Quiet Times At Angkor Wat

posted by: Emma

Awaking at 4:45am, I silence the alarm quickly but make no move to get up. We’ve both had a restless night in our too warm hotel room with a fan that only works at the fastest, noisiest and most sleep-disturbing speed. I’m already exhausted by the thought of starting the day at this hour, let alone heading out on a sightseeing binge. “Maybe we shouldn’t go today?” I trial the words on Justin. He’s quick to agree and rolls over to go back to sleep, but I lie awake in the stifling heat and reconsider. If I give in today then I’ll have this same internal battle another morning. The words are formed before my brain can compile a counter argument. “Maybe we should?”

Sunrise on bridge - Angkor Thom Statue on bridge - Angkor Thom

At 5:30am we’re at the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park ticket office, blurry-eyed as we’re directed where to stand to get our obligatory mug shot snapped by the incredibly bright-eyed early morning staff. We opt for a three day ticket which we can use over a seven day period. Its still pitch black as we take the left fork towards Angkor Wat. The traffic has picked up with motorcycle drawn tuk-tuks and buses heading the same direction as us while a steady street of Cambodian commuters pedal bicycles in the opposite direction. Most tourists are racing towards Angkor Wat for sunrise but we pass without even a glimpse of its famous silhouette as it is still shroud in darkness.

We’re on a mission to climb the only hill in the area for what promises to be a quieter sunrise over ancient Khmer architecture. Two kilometres later we arrive at the gates to Angkor Thom meaning we missed our temple. Another cyclist. from Spain, hails us in the dark and joins our Indiana Jones-inspired temple hunting. We return the way we’d arrived and peer into the dark forest on the side of the road, wishing for such tourist amenities as information boards.

Interior corridor - Preah Khan Tree + wall - Preah Khan

Spying a promising dark shape in the distance we lock up bicycles and follow a forest trail, climbing up a short steep stairs to the top with only head torches to light our way. Swarmed immediately by mosquitoes, we look out from our precarious view point as the sky slowly lightens. A canopy of trees towers us on all sides and we’re clearly not on a hill. Its becoming very apparent that we’re in the wrong place.

Back on the road we cut our losses and enjoy watching colour enter the sky at the gates to Angkor Thom, one of the most impressive cities of the ancient world. Dawn is still breaking as we pass through the middle of Angkor Thom, leaving our Spanish companion to explore the central ruins of the city while we continue in the still absurdly early morning to the city’s Northern gate.

Our first temple stop is Preah Khan, where we resist the enticements from a row of breakfast vendors in order to make the most of the early morning cool. A few minutes walk across a moat and into the temple complex we’re the only visitors in a maze of corridors seemingly made for shorter people than us. I try to imagine Kings of diminutive stature striding through the rooms, wearing down the uneven slabs of stone beneath our feet. We’re absorbed by small details in carvings still visible on walls, stains of colour growing on rock faces and a state of disrepair which makes me think of a giant’s Lego set. Its only as we’re leaving that other tourists begin to arrive.

Justin + Emma - Ta Som Postcard seller

We continue clockwise around what is known as Angkor Wat’s “big circuit”, stopping in front of each temple to read up on what’s in front of us and invariably deciding that each is worth a visit. The huge towers of the Eastern Mebon, a Hindu temple made of red bricks with elephant statues at each corner is an unexpected highlight.

At the top of Eastern Mebon we peer into the dim of each tower. At one, a guardian catches us unaware and beckons us into one adorned with a Buddhist shrine. He shows us the echo that sounds if you thump your heart and directs Justin to take a photo of the sky through the hole in the ceiling. We’re offered incense sticks, which we place into a pit of ash and told this is for luck in Cambodia. He indicates where we should make a donation for this service and, charmed by his sales technique, I pull a few small notes out of my wallet.

Its great having the bikes out with us, as the temple grounds are well shaded for cycling and traffic is fairly slow moving. It only gets busy as we turn back towards the centre to visit a well-known temple called Ta Prohm which the jungle had once almost completely reclaimed. Just before lunch it appears we’ve timed our visit with the tour buses, coming across a car park swarming with traffic and wily restaurant owners making us promise to visit them at their numbered cafes.

Elephant statue - Eastern Mebon Bas relief detail - Bayon

We do our best to give Ta Prohm a chance to woo us but our eyes are a little glazed over as we sit in the shade to eat peanuts halfway through our visit. Its not long before the hordes of visitors disappear to their waiting transport and we tackle the slightly quieter main buildings with just a few independent travellers. We have managed to wander around six temples in just as many hours so it is clearly time for lunch ourselves. Two hours and one monkey watching episode later we head out of the temple complex having visited at total of 8 temples in 10 hours.

Unfortunately we head back into the park that evening somewhat sooner than planned, as I’d lost my ticket on the way out. We retrace our steps until Justin spots it along the side of the road. I suspect that finding the ticket was the extent of our good fortune purchased from the temple guardian. We wisely take the next day off.

We planned to see best bits last, visiting Angkor Thom and the surrounding buildings on one day and and the main attraction, Angkor Wat, on another. Our Ankgor Thom morning doesn’t start so early, but visitors are still light on the ground as we climb up into the many-faced temple of Bayon. On the lower levels bas-relief fatigue quickly sets in, but while I could kill for a coffee, I struggle around the entire 1.2km of carvings looking for oddities such as men juggling monkeys and picking nits out of each other’s hair.

Temple towers - Bayon Emma descending - Ta Keo

Justin climbs the steep steps to a library room while I quickly get bored of the low levels and climb to the top of the central temple, losing him for half an hour in the process. Reunited we find a place to sit and contemplate the oddity of carving the same giant face 214 times in one building. Continuing our tour of the ancient city, we avoid the tour group crowds by following well-trodden forest paths between less popular sites, including Baphoun and Phimeanakas temples.

After coffee, exploring the well-named Terrace of the Leper King and Terrace of Elephants doesn’t take long as we had already seen them from the road. We pick up our bicycles to head East. After an unplanned detour to the little used East gate (which featured in the movie Tomb Raider) we rejoin the main road for a few final sites. Most of these we find underwhelming and over-run by trinket sellers. The last temple, Ta Keo, is impressive solely because of how high you can scramble up without any real protection and how high you suddenly feel when you’re about to climb down.

The next day we’re eating a late lunch in a cafe in Siem Reap township when a Dutch cyclist starts chatting to us. As we wrap up and pay we apologise for excusing ourselves rapidly. We’re on our way to Angkor Wat. He gives us a second look as we wave goodbye, clearly thinking that we’re mad to enter the park with just three hours until closing.

Angkor Wat entrance Monk in doorway - Angkor Wat

After two full days of temple gazing, a time limit at the top attraction is just right for us. Its predictably crowded with tour groups and photographers almost everywhere, but we sneak in a little education listening to English-speaking guides before we take a close up parade around the inner courtyard.  We muster enough excitement to pull ourselves up one last staircase to the mother of all towers and look at those incredibly carved turrets from all angles. We old temple-hands can’t help but think that the view is a little lessoned by the scaffolding covering some of the front and the size of the main building is hard to grasp, but regardless it is a beautiful piece of history.

Having read that when Angkor Wat was ‘discovered’ in the 1860s there was a working monastery inside, we’re not surprised when we turn a corner to find a young monk silhouetted against a doorway opening to a steep outdoor staircase. We join him to catch the breeze which has cooled the afternoon significantly and chat idly for a few minutes about our respective journeys. Its here I kind of get the point of building a temple on such a huge scale, as even with the huge volume of visitors, there is still room for quiet contemplation.

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