Angkor Thom

Our first full day in Cambodia, we were set for a full day of sightseeing at Ankgor Thom and Angkor Wat. We spent the first part of the day at Angkor Thom, which was the last capital city of the Khmer empire before their decline. It covers 9 square kilometers and actually has several monuments from earlier eras, but was mostly the home of temples built by king Jayavarman IV.

I did not do much reading up on the sites before visiting, so I assumed it was Buddhist. One of the interesting things I learned about Khmer society, was that is started out more animistic, believing that souls and spirits were everywhere in nature. As contact with Indian traders began, they adopted Hindiusm, which is actually the basis for which the temples were constructed (especially more at Angkor Wat which I will blog about next) and then with the arrival of Buddhist beliefs, the Khmer incorporated their Hinduism, to create a mix of the two, rather than dropping one over the other.

If you saw the movie "Tomb Raider" with Angelina Jolie, you will notice that it was filmed in this area. I have never seen the movie, but I think it had a lot to do with renewing interest in these historical sites.

We had our own personal tour guide, named John (perhaps that is his Western name as his Cambodian name would like be mispronounced by the tourists).

We entered the ruins thru the Victory Gate, and headed to the Bayon complex, which is the main site at Angkor Thom. The various sites were constructed between 900 AD and 1295 AD.

Given that Angkor Thom was built towards the end of the Khmer empire, it is more Buddhist with hints of Hinduism. Therefore, the faces present at the sites are thought to be Jayavarman. His earlier predecessors would have acquiesced to Shiva and other Hindu gods.

Now we still saw signs of Hinduism in the bas-reliefs, which were these ornate carvings in the walls that detailed battles between gods, good and evil, Khmer and their enemies, etc. etc.

While the ruins were incredible, we had to deal with the incredible heat and humidity. There was literally no breeze, so you just kind of sweat constantly. By the time we were done with the first site, Stu had managed to completely soak his shirt and top half of his scrubs in sweat, that is how hot it was.

Our tour guide, John, took us about a half mile way from the main sites to an even earlier temple that was built as far back at 800. At this point, as we were walking down the path, Marty and I were almost non-existant as John and Stu continued their intense conversation and rapid walking. I started to have a little melt down as my mosquito repellent was wearing off and mosquitoes the size of moths were landing on me. We made it to the site and took a little break, reapplied our repellent, caked in sweat.

Marty and I were still kind of cranky on our way back to the main site. We said we wanted to stop for a beer, and John told us we would when we left the complex for lunch, but Stu gently, yet firmly insisted we take a breather now before Marty and Ron had a nervous breakdown and killed the tour guide.

We stopped at one of the little restaurant stalls near the Bayon complex where we were immediately surrounded by the ever abundant street kids trying to sell us stuff. They were all selling the same things: postcards, bracelets, magnets, tour books. They were very insistent as well. As soon as we sat down they were all over us. Here is a general idea of how it went:

"Would you like to buy a tour book?"

-No thank you.

"Please"

-No I already have one (lie)

"Then show me"

-No

"Where are you from?"

-Texas

"If I tell you the capital of Texas will you buy a tour book?"

-No, I do not want one

"Then buy two or three"

It was very much scripted for them, and you really did feel sorry for the kids. We found it very Oliver Twist-ish, imagining that they had to go home to a "Fagan" at the end of the day to deliver their monies. "You got to pick a pocket or two".

We did find one little girl selling magnets, which I collect, so we bought a few.

Our beers were a welcome treat, and I know Marty and Stu enjoyed their "smoke" time.
I took anti-bacterial hand gel with me, and gave some to our tour guide, John, which he had never seen or used, but hopefully I got him on the right track to keeping germs off the hands.

Energized (well not really) we set off for the next part of our journey thru Angkor Thom. We went to the Baphuon temple, which was built mid-11th century. It was built by a Khmer ruler whose name I cannot remember at this time who was Hindu. At one time, the towers were covered in bronze, although that is now long gone. In the 15th century, it was altered to incorporate Buddhism, and a reclining Buddha was constructed, although very little of it remains now, but if you have a good imagination you can kind of make it out. This site had largely collapsed, and during the Khmer Rouge, it was badly damaged. There is a French team that has started efforts at restoration, and have been at the site since 2005.

Interesting to note, were the napping workers as we walked up to the site. I guess the heat even gets to them too.

As we left Baphuon it started raining, but given how hot we were, it was quite nice. We when to the Phimeanakas temple site after that. It was even older, having been built in the 10th century. It was built as a watch tower. According to legend, the king spent the first watch of every night with a Naga girl (a minor Hindu goddess) in the tower, during that time, not even the queen was permitted to intrude. Only in the second watch the king returned to his palace with the queen. If the naga who was the supreme land owner of Khmer land did not show up for a night, the king's day would be numbered, if the king did not show up, calamity would strike his land.

Our last stop was the Terrace of Elephants. Not much remains, but we do know it was used as a viewing stand for the king to watch his armies coming home from war, or for parades and public events.

From there we bid our farewell to Angkor Thom and got back in our car and headed off to lunch.