Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom 2008

July 26, 2008

sunrise at Angkor Wat
We started our day VERY early in the morning to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was not the right time of the year to view magnificent view of the sun rising right above the middle tower. Plus, we had quite a cloudy morning, so this was only what we got.

The town is quite lively as Siem Reap visitors marched into the sacred area of Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We needed to purchase a ticket at the entrance to Angkor area. The admission fee varies according to a number of days of eligibility (US$20/1 day, US$40/3days, US$60/7days). One ticket is valid for all temple tours in Siem Reap and the nearby area. We had our photo taken at the ticket booth and, of course, it is printed on the ticket (oh darn!! our morning faces!! =P)

loads of visitors at the break of dawn

After taking a short break at the hotel for breakfast after sunrise, we headed back out for a full-day temple tour. We started off with Angkor Thom.

Entering Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom means "the great city" in Khmer. It was founded by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII in the 12th Century. I've decided not to get too much in to its history or details of the architectures as it cannot be described in short. Most of all, I believe it requires a certain level of background knowledge regarding Asian beliefs (for example, a story of the goddess of Hinduism, or a ritual tale of Indian Ramayana). Our tour was also focused on the highlights of each places in the Angkor (=town/city), so I'll simply replicate what we saw here. :)

Bayon
Bayonis one of the must-see places in Angkor Thom, situated right in the middle of the city. The distinctive feature if the massive stone-carved faces, known to be that of Jayavarman VII's. All temples here were built to portray the power and authority of the King (noting that in that era, there was a faith of raising the king's status to be God). Anything that could be built GRAND would portray better of the king's status

stone carved faces
Aside from the wall carving, we were very much attracted to the style of Apsara (นางอัปสร). We particularly love the Bayon's style as Apsara in this period looks relatively chubby. It explains well why Bayon's Apsara are dressed in solid pieces of skirts. :)

Dancing Apsara
Just around a corner from Bayon, we walked through the ruins of Baphuon and Terrace of the Elephants.

ruins of rock temples - very common scene in Siem Reap
Just out and around places listed above, we used up already half a day. Lunch break was really needed to cool down the heat at noon-time. It was HOT!! Sunburn -- ouch! But despite that, we had some showers in the afternoon. It was wet, but felt rather good.

In the Eastern Baray from Angkor Thom, there was this Banteay Kdei, a small-scale Buddhist temple built in the same style as Bayon. It was rather at ruins, but we could see the main outline of the place.

Nice window frame at Banteay Kdei
under renovation for ages...
Then, we proceeded to Ta Prohm, another temple of the same set. If you have seen Tomb Reider, you'd probably recognize! (I never, so it was my first time seeing it! =P)


The place is famous for being swallowed by gigantic roots. It was magnificently HUGE! Another must-see spot is the Apsara's face, the only one of the kind that was free from being fully eaten by the roots.

The only Apsara escaped from gigantic roots

Our last spot of the day was back to Angkor Wat. We reached there just slightly before rain.
Angkor Wat and the water reflect
We were able to capture this smiling Apsara before it started to rain though. The artisans in that era were quite humorous. Maybe he was bored of sculpting only beautiful Apsara, so he played around doing smiling one just behind the main gate into Angkor Wat where it would be hard to spot if you didn't intend to find it. Btw, we didn't like Apsara in this period because she was too skinny. =P haha.

Smiling Apsara at Angkor Wat
another funny Apsara
Wall sculpture inside Angkor Wat

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