There's a couple places that I knew I was going to see on this trip that loomed larger for me than anywhere else. Whatever the reason,* Halong Bay was one of them, and that turned out sort of unfortunately. And Angkor Wat is--of course--one of them, too.
*And mostly I blame Pinterest for making me look at swoonily beautiful things all day long.
So Angkor Wat is just one temple in a long series of temples built in the same area over the course of 400 years or so. It's the most famous--the one you see a thousand pictures of with the sun rising majestically behind it--and it's definitely the jewel in Cambodia's crown, but there are so many other temples in the ancient city called just Angkor, that's its almost unbelievable this place isn't MORE famous. I know! That seems crazy to say about a spot that is just as renowned as the pyramids of Giza or Petra or Stonehenge, but the sheer scope of Angkor is cooler than them all.**
**Well, cooler than the pyramids or Stonehenge, anyway. I've never seen Petra.
So the way you see Angkor is from the town of Siem Reap just to the south of the complex. You can buy a one day ticket and just hit the highlights of the park, but they also have a three day ticket that you can use over he course of any seven days. We opted for that one so that we could take our time, and hopefully see some of the hidden gems of the bunch, too. The other thing to note--these places are FAR. This is not a complex you can walk around. Luxury travelers (and we met some of them a few days later who told us how they got around the temples) may take a tour, but I will swear up and down that the best way to see Angkor is the way we saw Angkor -- by hiring a tuk-tuk. We paid $15 for the first two days and $20 for the third and had our driver all day. It was easy and cheap, and a welcome relief from the heat.
So we actually started the first day at Ta Prohm, which is one of the biggies. We left at 6am, hoping that eveyone else would be at Angkor Wat for sunrise and we could avoid the crowds. And lo and behold, that might have been the decision we made, because the place was empty. We could have been Lara Croft (Tomb Raider was shot at Ta Prohm, every Khmer will be more than happy to tell you, many many times, in fact) or Indiana Jones it felt so remote. And while the sun was low, it really gave the place that jungle ruin feel. It was the sort of place that feels like you must be in a dream, or in a movie set--that it couldn't possibly be real life. The temple itself is a twisty maze of massive stone ruins, covered over my elephant-sized tree trunks and dense jungle growth. I don't know how to describe it without using the words amazing, fantastic, and awesome to death, so here are some pictures instead!
Okay, I'm going to publish this before it gets too big and breaks the app! My next post will probably be a lot less description, and just a whole mess of pictures of some of our other favorite temples! I'll at least caption them for you!