A Step Off The Beaten Path

Angkor Wat

Approaching the main western gait of Angkor Wat

Approaching the main western gate of Angkor Wat

The big attraction in Siem Reap, indeed of all Cambodia, is the Angkor Archaeological Park and its signature attraction, the Angkor Wat temple.  It’s a huge complex of temples and you could easily spend a week here and never see all the temples. With 3 kids, we chose the prudent approach and hired a private guide and air-conditioned minivan so that we could proceed at our own pace.

Before we dig further into this post, I offer a bit of a disclaimer. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine writing a worthy blog post about Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples. Books and documents have already thoroughly and articulately covered the history and features of these sites. I mean, what can I hope to say about the largest religious building in the world that hasn’t already been said? In truth, the task felt daunting enough that I even tried to beg off writing this post by asking the kids and/or Lori to do it. Sadly, no takers. So, I’m hoping to share a brief recounting of the highlights along with a little historical background to make it meaningful. And of course, plenty of photos :-).

Day 1: Our guide, Savhoun, picked us up at 8:30am and we went straight to Angkor Thom (translates to “Big Holy City”) which definitely lives up to its name. At the height of its power during the late 12th century, over a million people called this home at the same time that London had a population of a mere 50,000. Built by Jayavarman VII, this city became the Khmer capital after he recaptured it from the Cham invaders from Vietnam. Jayavarman VII is known as the “builder king”, and I mention his name only because our guide repeated his name so much in reference to most of the temples we saw that all three kids can now regurgitate his name on queue. At the center of Angkor Thom is the impressive Bayon temple.

Bayon's famous faces

Bayon’s famous faces

This temple had 37 towers with faces carved into them! We were off to a pretty good start.

Bayon1

Our guide was like a walking encyclopedia of names, dates, and facts about these temples. We spent some time checking out the bas-reliefs at all the temples. This one (below) tells the story of Jayavarman VII conquering Angkor.

Bas-reliefs at Bayon temple

Bas-reliefs at Bayon temple

Interestingly, Jayavarman VII was a Mahayana Buddhist. So all of the many, many temples he constructed (and a lot of our favorites) he dedicated to Buddha. Temples created previously to his reign, like Angkor Wat back in the late 10th century, were dedicated to the Hindu gods. Sadly, the king to follow Jayavarman VII was again a Hindu and spent the entirety of his reign erasing Buddhist images from all of Jayavarman’s temples rather than build any new ones of his own.  We must have visited half a dozen temples in which our guide would explain why the Buddha statues and images had all been defaced. In some ways, the artisans got clever and converted the stone carvings into a hermit or an apsara (a celestial dancer) rather than remove the carving entirely. We also saw the “Tomb Raider” temple (Ta Prohm) nicknamed after the movie that apparently was filmed there. It’s notable for the giant sponge trees growing out of the temple towers and walls, a neat example of how jungle growth has impacted the temples over the centuries. Can anyone guess who built this temple?

Ta Prohm temple

Ta Prohm temple

Finally, we spent the whole afternoon at Angkor Wat. Built in the late 10th century, Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu – finally, a temple not constructed by Jayavarman VII. With its huge moat and soaring towers, Angkor Wat is a towering achievement of human creativity and spiritual devotion. Never abandoned to the elements as most other temples, Angkor Wat remains the best preserved temple in Angkor. We spent several hours exploring the various walls and galleries before ascending the Bakan, the upper level, where at 55m above the ground, you get a view of the central tower as well as a grand view of the overall complex. Sadly, they have a rule that kids under 12 can’t climb up the somewhat steep stairs. So Anna and Evan had to stay behind.

A long passageway next to huge bas-relief walls at Angkor Wat.

A long passageway next to huge bas-relief walls at Angkor Wat.

Anna especially likes the Apsara carvings

Anna especially likes the Apsara carvings

Gage at the base of the central tower

Gage at the base of the central tower

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Anna in front of the 2nd Gallery. You can see the central tower in the middle.

Day 2:  Pickup at our guest house at (gulp) 5am to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We ended up visiting temples for 10 hours by starting so early in the day. The kids were amazing throughout, never whining or complaining! We saw a lot, but we were all pretty templed-out by the end.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Pre Rup temple

Pre Rup temple

Kids with our guide, Savhoun

Kids with our guide, Savhoun

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Lori and Anna under a passageway at Banteay Srei, the “pink sandstone temple” and one of our favorites.

Banteay Srei temple

Intricate carvings of Banteay Srei temple

7 thoughts on “Angkor Wat

    1. Greg Post author

      Thanks! We really enjoyed it. Our tour guide told us that Angkor Wat is by far the single greatest draw for tourists in all of Cambodia with an estimated 2.5-3 million people visiting each year – way more than visited just a few years ago.

  1. Nancy Raper

    Another wonderful blog to read and enjoy. The pictures were great. Looks like the weather is also holding up good for everything. Good to hear from you. We enjoy all of your blogs. Miss all of you. dad

  2. Mike M

    And STILL jealous, jealous, jealous, jealous….. But also WAY happy for you! And Way happy we have a lot to talk about when you get home.

    1. Sandy

      Loved all the photos!!! What a wonderful experience. Temples are gorgeous. Blogs are very detailed–great job!!!

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