The Temples at Angkor

This was our introduction to the temples, and our first encounter with the children selling postcards, bracelets, books, and souvenirs at the entrance to every temple. Grubby children in grubby clothes, with pleading faces.

It’s difficult to know what to think. Of course they’re very poor and need help, but I began to think their dependency on the tourists is not healthy. They had a routine ("Where you from?", "England", "Capital London", even followed on one occasion by "Population 65 million, Population of London 10 million"). By the time you had heard this often enough, along with "Need money to go to school", it began to look simply like a sales pitch, presumably taught by adults. I was also not sure of what to make of the display of disappointment when not successful in making a sale. Whatever, these children shouldn’t have to do this at an age where their counterparts in developed countries are being brought up wanting for nothing.

We also listened to a small group of musicians within the grounds of the temple, land mine victims with crutches and artificial legs laid out on the ground beside them.

This is well known for the way in which it has been left relatively unrestored. I know the trees grow upwards, but they appear to drip over the walls like treacle, with branches filling cracks and forcing the stones apart. It’s easy to imagine the temple being by the overgrown, submerged, and slowly town apart by the luxuriant growth of the jungle.

Just because there are no tourists in the photos, don’t make the mistake of thinking that we had the place to ourselves. This is a popular temple, and rightly so.

Our last stop of the day was Ta Keo. Unlike many of the other temples, for which everything is set at ground level, there are steep steps to be climbed to get to the centre of this one. Steep, worn, uneven, and with nothing much to hold on to. The higher you got, the more you concentrated on not looking down. What do you mean, I’m exaggerating?

We had the place almost to ourselves when we got to the top. It was worth it to see out over the top of the jungle canopy. The heat of the day eases later in the afternoon, and the stillness makes it worth finding a quiet place for a while before heading back to Siem Reap.

We left the hotel at 5:30am, to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. There were a few people carrying their goods to market in darkness as we drove through Siem Reap, but as we drove northwards out of town, it became clear that we were joining a long line of vehicles heading to the same place as we were. The sky cleared slowly and when the sun did finally appear, briefly turned orange behind the towers.

One of the charms of Angkor in general is the large number of temples, each with their own character. However, Angkor Wat is justifiably the most well known, if only for its size. You cross the causeway over the surrounding moat and enter the first gateway to see that the causeway continues into the distance before reaching the temple buildings. The central part is set high above the surrounding countryside. As at Ta Keo, steep steps climb to the top and even with the handrail it’s a test of nerves.

We went back in the afternoon to have a look at the carvings on the wall of the lower gallery. Depictions of historical and mythical characters and events run for hundreds of metres, the stone in places rubbed to a dark colour by many exploring hands.

I thought this might be a quiet temple, set over 20km, away from the main sites. No such luck, and there’s not even anywhere to hide when you get inside because of the small scale. There are no wide-open spaces here like there are at Angkor Wat. Instead, its intimate scale gives it a charm and the detailed carvings that cover the orange stone make this a popular and worthwhile visit.

We decided to buy a little bouquet of flowers from one of the little girls who were waiting as we arrived, and to take a couple of photographs. As soon as we started to do so we were surrounded, mobbed, by pleading children who offered their little model fishes and stars made from dried and coloured leaves.

There were very few people inside the temple, and we could enjoy the peace it offered. It’s in relatively good condition and doesn’t have the scattered stones, or precariously leaning walls, that are common in the other temples... and there were no trees grip the walls.

As you approach Bayon from the distance, it really doesn’t have much of a distinctive shape and it’s not unfair to say that it looks like a pile of rubble. What you don’t see until you get closer, are the carved heads on the towers at the highest level. About 1.5m tall, they look in all directions—serene and gently smiling. When you’re at the top level, you can’t get away from them.

Just below the top is an intriguing system of corridors. Cool and dim, there are no long views to distant doors and windows. Instead, they twist and turn, leaving you with no clear sense of where you are or the direction you are heading.

Considering its central position and the fact that this is one of the most popular temples, there were very few people around. Perhaps that’s because we were there during the hottest part if the day.

What a good place at which to end our 3 days in Cambodia. There were other people around, but it wasn’t difficult to avoid them, and enjoy the later afternoon stillness and quiet. It shares some characteristics with Ta Prohm: trees growing over walls, narrow corridors, ancient courtyards filled with fallen stones. The jungle just beyond the boundary walls waiting to engulf the temple again.

This is a dusty, run-down sort of place. There are some large modern hotels, mostly on the road to the airport, but the centre of town has dirty roads, incomplete, broken pavements and its fair share of shabby buildings. The children swimming in the river must have had strong constitutions. Road junctions typically have no markings and are negotiated by everyone filtering through to where they want to go as best they can. Bikes and motorbikes make up the majority of the traffic, often with several people or unlikely loads balanced wherever they will fit.

I don’t suppose I am the only one who heads towards the market place in any new destination. This is the place to see how the local economy works, and in Siem Reap it was a refreshing change after seeing the hard-sell to the tourists at the temples. Ladies squatted on the floor with a single basket of vegetables laid out in front of them, or a tray of fish, alive or dead. Customers poked and examined the plucked chickens and ducks.