Ahhhh Angkor!!!
Well my blog seems to be working now so I'll continue on my rant about my adventures in south east asia. Currently I am sitting in an email cafe in Hanoi after surcumming to the lures of flight (or rather my back couldn't stand another Cambodian road) I arrived after a very bumpy flight on a very old plane, in Hanoi last night. But more of that later. I should talk about Angkor.
WOW! I said that alot in my 2 days at the Angkor temple complex, what else can I say? Angkor is a collection of many many temple and palace ruins spannin over 200 sq kms so 2 days will get you to see atleast 1/2 the sites, you could spend a week there, or you could try and see everything in three days but I guarantee you will get templed out.
I started with sunrine over the most famous of all the temples, Angkor Wat, the sky was filled with many colours, although the clouds did seem to block the view a bit. Angkor is best viewed in the afternoon so the hundreds of tourists there to see the sunrise left as soon as the sun appeared, so that left me and the wat alone. It was the best, I had a great guide book loaned to me by Lisa and louise and I did my own self tour around the site. I climbed the stairs to the top of the guptas to view the surrounding countryside, and the village people trying to go about their daily business. Angkor and especailly Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (more on this temple later) is well worth a visit in your life time.
After the wat I went to Angkor Thom, the ancient city. There were many places to visit here, but my favourite was the elephant terrace and the entrace the city with the three headed elephant lifting the lotus flower. I took many many photos, the beauty of having a digital camera and I will be sending you all some of the good ones. After Angkor Thom and 7 hours at the temple it was time to retire back to the guest house and to relax.
THe next day I went back for more. I'll only tell you about my favourite temple, Ta Prohm, the jungle temple. This temple has pretty much been left the way it was when the french found it in 1870 and it has trees growing over the complex, so the roots are intertwinned with the carvings and the architecture. There is so much to explore and you are pretty much on your own the whole time. Its easy to imagine what life would have been like in the time when the monks walked the hallways.
I decided not to stay for sunset because when I went back to Angkor Wat it started to rain, moonsoonal that is and the sunset hill is a steep climb. I remember Lisa and Louise's story about their trip here and I wasn't prepared to do it. Anyways I was sitting in the rooftop pub later in the day sipping some beer and watching the sunset, it was much more civilised and even though I had a restricted view, the sunset was beautiful. It made me glad to be alive.
I've had to get over my fear of motorbikes because in Cambodia is pretty much all the transport they have, here in Vietnam as well. In PP I asked the driver for a helmet which made me feel a little silly as the bikes don't really go over 40km an hour, so in Seam Reip I didn't bother. Although when the guest house said they would pick me up from the ferry port, I didn't think that they meant by bike, I mean you can't have 2 people on a bike plus my backpack, can you? I was very very wrong. Not only was my back precariouly balanced on the front of the bike, with me hanging on for dear life at the back, the road was the worst I'd seen in Cambodia (and thats really bad), it started to moonsoon half way into Seam Reip. It will pass I thought, wrong! Anyway I'm alive to tell the tale and it wasn't that bad after all. I think I'll stick to cyclos in Vietnam though.
I'll sign of for now, I'll have more news in a few days after I visit the Perfume Pagoda and Ho Chi Minh's Morselum, the first in my dead communist leaders of the world tour.
Well my blog seems to be working now so I'll continue on my rant about my adventures in south east asia. Currently I am sitting in an email cafe in Hanoi after surcumming to the lures of flight (or rather my back couldn't stand another Cambodian road) I arrived after a very bumpy flight on a very old plane, in Hanoi last night. But more of that later. I should talk about Angkor.
WOW! I said that alot in my 2 days at the Angkor temple complex, what else can I say? Angkor is a collection of many many temple and palace ruins spannin over 200 sq kms so 2 days will get you to see atleast 1/2 the sites, you could spend a week there, or you could try and see everything in three days but I guarantee you will get templed out.
I started with sunrine over the most famous of all the temples, Angkor Wat, the sky was filled with many colours, although the clouds did seem to block the view a bit. Angkor is best viewed in the afternoon so the hundreds of tourists there to see the sunrise left as soon as the sun appeared, so that left me and the wat alone. It was the best, I had a great guide book loaned to me by Lisa and louise and I did my own self tour around the site. I climbed the stairs to the top of the guptas to view the surrounding countryside, and the village people trying to go about their daily business. Angkor and especailly Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (more on this temple later) is well worth a visit in your life time.
After the wat I went to Angkor Thom, the ancient city. There were many places to visit here, but my favourite was the elephant terrace and the entrace the city with the three headed elephant lifting the lotus flower. I took many many photos, the beauty of having a digital camera and I will be sending you all some of the good ones. After Angkor Thom and 7 hours at the temple it was time to retire back to the guest house and to relax.
THe next day I went back for more. I'll only tell you about my favourite temple, Ta Prohm, the jungle temple. This temple has pretty much been left the way it was when the french found it in 1870 and it has trees growing over the complex, so the roots are intertwinned with the carvings and the architecture. There is so much to explore and you are pretty much on your own the whole time. Its easy to imagine what life would have been like in the time when the monks walked the hallways.
I decided not to stay for sunset because when I went back to Angkor Wat it started to rain, moonsoonal that is and the sunset hill is a steep climb. I remember Lisa and Louise's story about their trip here and I wasn't prepared to do it. Anyways I was sitting in the rooftop pub later in the day sipping some beer and watching the sunset, it was much more civilised and even though I had a restricted view, the sunset was beautiful. It made me glad to be alive.
I've had to get over my fear of motorbikes because in Cambodia is pretty much all the transport they have, here in Vietnam as well. In PP I asked the driver for a helmet which made me feel a little silly as the bikes don't really go over 40km an hour, so in Seam Reip I didn't bother. Although when the guest house said they would pick me up from the ferry port, I didn't think that they meant by bike, I mean you can't have 2 people on a bike plus my backpack, can you? I was very very wrong. Not only was my back precariouly balanced on the front of the bike, with me hanging on for dear life at the back, the road was the worst I'd seen in Cambodia (and thats really bad), it started to moonsoon half way into Seam Reip. It will pass I thought, wrong! Anyway I'm alive to tell the tale and it wasn't that bad after all. I think I'll stick to cyclos in Vietnam though.
I'll sign of for now, I'll have more news in a few days after I visit the Perfume Pagoda and Ho Chi Minh's Morselum, the first in my dead communist leaders of the world tour.
posted by Paula at
1:36 AM
