Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat must rate along with Michu Pachu and the Pyramids as one of the wonders of the world. It’s not possible to describe the scale and magnificence of the place and so despite the difficulty in reaching Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) it was well worth the effort.

Built between the 8th and 14th centuries this vast area consists of literally hundreds of cities, palaces and temples in various stages of repair. One can spend weeks stumbling around discovering new wonders and unlike most sites of this importance it’s still relatively ungoverned and you are able to really go just about anywhere unguided giving you that feeling of being an old time archeologist discovering things for the first time.

Mr Sam, our tuk tuk arrives in the morning and we are all bleary eyed but looking forward to the adventure. The road leads through thick indigenous forests, it’s like a movie stage set - incredible with a huge energy. We arrive at the most famous one first and get absolutely bombarded by touts selling books, trinkets, guides, videos and anything a tourist will buy.

One of the girls takes a complete fancy to Bill much to his disgust and says to me
“Hey mother in law you give me your son I take him home and show him some loving!”

Yeah right sista!!!!!! More like I’ll Karate chop and kick box you if you lay a hand on him. We laughed our way out of that one and Bill was horrified – “her teeth were disgusting”

We walk around feeling overwhelmed by the size and complexity of it all, thank god we have a 3 day pass as there is so much to explore. Somewhere in the ruins we come across a Monk who performs a ritual on Nicky, it’s priceless, he tells Nicky that whatever he sets his mind to he will get, Nicky responds later “I want puberty”.

We travel a few kilometers further and reach Bayon the temple with the huge faces and now we are really blown away. Huge, powerful and moving. Most of the sites have been adopted by countries who undertake the restoration and maintenance of a single temple. A project of massive scale and expense, with all the modern technology and machinery available they still struggle to attempt the most simple restoration making one wonder how on earth these edifices were built in the first place.

The highlight of the first day for Nicky was the monkeys, we stopped and he fed and loved them, Craig got his hair de-nitted in the process.

The second morning Craig and I arrived at sunrise and visited the more remote temples. What a powerful and moving experience. Ta Prom was the set for Tomb Raiders Angelina Jolie has a tree named after her. The temple has been left and the jungle has grown back, ancient trees are growing in, through and around it. The energy is incredible, you don’t need to even know what the temples are about, no need to do anything but wonder around, let go and absorb the atmosphere.

On the last night Louise and I climbed up to a temple set on top of a “mini lions head” We started climbing with the first signs of an imminent tropical storm. From the top we watched the storm approach over this incredible landscape of ancient civilization. As the storm broke 3 monks appeared on the horizon silouetted against the landscape. What a sight to burn into the mind as a final vision before running through the rain and our descent back to Sam our trusty tuk tuk driver.