Temples, More Temples and Yet More Temples.
Over the past two days, I have visited far too many ruined temples.
Yesterday, I headed out to the Roulos group temples: Lolei (a tiny site packed with 10 tour buses’ worth of Korean tourists), Preah Koh (slightly larger, much less packed, pretty) and the Bakong (went there a couple of days back when my camera had died, one of my favourites, a really cool Ziggurat) before heading to the Angkor Thom complex.
Angkor Thom is the site of a city that was founded in the 12th century. It is huge. It is a perfect square with 8 metre high walls on each 3km long side. The walls are surrounded by a moat a couple of hundred metres wide. The city is thought to have supported a population of over a million at a time when London had about 50,000. The North West quarter features some of the most important ruins of the Angkorian period.
I walked around the walls from the South gate to the West gate (spotting monkeys along the way), before visiting the Preah Pithu group temples (deserted tumble down ruins), the Terrace of the Leper King (beautiful carvings of asparas dancing for Yama), Preah Palilay (peacefully falling apart), the Phimeanakas (a vertiginous pyramid), the Baphuon (the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle - after French archaelogists carefully took the temple apart brick by brick for restoration all records of how to put the pieces back together again were lost), the Terrace of the Elephants (featuring, you guessed it, carvings of elephants) and the Bayon (with its 216 gigantic faces).
As if that wasn’t enough, today I got a guide to take me around the ‘Grand Tour’ (skipping Angkor Thom) and we visited Pre Rup (a pyramidal cremation site), the Eastern Mebon (a similar burial site), Ta Som (forgettable - I cannot remember a thing about it seven hours later), Neak Pean (whose waters were believed to have healing properties but that probably just gave rise to infections), Preah Khan (the holy sword, thought to have been a military training site), Angkor Wat (massively impressive: it’s the largest religious building in the world) and Ta Prohm (overrun by nature, but not as cool as Beng Melea).
I’m exhausted. But I’m glad that I’ve managed to see so many of the Angkorian ruins. I’ll probably never get another chance.
I’m leaving Siam Reap tomorrow, flying to Phuket where I will board a boat for four days of diving at Ko Similian, Ko Bon, Ko Tachai and Richelieu Rock. They’re supposed to be amongst the best dive sites in the world. I’m hoping to see sharks. Just not hungry Egyptian ones. After the diving, I’ve got five days to get back to Bangkok for my flight home. I’ll be in London in ten days. Home for Christmas within two weeks. It is strange to think that this wonderful trip is coming to an end so quickly. In many ways though, I’m looking forward to coming back: it has been a long time since I’ve seen my friends and I cannot wait to catch up with them all.
