Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

Sunrise behind Angkor

The last day of my temple pass was used to see the two biggest and baddest temples in the Angkor area. We started out dark and early for sunrise at Angkor Wat. Again, this was much different that what I was expecting. In Bagan, Danna and I would sit on top of a temple and watch the sun come up over the distant mountains. However, here at Angkor, you stand on the lawn in front of the North pool and watch the sun come up behind Angkor Wat and reflect it on the water. What a beautiful experience this turned out to be! We had perfect weather, clear skies, and a spectacular sunrise.

Thousand year war with Vishnu in the middle.

Angkor Wat was built to be a representation of heaven on Earth. The Angkor king of old built it to be a representation of Mount Meru, the abode of ancient Hindu gods. As a result, everything in the temple is perfectly symmetrical. The temple is three stories with the third story being off limits to visitors unless you happen to buy a VIP pass and bribe the police as a couple we met did. The first floor contains thousands of carvings from floor to ceiling. One of the walls depicts the thousand year tug of war with Vishnu in the middle. Kristina and I spent what felt like ages walking around the first story looking at the carvings, but in reality, we only made it about halfway around before I decided I couldn't wait any longer and wanted to get to the top. Finally being at Angkor Wat and arriving on the second floor was a bit of a surreal experience. It's somewhere I've wanted to go for so long that actually getting there seemed like it was happening to someone else.

Vishnu

As I stated earlier, we weren't able to go up to the third level, but getting to the second was good enough for me. I was able to see the towers up close and get a good look at their carvings. I did watch a documentary on the temples of Angkor and it said that the alter at Angkor Wat is tiny in comparison to the size of the structure.



After spending a couple of hours in Angkor Wat, I headed back over to Angkor Thom to see some of the temples I had missed during my second day. The main three places I went were the Elephant Terrace, Baphuon, and Phimeanakas. The Elephant Terrace connects these two and is this massive, stage that the citizens of Angkor used for a viewing platform during public ceremonies. It is 350 meters long and the outside of the stage is covered in elephant carvings and stone inscriptions. On either side of the staircases, there are carved stones made to look like elephant trunks.

West wall with reclining Buddha.

Baphuon is one of the larger temples in the area behind Bayon. I really enjoyed this one because the second level had these huge window like cut outs in the wall that were the perfect size to sit down in, relax, watch the other visitors, and just take a moment to enjoy where I was. When it was originally built, a reclining Buddha was built into the West wall. However, sometime in the 1900s archeologists completely deconstructed it because the temple was extremely unstable and couldn't hold the weight of the built in statue. The reconstruction was interrupted for a number of years during the Khmer Rouge reign and following Civil War. When reconstruction did finally resume in the late 90s, archeologists had to treat the temple as a huge jigsaw puzzle because Khmer Rouge soldiers had destroyed all the blueprints regarding how the temple was to be put back together. It took them a few years and a computer program to sort it all out, but they did figure it out and the result is an impressive temple.

Phimeanakas

My last big temple of the day was Phimeanakas. In comparison to Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Baphuon, it is a rather small temple, but it does have a tiny little moat surrounding it. Unlike the other temples, there is only one entrance and exit. Three of the other staircases are blocked by water. Legend has it that a great nine headed serpent lived here and appeared to the king as a woman. Every night the king was required to sleep with her before going back to his wives. If he missed one night, it was said to be the sign of his impending doom.

At the very top level.

On the third level, there is a woman waiting to bless you for making it all the way up. I liked how friendly she was, so took the time to pray, be blessed, and give a small donation for her efforts. It truly was a great way to end my trip at the temples.