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Our first night in Cambodia we took a TucTuc to the
Central Market and "Pub" Street. We had read about a restaurant called
the Khymer Kitchen and this ended up being the place we ate at for three
of the four nights we stayed in Siem Reap. We loved Thai food and
Cambodian food is very similar, but quite not so spicy! Lots of pumpkin
and coconut, even in their puddings!
Anyway, the reason we came to Cambodia was to go and
visit the archaeological site of Angkor Wat and we were not disappointed.
We managed to go to the sites we wanted in one day, which apparently is
somewhat of a record! They only sell one day passes begrudgingly,
normally three or seven day passes are sold! Everyone tells you that it
cannot be done in just one day, which is true if you want to walk around
dozens of different sites and take an hour at each one! We did not rush
and do not feel we missed anything. We hired a TucTuc for the day, and a
great driver called Saleap, who picked us up at 7:00am and dropped us off
again at 3:30pm. We wanted to visit four main sites, but we managed to go
to seven different places altogether.
Angkor Wat, probably the most famous site, was built in
1150. It is a three-tiered pyramid, sixty-five metres high, crowned by
five towers. It was dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu the Protector, and
the actual temple itself is one kilometre square. Angkor means "Capital"
or "Holy" City.
From Angkor Wat we headed to Angkor Thom, through the
South Gate. Angkor Thom is home to the Bayon Temple and was built in
1190. Angkor Thom means "Big" Angkor as it is three kilometres square in
size and is a walled and moated Royal City. The Bayon Temple has
thirty-seven towers and each tower has four faces carved into them all
facing one of the cardinal points.
The next site was home to Phimeanakas, the Kings
Temple, and the Terrace of the Elephants, built in 1060. Rumour had it
that the Golden Tower that crowned the temple was home to a serpent that
turned into a woman every night. The King had to "satisfy" her every
night or disaster would fall upon him and his kingdom!
Ta Keo, the Mountain with Golden Peaks, was a site that
we drove past on our way to Ta Prohm. Ta Keo was built in 990 and is
unique as it was made totally from sandstone.
Ta Prohm, built in 1186, was everything our
pre-conceptions about Angkor Wat were! It was incredible! This was the
wealthiest temple in its day as it had control of over 3,000 villages.
You could really see how nature had reclaimed this site over the past 900
years as Fig and Silk-Cotton trees were interwoven with the masonry. This
was easily our favourite site of the day.
Next came a twenty-seven kilometre ride to Banteay
Srey, built around 967, meaning the Citadel of the Women. The fact we had
to drive that far shows you just how huge the Khymer Capital of Angkor was
in its day. Banteay Srey was another amazing site because of the detail
of the carvings and the colour of the stone. It was only discovered in
1914 and so is classed as a recent discovery in terms of Angkor Wat!
Our last destination was back close to Angkor Thom.
Preah Khan, meaning Sacred Sword, built in 1190. This place was huge and
was home and school to over 1,000 monks in its day.
Angkor Wat truly was a spectacular place! We visited
it on a day when it rained and we were incredibly grateful it did! The
day before we went it was forty-one degrees! We shed pounds in sweat and
that was whilst it was "cold" to the locals! The amount of water we drank
without needing to visit the little boys or girls room was incredible!
One remarkable feature of Cambodia is that they do not
drive on either the left or right! They drive up and down on whichever
side of the road they happen to be on at the time! This makes trying to
cross the road an interesting experience! Our first day, we got into a
TucTuc and he literally just drove straight towards the oncoming mopeds,
who without batting an eyelid simply drove around us!
This was also the first country we had been to where we
were mobbed by beggars, very persistent and aggressive they were to! |