An absolute highlight of this tour is that we visit the Angkor temple complex. I actually hadn’t realized just how extensive it is. I was very familiar with the famous Angkor Wat building, but I didn’t know much about the rest of it.
Construction started in the area around the 12th century with different temples being added by different kings. Many of them were originally Hindu, but now the temples are mostly dedicated to Buddhism, with some having the Hindu gods removed and replaced by Buddhist statues.
The first day we started at a temple that is famous for its faces. The temple has 54 towers, and each tower has four Buddha faces looking in each direction. And they are huge. It’s a beautiful temple. And the walls have intricate carvings telling the stories of the king, or life lessons of Buddhism.
We saw another temple that was pyramid shaped and you could climb up to the top to look around, it had a massive reclining Buddha carved onto the north wall. Then we walked along the paths across a few other ruined sections of temples, lots of trees over growing everything.
The last day in Siam Reap was an early start. We left at 5am to go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, they most famous temple complex on the site. We certainly were not the only group there, but apparently the crowd was nothing compared to the pre-Covid numbers!
It was a gorgeous spot to watch the sunrise behind the temple, with a couple reflecting pools in front to add to the beauty. Angkor Wat is one of the oldest building on the site, and is built on a perfect north/south alignment. The guide put a compass on the centre stone in the middle of the temple to show us. As well, if you watch the sun rise on the equinox, it comes up right above the central tower of the complex. It’s just amazing precision.
We had a quick coffee break after sunrise rise before we went to tour the rest of the temple. A few in the group were hurting after staying up to watch the World Cup Final. I had bailed at the end of the first half and was still pretty tired myself.
There is a small shrine to Buddha in the temple where monks collect donation for their charity work. For a small contribution I got a braided bracelet that the monk placed on my wrist and chanted as he secured it- for good luck.
We then went to see our final temple, which was made famous by Angelina Jolie and the Tomb Raider movie. The filled (with permission) in this amazing little temple over grown by trees with huge clinging roots. I was a little shocked at first that it had been allowed, but the site was little known then and the movie brought a lot of tourism to Cambodia and the area.
But the temple was amazing. The trees were just fantastic crawling up and around the buildings. And they are doing work now to help preserve the site and restore what buildings they can. I could have wandered around there for hours.
But all good things come to an end, and we headed back to town for the afternoon. I had my self a massage before lunch where we said goodbye to another of our number who was flying out of Cambodia. Then the last adventure of the tour was quad biking through the countryside. It was a lot of fun racing around the countryside. We watched some buffaloes crossing the river, then stopped to watch the sun set beside a rice paddy.
We had an early dinner, after watching both the sun rise and the sunset we were beat. And the next morning was our last day, and a long journey over another border and into Thailand. I’ll be in Bangkok for four nights as this tour ends, and my next one begins. I’m still trying to decide what all to see with my three days- although tomorrow morning starts with sleeping in!!
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