After lunch we crossed the road to the entrance to Angkor Wat. There were children everywhere trying to sell us things.

Guards checked our tickets before we were allowed onto the bridge. There was a large weathered naga on each side of the bridge across the moat. The bridge itself was undergoing renovation, so half of it was closed. The towers of Angkor Wat were visible beyond the outer wall. The moat was wide and filled with water. Some local children were playing in it.



The approach to Angkor Wat is intended to represent the rainbow bridge in Hindu mythology that links heaven and earth. This seems to have been interpreted as a name for the bridge across the moat. Across the bridge are more balustrades decorated with nagas.


Just inside the moat is the outer enclosure, of which we only saw the entry gopura. I presume it extended all the way around the site. There were carvings on the lintel above the doorways, and on the walls. The Buddhas below were also in the gopura, though the one with eight arms was actually a Vishnu. It is believer that this Vishnu had been moved from the central sanctuary.



Once through the gopura a raised walkway led almost 500m hundred meters to the temple proper. The three of the five towers were clearly visible. The other two required a more oblique angle.



Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Initially it was dedicated to Vishnu and this is thought to be the reason that it faces west rather than east as all the other temples. It was later rededicated to Buddha and was the site of pilgramages for much of Southeast Asia. It has remained in use since its dedication.

The moat is about 190m wide. It runs for 1.3km north-south and 1.5km east-west. It appeared to be full of water all the way around and been cleaned, weeds and algae removed.


We proceeded along the causeway, past the flanking libraries, ponds and the stairways leading down and eventually we reached a set of wooden stairs leading up flanked by lions. Underneath were the original stone steps. Off to the left under the trees we could see a row of stalls.


We were now in front of the temple. A German man came up to us and said "There is no one here, if you take a photo of me I will take one of you." We managed to take both photos before the next lot of people arrived.

We entered the lowest level of the temple and turrned left towards the first of the bas relief galleries, stopping to admire many carvings on the way.


The first gallery was the Battle of Kurukshetra from the Mahabharata. The carvings were in amazing condition and detail. The gallery was about 50m long and showed two armies heading towards each othe and in the centre was the fight scene. There were marching soldiers, chariots with horses, elephants and lots of dead soldiers where the battle raged.



Anxious to see more inside we promised ourselves to come back and look at the bas reliefs in more detail. Next stop was the Gallery of a thousand Buddhas. Ths was up another flight of stairs. There was a central and two side covered galleries with open squares about a meter lower between. The centre cross gallery held a Buddha with many offerrings and people praying. Only a few of the other Buddhas dressed, and there were probably not a thousand, but lots.



The carving along the cornices of the galleries were something we noticed here.


Some of the only carved script in Angkor was here, not that we could read it. It sort of looked like graffiti.

Up another couple of dozen stairs and we were in the second level of the temple. The top level towered above us. We stood looking straight up for a while.


To the right was a library with a wooden frame supporting a doorway and a security guard looking out.

A japanese guy came up and asked if we could take his photo. He then ran up the steep stairs, posed and then ran back down to retrieve his camera.

We then made our way slowly and carefully up about 40 steep and narrow stairs. We arrived at the top completely out of breath. We sat down for a few minutes to recover and enjoy the view. It was spectacular. We could see the whole grounds of the temple right out to the moat and the car park. The balloon was floating in the distance.

We spent almost an hour wandering through the corridors: looking up at the five towers, into niches and out at the views; examining the carvings and the Buddhas; watching people; and drinking our valuable water. Greg tried to capture the perfect monk picture without them seeing him. I tried some artistic shots. The rooms below the corner towers smelt of urine.












One of the stairways on the south side had a railing which we used to ensure that our descent wasn't headlong. We slowly made our way down, taking in a few more sights and a bit more of the bas reliefs. We didn't spend that long because we were both tiring.



We stopped at the reflecting pool, but it wasn't reflecting very well. The water was a bit low and green and there was a slight breeze ruffling the surface. There were also lotuses growing in the pond.



We popped over to the stalls to buy a Sprite before heading back to our our driver, passing the libraries on the way.



As soon as we crossed the road into the car park (near this amazing bouganvillea) we attracted a horde of children, some of them remembering we said "when we come back". They were selling more postcards, books and other things we had already purchased too much of. We asked Nat to take us back to the hotel.

We moved into our new room which was over the bar. Again with a lower lounge area and upper bedroom, but this time with a double bed.


I has a swim and relaxed in the pool for a while. There were a few others there, but it wasn't very social. We had dinner in the hotel because we were exhausted. We did manage cocktails beside the pool before collapsing into bed.