles). No matter how you measured it, the place was huge. Thank goodness Alex and Camille planned ahead and arranged to have a guide with an air conditioned van! I’m not sure I could’ve made it through two days of touring the ruins in the intense heat otherwise. Our guide picked out about 7 ruins for us to visit over two days. She knew the best times to go to each one in order to get the best light and have the fewest crowds. I am sure you could enjoy Angkor Wat without a guide or with a bicycle or tuk tuk, but I’d highly recommend the way we did it.
Our fantastic guide for Angkor Wat. Both days she wore two long sleeved shirts, pants, socks, and a backpack with waters for us. I couldn’t understand how she did it in the sweltering heat!
Heading into our first ruin of the day, Angkor Thom (I think).
Inside Ta Phrom, aka The Tomb Raider, where said movie was filmed. The jungle has grown over much of the ruins here and looks really cool.
Large tree growing out of the ruins at Ta Phrom
Ta Phrom
Alex and John in one of the various temples on the first day.
No site is too holy for a crude joke …
We climbed lots of stairs.
Several of the temples in the complex are active religious sites, so everyone had to have pants, skirts, or shorts to the knees, and women had to have their shoulders covered. This was how I covered up inside those ruins, and it was pretty sweltering.
Bayon Temple
Inside Bayon Temple. There are 216 Buddha faces in this temple.
Eskimo kissing a Buddha at Bayon
Sunrise over Angkor Wat; we watched from the ruins of the library to avoid some of the crowds.
Crowds outside of Angkor Wat at sunrise. The building in the background is where we camped out at sunrise.
Inside Angkor Wat. It was interesting to learn that while it began as a Hindu temple, it was later ruled by Buddhists. There are carvings and reliefs representing both religions inside.
Close up of one of the famous towers of Angkor Wat
View from just below one of the towers at Angkor Wat
Playing around inside Angkor Wat
Banteay Srei, (“The Citadel of Women” in Khmer) is a sandstone temple about 35 km from Angkor Wat. It is much smaller and more intricately carved than the larger temples and there are many carvings of female, as well as male, deities. It is also the only temple not commissioned by a monarch, as this one was built for a counselor to a king.
Monkeys at Banteay Srei
Cambodian musicians playing outside of Banteay Srei. Of all the local music we heard on the trip, Cambodian was my favorite as it reminded me of Bluegrass and Celtic music.
For the history buffs, this was a neat timeline showing all of the Angkor temples down the right side and dating them in the context of other famous temples and monuments listed on the left.
very beautiful photographs and feel visiting there once in life time.
Biking Angkor Wat is without a doubt the best way to see the temples. It s nice because you see everything clearer and you can stop to take tons of photos along the way. Clearly you took plenty of photos! Great photography!