Our tuk-tuk driver Lucky picked us up at 10am and drove us out to the Angkor Wat complex. Our first stop was the ticket office. We didn't have Liam's passport with us and have some difficulty convincing them that he was under 12 (and is therefore free), his height puts him at about 15 out here. Finally, with three-day tickets in hand, we headed along the shady tree-lined road amid forest and farmland. Our first sight of the temples was the moat around Angkor Wat itself. If you could call it a moat - it's 190 metres wide. But this wasn't our first stop, we headed along through the South Gate into Angkor Thom (Great Angkor or Great City) and onto Bayon. We got dropped off here and agreed to meet Lucky again on the far side.
The Bayon's main feature are the 216 huge stone faces, which all bear a striking resemblence to the Kymer King Jayavarman VII, who built the state temple. There are around 11,000 figures depicted in the bas reliefs, showing life in 12th century Cambodia. This was once a city, but only the religious buildings were built of stone and have survived, the wooden city buildings are long gone. We spent about an hour here before moving on. There are 37 different archaelogical sites so we had some hard choices to make.
The Baphuon was the centre of the city that existed here. Restoration was disrupted by the Cambodian civil war and the Kymer Rouge destroyed all records. So the French team now working on the restoration ave been left with a rather big jigsaw puzzle, but without the pictures to guide them.
The Terrace of the Elephants was used as a viewing stand for public ceremonies.
The Terrace of the Leper King is a 7 metre high terrace which once supported a pavilion. The front walls are decorated with at least five tiers of seated asparas carved into the stone. At the base, Liam found the narrow entrance (we had walked right past it) into a hidden terrace (covered up when the outer structure was built) - the carvings here look fresh and almost new.
We headed over for lunch at one of the many tented restaurants opposite the terraces. We were joined by two young boys (both Liam's age, although much smaller, you would have thought they were around 7 or 8). They were selling little bronze figures of animals and religious dieties. We finally bought five of them ater a long negotiation. The boys' selling point was that they knew all (and I mean all) the world's capital cities. They go to school in the mornings (funded by their sales) and then sell until 4pm when they can have some free time (they said they enjoyed watching the cows and football).
In the afternoon we rejoined Lucky and he drove us out to the Chau Say temple. We met a Buddhist nun out there who performed a prayer and gave us each a pink wool bracelet. She later followed us out and got us to exhange a euro coin she'd been given for riel. After that we drove onto the Ta Keo temple. The steps were incredibly steep. There was another small boy working up here, selling postcards. Cliff had a chat with him and bought some and on our way out he gave Liam a paper origami crane he'd made. He was keen to know the time because he was knocking off at 4pm.
After that we went into Angkor Wat itself. The bas-relief of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk (the Hindu creation story) was undergoing restoration so we only got to see some pictures of it on the east section of the temple. Cliff and I then climbed the central tower for some expansive views. Under 12's weren't allowed so Liam sat down at the bottom reading. We saw the static air balloon in the distance and decided we'd try to take a trip this week. After that we called it a day, it was now late afternoon and as we had three day tickets we didn't have to rush.
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