The hotel has found us a driver (tuk-tuk $18 per day) and a guide ($35 per day). The 7-day entrance ticket adds another $60 each.
The first shock is the sheer scale of the place. The Angkor Wat area consists of a number of city complexes containing temples, ceremonial buildings and palaces, as well as many individual temples, learning institutions and water storage systems. The key dates stretch from the 10th to 13th century and some major shifts in religious approach; from an ecumenical tolerance to Hinduism and then back to Buddhism. (OK, hugely simplified.)
From Siem Reap we first passed the huge moat of Angkor Wat itself, perhaps 1.5-2km on each side and 200m across, with the temple visible across the water lilied water.
We then drove onto the moat and gate on Angkor Thom, one of the city complexes and far larger than Angkor Wat. The scenery is shrubby jungle. The bridge to Angkor Thom has a balistrade of gods and demons pulling the snake of the Hindu creation myth. Across the moat the entrance gate is surmounted by the four-faced heads that appear in so many other places here.
Driving into the city there is nothing but trees and shrub; the population would have lived in wooden houses and there is little trace.
We first go to the Bayon; one of the key temples in the park. This has the 54 towers, each with the giant heads. It also has incredible reliefs of battles against the Vietnamese, visits by Chinese merchants and everyday life. We’ve never seen such quality; they are over 800 years old.
Onto the Royal Palace and a vast pyramid structure that the French had carefully dismantled and numbered in the 1960s, before the civil war and Kymer Rouge destroyed all the paperwork and leaving a vast pile of numbered stones to be reassembled. But it seems to be coming along nicely.
Then a visit to a ceremonial parade area. Vast walls of carvings. Despite a few chipped out by thieves; still the most incredible collection of carvings we’ve ever seen.
In the afternoon we went to Angkor Wat itself. Crossing the causeway you enter into the main temple area. Other than the scale and the general environment, the temples reliefs are again the main attraction with battle scenes, key parts of the Ramayana, and creation myths in wonderful detail.