Last weekend was a four day weekend for me. My friend Kira and I traveled to the close border of Cambodia to the town of Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. The word Angkor Wat, means city of temples. It is an UNESCO world heritage site (since 1992) and considered on the of most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. The national park is over 400 km squared (including forested areas). The temples are very symbolic to the Hindu religion. The temples represent a mythical mountain (Mount Meru). Temples were also built for the King to show power over their Kingdom. The temples have become a major tourist site bringing over 670,000 foreign visitors per year.
The city is only about 4.5 hours away from the town where I live. It was a easy trip and we spent 4 nights there, and three days at the temples. Within Angkor Wat (meaning city of temples) there are over a dozen temples.
We arrived in Siem Reap on Thursday night and explored the temples on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Prasat Angkor Wat
On our first day, Friday, we visited this temple. This is the capital city of the Khmer Empire. It is the closest temple to Siem Reap and the first one you see when riding to Angkor Wat. The temple was built in the early 12th century. It lies 6 km north of the city we were staying, Siem Reap. We rented bikes to travel as it was the cheapest and healthiest form of transportation. These temples are considered to be the classic Khmer style architecture. The temples are surrounded by a moat which has helped to protect it and preserve it. There are tons of stone carving lining the interior of the temple. One of the walls shows a battle others show culture and lifestyle of the times. We spent 4-5 hours at this temple alone. It is huge, one of the biggest of the Angkor Wat temples. After spending that long in the hot, blazing sun we were exhausted and went home for naps. 
We visited Angkor Thom on our second day, Saturday. The word "Thom" means "big". We only saw parts of this as it was spread out and is very large. On the road to this temple there is a bridge with Buddha head lining each side of the road. There are at least 20 faces on each side of the bridge. Some where obviously reconstructed while others where less vivid and some missing but a stunning sight into our second temple of the trip.
Angkor Thom- Bayon
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| Can you imagine 216 of these? |
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| Just amazing |
It's famous for its giant stone faces on the towers which I thought were the faces of Buddha but apparently there is lots of speculation and no one know the real identity of the faces, it is more likely to be the King (of that times) face. There are 37 standing
towers, most have four carved faces on each of its four sides, giving a total of 216 faces. This is the youngest temple in the Angkor cluster. After visiting this temple we were exhausted and done for the day. We spent the rest of the evening shopping in all of Siem Reaps famous night markets.
Bat Chum (i think?)
On our third day we travelled the farthest by bicycle. I think we rode over 30 km on Sunday. We were heading to the famous "tree temple" as we refer to it and stopped a few places on the way. First was this simple little temple. I am not sure this is actually the name of it. This was a cluster of three brick towers. Bat Chum is a
historically unique early Buddhist temple built during a time when
Hinduism dominated.
Preah Khan
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| Relaxing in the windows |
This was originally a Buddhist monastery and school, serving over 1000 monks. This temple originally had Buddha images which were later vandalized during the resurgence of Hinduism. The period it was built is unknown but it is one of the only temples with round columns, therefore is likely built later in time.
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| Bring in tomb raider... |
Ta Prohm
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| The famous tree around the temple |
We have finally made it to the "tree temple" or as we now know its real ame Ta Prohm, This is the most famous as its was the location for the film Tomb Raider starring Angelino Jolee. We actually did not know this before arriving when a guard checking tickets said "time rider" to us over and over and we finally made the connection that is was Tomb Raider. The most distinctive part of this temple is there are trees growing out of the ruins. Unlike many of the other temples constantly having construction to upkeep the temples, this temple has been left the way it was found.
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| Having a Cambodia in Cambodia. |
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| $1 /night hostel "dorm style" |
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| Where we spent 4 nights and somehow survived. |
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