Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom

Let me start, dear reader, with a quick health update. You may recall that in my last post, I had been feeling a little delicate in the morning due, I was sure, to the ice in my drink the night before, (despite it coming from reputable bottled sources). It appears I may have been a little harsh on myself. This morning I awoke early to find myself having, what is best described as, problems of the lower order. This had turned into a rather regular event, of approximately every 30 minutes and was, to say the least, rather uncomfortable. I dare not, (if you will excuse the expression), break wind for fear of consequences beyond my worst nightmare! On arrival at the breakfast table, I discovered that I was not the only one who was in this position, Madame Cholet was also suffering from the same difficulties. By the end of the day it was to affect all of us, however, back to the day itself.

The moat and East Entrance at Angkor Wat

Today was a full day tour of Anchor Wat and Anchor Thom. Angkor Wat, (we’ll come to Angkor Thom shortly), was built in the 12th century and was the largest religious monument in the world. It is approximately 1.6km wide by 1.5km, (from moat to moat as it were), and was originally built as a Hindu temple, although later converted to a Buddhist temple. It is positively huge! It was originally the capital of the Khmer empire and was built by King Suryavarman II. The outer wall is 3.6km long and within it are three rectangular compounds, each higher than the previous one. This was, partly, we were told because of the potential for flood and the need to get above the water during the rainy season. (There are also a number of rain collection pools ready for the dry season!). The architecture is truly stunning and it would be impossible to adequately describe the detail and sheer beauty of some of the work. The temple took 37 years to complete and must have taken many hundreds of men to construct – apparently the moat took three years to dig and some 20,000 men were involved in digging it!

The steep steps at the central compound

The central compound, the highest, has a tower at each corner which is designed to look like the Lotus flower and each represents one of the elements, (water, wind, fire and air). The centre tower is some 69m high and, for reasons that I cannot explain, Captain Clarke and I decided to climb the ridiculously steep stairs to reach the top of the central tower. (We were closely followed by Great Uncle Bulgaria, but were completely oblivious to this until we had got down again and met up with Madame Cholet!) True, the view are spectacular, but since I am not one that is particularly fond of heights I have no idea why I consented to climb up there. Although, in truth, climbing down was far more of a challenge than climbing up since it felt rather like one was walking off the edge!

Lunch with salad of dried snake!

I mentioned it was a full day tour, and it was! After we had visited Anchor Wat we were taken to a local restaurant for lunch. Keeping in mind the rather delicate condition of some of our constitutions, this was not something I was looking forward to. Imagine my absolute delight when I discovered that we would be having a salad of dried snake as a starter!!! Having said that, and despite it doing nothing to improve my delicate condition, it was absolutely delicious! So much so that I am considering returning for a second plateful! The main course was somewhat more conventional with a delicious pork dish with ginger and spring onions – Madame Cholet chose the stir fried prawns with palm sugar which was equally delicious. All in all, the lunch was actually very good!

Trees hold up the Ta Prohm temple!

We had a short break in the afternoon before departing again, this time for Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom means, we are led to understand, ‘Great City’ and we were told that at the time of its construction some 1 million people lived in Angkor Thom. By in, I do not mean within the city walls, this was reserved for just around 1,100 families who were either royalty, priests or high social status, (hangers on in my opinion!). The 1 million people lived around the city walls in small houses, (usually constructed of wood), each with a small strip of land on which they would grow rice and other essential foods.

Touching noses with Buddha at the Bayon Temple

The final temple of the day was the Bayon Temple. This is one of the many temples within the walls of Angkor Thom, (I should have mentioned that the moat around Angkor Thom is 3km by 3km and within the walls there are many temples), and is particularly noted for the faces of Buddhas that are carved within the temple. By the time we reached this temple, Madame Cholet and Great Uncle Bulgaria had had enough and were tired. The decided not to climb up the incredibly steep stairs into the temple, (quite right too), but once again I had the stupidity to do so. It isn’t that I didn’t want to see it, but it is the getting down which is such a challenge – each step feels like one is stepping off the edge!

This is a relatively short update, I realise, but frankly words cannot explain the sheer size, beauty and craftmanship at both Anchor Wat and Angkor Thom. There is a huge gallery associated with this post which, I think you will agree dear reader, really does prove that a picture says a thousand words!

Elephants will take you to the top of the hill for $40!

One the way out of Angkor Thom we came across a whole troupe of monkeys that scavenge around looking for snacks to steal as well as some beautiful elephants that will carry people up to the top of the hill so that they can view the sunset, (for the princely sum of $20 per head … minimum two people!). Although I did manage to capture something of the sunset, it was quite difficult from within our car and I don’t think I did a particularly good job of it!

And so, finally, to the evening. By the evening Madame Cholet was suffering severely with problems of the lower order, as was Captain Clarke. I felt a little better so decided to join Great Uncle Bulgaria for dinner. This, it transpired, was a mistake. I order a rather attractive sounding pork dish. Not too spicy, (I thought it wise!), and not too big. After about three mouthfulls I had to admit to it being a mistake and Great Uncle Bulgaria ended up having to help me out and eat it for me! All very embarrassing. Let’s hope that tomorrow is a better day for all of our sakes! It seems that we all picked up a little something from the east that we had rather hoped we wouldn’t, ah well, that’s what they invented Imodium for! It’s RudyMenTerry!

To view the photo gallery of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom click here