Dropping by Angkor - Part 2

On to the mother of all temples, the huge Angkor Wat. Built in the 12th century as a state capital for the Angkor Empire and a temple to the Hindu god Vishnu. It is the world’s largest religious monument (eat shit Vatican City). This place is massive and most impressive; stunning, breath-taking, amazing (word count has amazing at 13 so far this post), but all the descriptions in the world couldn’t sum up this place. Spent most of the afternoon exploring this place. Prior to getting here I was wilting a bit with the heat and the number of places we had visited and was hoping that either we could skip something or finish early, but I’m glad that I persisted. The Wat is surrounded by a huge man-made moat that can only be crossed at 2 bridges. The Wat outer wall covers an area of 2km by 1.5km. Felt like I was in some ancient Asian movie epic as we crossed (most likely one of the guys that dies early storming the gate). Those 9-headed najas were guarding the entrance as you approach the main wall gate.

Inside the outer walls is a huge field with the Wat temple at its centre. This field used to contain a whole city with markets, libraries, shops, barracks and other associated people and buildings. There are still a number of small buildings that remain in the field but most of what was there is long gone. The original religion of the Empire was Hindu which came from India but after a while Buddhism became dominate. This statue is of the Hindu god Vishnu at the main entrance and there is a respective statue of Buddha at the rear entrance which still receives offerings today from the local Cambodians.

Approaching the central sanctuary of the Wat. On entering, we passed another bas-relief of a ‘dancing girl’ where Widget couldn’t resist telling another story. He asked us to inspect the engraving, the size of the main figure is about half the size of a real person. He asked us to look closely at the breasts off the dancing girl and to take note that they had worn down a lot more then other parts of the figure. Widget, fighting back fits of laughter, advised for good luck in the bedroom that Khmer/Cambodian men will fondle the figure’s breasts. Therefore over a period of centuries the poor girl’s tits have almost faded away (a combination of an ancient Angkor version of a lap-dance and Viagra). Widget tells me that he has had some luck as a result of the stone fondle. I don’t ask whether he incorporates the same procedure with his prospective roots. Back to the aura of history.

Inside the central sanctuary is a third enclosure that contains the 600m long and 2 m high narrative bas-relief which depicts 2,000 figures. Its tells the story of a great Hindu epic “Somethingoranother” which my guide book goes on and on about over 23 pages discussing in detail each panel that I decided not to read (sorry). But really the relief is truly amazing (14) and the detail has to be seen to be believed. The photos don’t do justice to it, but you can just stare at this wall for hours. In the photo the far figure is the famous Widget (thankfully the photo doesn’t do justice to him either).



Further inside is the central pavilion of the Wat which contains the upper levels and towers. You can climb up to the towers by the same ancient steps the Angkors built (they either had remarkably small feet or the builders lacked a decent measuring tape). Getting up is very precarious and worse coming down, sure that a number of tourists have gone arse over tit scaling the thing. Once up top, you can view the whole Angkor area and beyond. The 5 towers of the Wat can be accessed here but was told by Widget (who didn’t come up to the upper level) “don’t go in the central tower, you die.”

Finally, after descending and exiting the Wat’s central sanctuary, our group stroll out to the main field and take the typically tourist photo shot of the Wat in front of a small lake. Despite my presence, I couldn’t distract from the magnificence of the temple. The smile on my face is due to Widget, who is taking the photo, asking me if there were any dirty pictures on my camera that he could have a look at (“I like white girls”). Great note to end the trip on. Certainly the highlight of trip so far.

Fin.