Cambodian Temples - Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom is enormous.  It's not a temple, but actually a whole city!  It's 9 square kilometers, or 3.5 square miles, and encompassed by an 8-meter (26 feet) tall wall.  There's a lot of ruins inside the city, including temples, gopuras (entrance structures), terraces, palaces, and more.

Angkor Thom is the big walled area on the left.

I've already talked about Bayon, which is smack dab in the center of Angkor Thom.  The map below is a close-up of central Angkor Thom, where all the good stuff is.  Bayon is at the bottom of this map.

BAPHUON

The temple just north and to the west of Bayon is called Baphuon.  It was built in the 11th century, but thanks to time and an unsteady sand base, much of the temple collapsed by the time anyone rediscovered it.  Restoration efforts began in 1960 but were disrupted by the civil war, but a second attempt in 1995 was more successful.  Restoration was finally completed in 2011, and visitors were finally able to see the temple in (some of) its former glory.

The first time we visited Baphuon was just after visiting Bayon, and the temple was unfortunately closed for the day.  We were able to check out the outside of the temple and the walkway up to it, though.

Impressive!

Me and my purple plastic bag raincoat.

Love the lighting with the rain!

The walkway up to Baphuon is pretty cool.  The whole walkway is lifted up on pillars.

It's a good six feet off the ground, hence the steps.

Viewed from the sides.

Checking out the exterior wall.

This is a gopura, an entrance building.  It's pretty big, right?  (Yes, that's me in the doorway.)

The windows have been concreted up for support.

We went back a few days later--that's the beauty of a 7-day stay--and climbed up to the top.  Cambodians must have itty bitty barbie feet because the steps are about a third of the width of my foot.  Combine that with the rain and it was downright scary.

The walkway and entrance, viewed from the top of Baphuon.

I'm not afraid of heights, but I do have a healthy fear of death by splattering.  So the complete lack of guardrails, ropes, or any other safety equipment made me a mite nervous.

That is a long way down.

Fortunately I found ONE spot with a rope.  Phew.

Wearing my $2 night market shirt and $4 Cambodian Tourist Pants.
They're both shockingly comfortable!

Baphuon is tall, but from the front it doesn't look significantly different or more special than some of the other temples.  Go to the back, however, and you'll see something pretty weird.

Is that wall... round?

Turn your head and it kinda looks like a face, right?  I see a nose, an eyes, and a forehead...

It's a reclining Buddha!  The temple was originally Hindu, but it was converted to a Buddhist temple in the 15th century.  The Buddha is 70 meters (230 feet) long and 9 meters (30 feet) tall.

Napping Buddha.

Next to Baphuon is Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace area.  The Royal Palace is gone, but Phimeanakas is still standing tall.

PHIMEANAKAS

Phimeanakas means "celestial temple" in Khmer and it was built in the 10th century.  There's a legend that the top tier of the temple was inhabited by a naga (snake) princess, and the king had to climb up each night to "lie" with her, or else something dreadful would happen to his kingdom.  That's a lot of stairs to climb every night!

Last but not least is the terrace.  In front of Phimeanakas is a long decorative terrace.  There are two parts to the terrace.  The main part is called the Terrace of the Elephants, named because it has some pretty cool three-headed elephant carvings.  To the north is the smaller Terrace of the Leper King.

The Terrace of the Elephant King was used by the king to view his returning armies, assuming they were victorious.  It was also a place for him to address the people.  It was part of the Phimeanakas complex at one point, but most of the materials used to build the area were organic and have long since rotted away.

The titular elephants.

A crab!

This is a lotus statue.  It's the size of a large hot tub.

More elephants.  There's a few trios along the terrace front.

That is a very large five-headed horse.

Still in remarkably good shape!

Another elephant.  These carvings are probably life-size for a small elephant.

The view from the top of the Terrace of the Elephants.

Across the road from the Terrace of the Elephants is a group of structures called Prasats Suor Prat, which means "towers of the tight-rope dancers."  It's said that during certain festivals, wires were put up between the buildings for acrobats to perform on.

These things are about 50 feet tall.  The doors are normal-sized.

That probably wasn't their original purpose, though.  Some records say that they were used to pass 'divine judgement' on arguments.  If two people needed to settle a dispute, they would each stay in one of the towers for three or four days.  A family member would stand guard to make sure they didn't leave.  The person who showed signs of illness was deemed the wrong party, and the person in perfect health won the dispute.

There are twelve towers, all in a row.

It's clear that they've been renovated with concrete; see the color difference and the tin roof on one?

Renovated or not, I still wouldn't want to spend three days in one of those.

Back to the terrace.  The Terrace of the Leper King is a U-shaped structure.  There's a small terrace on top which was probably used as a royal cremation site.  The double-wall around it extends from the ground to the edge of the terrace, which means you could fall in if you're not careful.  Between the two walls are some impressively complex carvings.

The entrance is that muddy area with the boards.

The outer side of the outer wall.

It's like a topless U-shaped tunnel of carvings.  The terrace got its name from a statue on top of the terrace, which--much like a person with leprosy--was moldy and discolored and missing pieces.  This fit with a Khmer legend that one of their kings had leprosy.  Today the statue has been replaced with a replica.

There he is.

A little blurry.

The Terrace of the Leper King was one of my favorite parts of the archaeological park.  They're so well-preserved and well-crafted!

Here's the other exit.

And that's all the good stuff in the Angkor Thom complex.  Next up: Ta Prohm, the temple from Tomb Raider!

Cheers,
Ashton

Cambodian Temples - Bayon

Bayon was one of my favorite temples--my second favorite, actually.  It's also one of the most iconic.

There you go, one extra-large head.

Bayon is located inside Angkor Thom.  The word 'angkor' means city, and Angkor Thom means "great city."  The city has an 8-meter (26-foot) wall around it that is still standing today.  Each side of the square wall is 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) long, making the 9 square kilometers (3.5 square miles).  That's a big area!

The city of Siem Reap is that reddish area to the south.  The airport is in the mid-left.  You can see West Baray, the man-made lake, from the airport when you land.  (East Baray has no water left in it.)

Angkor Wat is on the bottom left.  Angkor Thom is just above it.  It might not look big on the map,
but trust me, it's enormous.

Because the temples are so far apart, most people hire drivers to get around.  The drivers own little two-wheeled carriages pulled by motorbikes.  This set-up is called a 'tuk-tuk.'

Mama in the tuk-tuk, talking to our lovely driver/tour guide, Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim driving us down the road.

Tuk-tuks are efficient and surprisingly comfortable.  The breeze feels great on a hot day, and if it starts to rain, no worries--there's a pull-down vinyl cover to keep you dry.

But back to Bayon.  It originally had 49 towers (our driver/guide told us that there was one tower for each of the original provinces of the Khmer Empire, but I'm not totally sure) and 37 of them remain. Most of the towers probably had four faces carved on the sides, but not all remained intact over the centuries.  There are around 200 giant face carvings in Bayon.

There's two more on the other side.

When we visited Bayon the weather seemed awful.  It was practically monsooning, which meant that my big fancy-pants camera (which requires two hands to use) couldn't come out of the bag.  When it rained, I held my umbrella in one hand and my point-and-shoot camera in the other.

Interestingly, my point-and-shoot did a better job most days.  I think it was the strange cloudy-but-bright lighting.  But the rain ended up being a blessing!  The rain kept the tourists away, kept us cool, and gave the whole place a strange and mystical lighting.  We visited again on a clear day and were not quite as taken with the temple.

Check out those water marks on my camera.  Between the humidity and my constant use in the rain, I still can't believe that thing didn't get water damage.  (This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.)

I did say 'monsooning,' right?

Look at all that rain!

The colors come from sediment that washes down differently in each area.

That water is about 6 inches deep.  Thank goodness for our tevas!

Those shoes might be dorky and slightly reminiscent of crocs, but I wouldn't travel without them.

These faces look similar, but most of the faces are different.

I tried to hide from the rain.  I failed.

Looking down from the upper level, the flooding was even more obvious.

It's more like a canal than a walkway.

People for scale.

You can go inside there.  It's really dark and there's a little shrine with a Buddha statue, some incense, and a freaky old bald lady who pops out of a dark corner to ask for money.  Scary!

The faces are really big!  Also, we look super-cute in our raincoats.

There's lots of places to walk inside, but unfortunately the 500-year-old roofing isn't so great and everything leaks.  It's impossible to stay dry.

These steps down lead to a small lake.  We took a different way down.

Take a moment to check out the stone base.  Intricate carvings all the way around!

Another Lara Croft moment.

On a dry day, I saw some local kids sitting up there.  Noooo thanks.

The face tower is built right into the structure.

New profile picture?  You betchya.

I love my mother dearly... but I cannot believe how bad her photos are.
You can't even see the face, which is the whole point of this photo spot.

Looking hot, right?
And by 'hot' I don't mean 'attractive,' I mean 'sweaty and overheated.'

There was a popular spot to get a neat perspective photo of your nose touching the face's nose, so of course we tried... and failed miserably.

The face.

Some other guy trying it.

And another guy.

Our pictures turned out really awful.  Some people have great profiles, and others look like starved ogres.  I learned an important lesson this day: some people are more photogenic from the front.

A brief moment without rain.

We went back a few days later when it wasn't raining, and although Bayon was still pretty darn cool, I must really recommend a visit in the rain.  It just felt so much more mystical and ethereal!

Bayon does have a small moat around it.  It's pretty but I wouldn't want to walk through it.

Such a gorgeous temple!

A moat.  The person wearing green is a weeding lady.  They work in teams, they're everywhere, and like most of the Cambodian adults we saw, they never seem to actually be working.

Check out the reflection in the moat!

And one last dry-day panorama shot, because I really love panoramas:

Bayon was my second favorite, but I'd still give it a 10/10 on the awesomeness scale.  Definitely something to stick on your bucket list!

Cheers,
Ashton