angkor wat

the temples of angkor, capital of cambodia's ancient khmer empire, are the heart and soul of the kingdom of cambodia. they are a source of inspiration and national pride to all khmers, and of course, is the primary reason we decided to make a short visit to the country. the hundreds of temples surviving today are only the skeleton of the vast political, religious, and social centre of an empire that once stretched from burma to vietnam. the most magnificent temple is angkor wat, which is the largest religious building in the world. angkor wat and the temple complex is by far the most signifigant archeological site we will visit in south east asia.

after a couple of "edgy" days in phnom penh, we welcomed the touristy, clean feel of siem reap - home of the famous wat, or temple. after checking into popular guest house ($13.00 per night), we arranged for a 3 day tuk-tuk tour of angkor wat and some of the surrounding temples.

the alarm went off at about 4:30am the next morning. shortly after, we were in the lobby of our guesthouse meeting our tuk tuk driver, Savoot, a nice young guy who's kind of shy and has a sweet smile. we head out into the crisp air for our first stop, the ticket office. we see some 24 hour food stalls, a couple of joggers (when else can you jog in cambodia?), and other tourists en route to ankor wat, the same as us. we arrive to the ticket office, which is buzzing with activity with about 8 ticket lines open. we pay the $40.00 per person entry fee for a 3 day pass to the complex and the high-tech system takes our photo and produces a photo id that we use to enter the sites.

by about 5:45am we arrive to the entrance of angkor wat. savoot directs us where to go and says he'll be waiting for us along with all of the other sleeping tuk tuk drivers. we start walking in the pitch black across the walkway that crosses a moat and shortly arrive to a lake that is located directly in front of the wat. we quickly realize that we are not the only ones with the bright idea to see angkor wat at sunrise, because about 50 tourists are already sitting around the lake. we are immediately approached by young boys who offer us plastic chairs and hot coffee for 75 cents each. of course, we accept because we are unable to turn down coffee with the current hard-core caffeine addictions we acquired while in vietnam. additionally, we are incredibly lazy and don't care to stand. we position ourselves behind the front row of japanese tourists that appear to be part of a tour group. within a few minutes, another japanese group moves in directly behind us. the scent of perfumed body lotion and clean hair surrounds us. they smell so good…i wonder if they can smell my bug spray. their guide provides plastic chairs for them, but no coffee. i wonder if they already had coffee and buffet breakfast at their 5-star hotel…
i bet the buffet had bacon too…

at about 6:15am the sun rises and the splendor and beauty of angkor wat is before us! after about a half an hour of much excitement and picture taking, we proceed inside the temple to get a good head start on the tour groups. after learning about angkor and anticipating the visit for so long, i am amazed and can hardly believe that we are actually inside the temple. it is magnificent and more incredible than i imagined. we peacefully tour the temple and the grounds for the next couple hours with minimal other tourists. we were lucky and got great photos with no other tourists in the shots!

after leaving angkor wat we continued the tour by visiting the bayon temple at angkor thom, phimeanakas, elephant terras, and preah phithuo. it was fantastic day - and we still have two to go…

alina