Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm | Cambodia

The day had finally come where I would get a chance to see the highlight of Cambodia, the wonders of Angkor Wat temple. 

The group wanted to see the main temple at sunrise, and I was more than happy to go along. We had to decide the best way of getting to Angkor Wat. Some of us opted for the bus tour, which came to collect us at 5am, others had a personal tuk tuk driver. I don't think they had the same experience as us. We then entered the compound which was enormous and had to queue up to get the pass. As you can see, I look a little tired but was so excited to find out about the history of Angkor Wat. 

We then positioned ourselves between all the other tourists, some quite annoying, to wait for the sun to rise. On the way there it was pitch black, and I tripped on a hidden stone. Continuing on I felt fine, and then moisture began to build up on my flip flop. Everyone got their mobile lights out and my foot was covered in blood. Our tour guide for the day made sure it was cleaned with bottled water and plastered up. It turned out it was only a small nick so panic over.

We waited for quite a while, and the sky began to get increasingly lighter. Here is a picture of my awesome group.

We weren't so lucky to experience the famous fiery red sunset of Angkor Wat, but I did manage to get this shot...

We actually went off to explore other temples in the meantime and returned to Angkor Wat later that afternoon.

A question which came from the group was, how was Angkor Wat temple built? The most amazing thing about this temple was that it was built without cement. The stones all lie on top of each other perfectly and it is still standing to this day. All down to incredible engineering.

We even saw some monks chilling out on the steps at the back entrance.

We revisited the spot where we had been in at sunrise, and I feel I got a better shot of the temple with the reflection.

Even the Budgie made an appearance at the temples!

The second Khmer temple was Bayon, which has lots of Buddha heads. Some of the towers have four heads and a lotus flower at the top. The lotus flower is very significant to the Khmer people. 

Whenever the king died, and a new king replaced him, the temples were modified to reflect the religion of that king. This reminded me of the religious struggles in British history, particularly after Henry VIII reign. Sometimes the Buddhas would be destroyed, or turned into Vishnu for the Hindus. It turns out the Khmer Rouge also destroyed a lot of temples, as they didn't believe in religion.

Onto the next wonder, this time the one famous because of the Angelina Jolie movie Tomb Raider, Ta Prohm temple. The other two temples had shown amazing strength and resilience, whereas this temple is a strong reminder of how powerful nature can be. 

Interestingly, in the stonework, a dinosaur can be seen. The Ta Prohm stegosaurus. How amazing to think those who built this temple were even aware of the dinosaurs.

This is one of the more peaceful entrances to the temple.

Overall, the entire day was exhausting and trying to beat what seemed like the whole of South Korea round the temples was a bit of a challenge. It is all quite disorganised, and there really should be a one way system to avoid blockages of people. Other than that, I would highly recommend visiting these temples, perhaps not in the peak season like I did...

Our tour guide for the day was also extremely good at English and gave us an excellent insight into the history of Angkor Wat, how the temples were constructed and about the different religions. It turns out in Cambodia, if you have a good grasp of English, you are more desirable for the tourist trade, which is a big income generator here.