Angkor Wat (meaning "City of Temples) is a huge temple complex and the largest hindu monument in the world, located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's a massive plot of land with around 10 separate temples dotted around the Cambodian forest, teeming with wildlife and hidden ruins. Beautiful.
After a rough 20 hour train journey from Vietnam to Cambodia we rested up and headed straight to the temples!
(Check Tara's worried expression, there was a crazy man on board who kept trying to break into our cabin every hour 😂 )
The food was pretty gross but as we learnt; you can't be picky in Vietnam. The train itself was divided into different sections, beds, padded chairs, and hard wooden benches. There's a lot of poverty in Vietnam - there were whole families packed onto the small wooden benches and many of them were laying on the blackened floor sleeping, so we were grateful for what we got.
The main temple is a gigantic complex called Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century in traditional Khmer architectural style (the original mountain settlers of Cambodia).
It was about 40 degrees °C and we were out in the middle of a jungle situated in the middle of a desert - I started imagining that 800 years ago, locals were walking on the very same ground in the same blistering heat towards this huge monument.
There were incredibly intricate carvings on almost every surface of the temple that still stood the test of time, some spanning over 100 metres.
Along the outer entrance was a shrine to Buddha, an intimate and calming area tucked within the eastern wall.
Inside the temple were huge courtyards, carvings, and hundreds of small pathways that snaked around the complex.
Even the inner circle was gigantic!
These stone statues were still so detailed after 800 years of sun, heat, and weather. It was like looking through a portal back in time.
In the back of the temple was a massive open area with sanctuaries built into each corner:
The complexity of the carvings and craftsmanship that went into this temple was incredible!
But we only had a day to explore the entire area, so after a few hours we decided to head to the next temple...
Angkor Thom was the most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire totalling about 9km² and is estimated to have sustained a population of between 80,000-150,000 people! Our first visit was to a beautiful water temple called Prasat Bayon, situated in the exact centre of Angkor Thom.
When we arrived we were greeted by a group of monkeys playing on an old palm tree.
The temple was covered in 8 foot tall carvings of smiling faces. There was a upper level where you could walk at the same height as the carvings which smiled upon a open courtyard. In my minds eye I could see children running around this courtyard with the stone faces filling the area with positive energy.
There were aqueducts built into the area surrounding the temple to channel water away from the inner temples moat while fresh water flowed in.
Much like Angkor Wat, every conceivable surface of the temple was patterned with intricate carvings, textures, and figures.
It was reaching peak temperature time and the sun was burning us like crazy so we took a break before moving on to the next stop.
This area was different, much more submerged in the jungle and the temples were more like mazes rather than Angkor Wat. There were several winding pathways that led to smaller yet elaborate temples. Around 13,000 people lived within the temple during the 13th century, with roughly 800,000 living in the neighbouring villages. But after the fall of the Khmer empire in the 13th century the temple was abandoned and fell into decay.
There were strange bugs in the trees that I'd never heard before. They made a robotic super high-pitched buzz that would grow louder and louder until they all suddenly stopped in unison. There would be about 10 seconds of pure deafening silence, and then the buzz would slowly start to grow louder again. Surreal.
The tree growing out of the top of the temple with its roots climbing down it is an unreal sight. They used this location to film one of the Tomb Raider films, no wonder they filmed here...
Each winding path led to a new area, and the architecture changed from huge temples to crumbled ancient courtyards
One of my favourite photos: huge structural chunks from ruins lay around the entire area having succumbed to moss and lichen over hundreds of years. It felt like time stood still in this place.
Our final stop was Phnom Bakheng, a mountain temple built in the 10th century. In order to get there we had to hike up a mountain for about 2 kilometres until we reached the base of the gigantic temple.
After a steep climb up the temple stairs we reached the summit. A huge monument was placed squarely at the centre of the temples flat peak surrounded by smaller stone monuments. The monuments are actually a gigantic stone calendar, marking the axis of the earth, the four lunar phases, and the 12 year cycle of Jupiters orbit. Crazy!
The carvings represent the 33 gods who the khmer people believed to live on the top of Mount Meru, and although much of it has collapsed with time, the remaining carvings are still vivid and powerful.
I can't recommend visiting Angkor enough! The area is incredibly diverse, moving from grassy plains to dense jungle within minutes, tens of temples littered around the huge area that is Angkor, and most of all: the intensely peaceful atmosphere that surrounds these temples. It's truly out of this world.
I hope you've enjoyed the little bit of Angkor that I could show you! Feel free to follow me for more updates on music and travel, and let me know your thoughts on this incredible place!
Till next time
Iden
