15.01.2017 - Jordan

 

 

​

Day 3

​

​

A bit crazy once more, we were motivated to get up early. We took our bikes at 5 pm and did again the 15km to go to Angkor Wat, which is the main temple of the area.

Unlike the day before, it’s accompanied by an incredible crowd of buses and tourists, that we arrived for the sunrise, without forgetting all the street sellers. We were a little surprised to see such a huge difference with the previous morning, we were expecting to be almost alone. Despite everything, we sneaked in and enjoyed our breakfast. Same scene: sitting on the grass, with our toasts of peanut butter and jams, while enjoying the imposing black shadow of Angkor Wat.

By the way, everyone is trying to stand at the same place, next to a small lake to take exactly the same picture, it's a pretty sad scene.

Also, we thought that the crowd would run to visit the temple as soon as the sun had risen, but this was not the case at all! Most of the buses were leaving, people didn't care, they had their picture (in fact, they have to follow a strict schedule from their tour operator and the temperature increases fast).

It was perfect for us: we took this opportunity to read the stories on the Lonely Planet guide, understand a little better Khmer history and above all, to look at the huge engraved walls. They are all around the temple, describing stories of the kings, gods like Shiva, fights and lifestyle of their era.

Angkor Wat is quite majestic. The main path, which gives you access to the temple, passing-by a stone bridge, gives a real sense of immensity that we can't find in any other temple! But if we compare well, Angkor Wat lacks a bit of charm, color and personality.

Before continuing on 'the elephants terrace’ and the 'Baphuon', we had a little stop at Phnom Bakheng. One of the first constructed temples, which was built at the top of the only hill in the area. Thanks to that one, we had a 360° view on the whole area of Angkor. We could see Angkor Thom or the vast pool of ‘West Baray’ which is four/five kilometers long by two kilometers wide, a real sea in the middle of nowhere.

In the afternoon, after the picnic and a monkey attack (clément purposely pissed him off, and it worked!), we simply visited the rest of Angkor Thom temples. We did it slowly because we were tired of our three days, and the (a little bit) repetitive visits. In any case, visiting Angkor is a mandatory passage. It is necessary to take time, and I imagine that visiting it with a guide, who knows the details and the history of the Khmer, is even more interesting!

Last point which surprised us: how easy it was for the ease to be alone in temples. Mainly because the area is really huge and has many constructions. It’s also due to the way tourists visit Angkor: they arrive at certain precise times, and most of them focuse only on Angkor Wat and a few other known temples.

 

Good future visit!