Day 85 - Mon Jan 26 - Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the The Temple To See, so we start our Siem Reap temple tour here and devote an entire day to it. This is our version of being strategic - this way we know we'll get pictures on a nice clear day of The Temple to See, but if we feel we need to come back for more pictures then we have plenty of time to do so.

Built in the 1100s, Angkor Wat is the best-preserved of all the temples we visit. This thanks to a) being the largest and most impressive - it seems to receive the most maintenance/ reconstruction attention. And b) it wasn't entirely left to the elements for centuries, the way some of the other temples were.

My knowledge on moats is pretty basic, but most moats I've seen in life and in fiction (movies) are big but not that big - the moat at Angkor Wat, however, is huge. It's 190 metres wide (and 1.5 x 1.3 km according to the guidebook) and we cross it via a long stone causeway.

The temple grounds are built in layers, almost like boxes within boxes, so after we cross the moat (first box)...

[photo gone AWOL - I'll reinsert again later]

...we walk through the outer wall (second box):

Once we pass through the outer wall, a large stone pathway continues on through a large clearing between two pools of water lilies and up to what the book calls the retaining wall of the temple area (third box).

When we pass through the shade of the wall hallways (wallways?), they're cool and shady and with short steep steps that lead us up over and throught to the next layer.

The retaining wall (still the third layer of box/temple) has long sections covered in bas-reliefs. These sculptures are carved directly into the wall showing long intricate scenes. They're beautiful and while we can figure out what's going on in some parts, the overall picture is a bit inscrutable at times. A lot of times, what's going on in isn't always immediately obvious, and the titles don't always immediately help.

For example, a particularly impressive one on the back end of the retaining wall (east facing) is called "Churning of the Ocean of Milk" and shows two teams of people in a tug of war. As we walk around the temple, we pass tour groups and self guided tourists, and many of them are describing the different bas-reliefs or reading explanations from guidebooks. The voices flit in and out of focus like we're the dial on a radio picking up different frequencies as we stroll by. Between the tidbits we hear and those we read from the book, the tug of war involves a naga (a 5-headed snake) as the rope, the team line-up is gods (left) vs. demons (right) and they're churning up the ocean to get an elixir of immortality. Half of the relief is covered up for restoration, but we get a good look at Team Demon.

The walls and posts are covered in bas-reliefs - most are matte and a bit grainy...

...but others are shiny, like this crowned elephant.

We're not sure if a) these are restored bits, b) people have been touching them and the acid in their fingers have made the stone shiny, or c) this is texture left over from what the bas-reliefs would have originally looked like, and that the majority have become matte and grainy with age. (Around Day 88 we visit a workshop where we learn that there is a style of Khmer stonework that is glossy like this and that the gloss is a result of days of rubbing the stone with bare hands, but we don't know for sure if that's what happened here.)

We wander through the hallways...

...and head into the central section of the wat. The trademark Angkor Wat towers are under contruction, so Pierre's very disappointed that we can't go up and into them. We wander in and around the inner courtyard (the fourth box) and check things out.

As we walk we notice that the ground has been cleared of stones and pebbles and organized along the inner wall. The largest pieces on the bottom show segments of bas-reliefs, and as the pile stretches up the pieces become less and less obvious.

It seems that every stray piece of stone around the grounds is assumed to have fallen off the temple at one point or another. This makes sense since the area we're walking around doesn't seem prone to stray pebbles. The pieces are either going to be used for rebuilding one of the towers (see: third photo from the top; on the let are some still unrestored towers) or are stray pieces that didn't end up finding a home once the dust settled (see: leftover screws from DIY IKEA furniture).

We stroll around the sides and back a bit more:

...wander off down a shady road to check out the North Gate...

...where we have a chance to see a less-touristy part of the moat (complete with photogenic cattle).

All through our visit there are a lot of tourists wandering around, even during the noon hour when the majority of people usually head back to town for some lunch and to escape the heat of the day. From 1:00 onwards the crowds stay pretty steady until finally 4:30/5:00 rolls around, and busload after busload of tourists pours into the temple grounds. Even in Thailand we never saw one place draw so many busloads of tourists, and this seems to be where a lot of tours either wrap up for the day or take their clients to catch the sunset.

Pierre and I stick around long enough for him to get some of the soft-lit late-afternoon shots he's been hoping for and then head off to Siem Reap before dark.

photo credits: P, P, P, P, P, D, P, P, P, D, P, P, D, D, D, P, P, D, P