18. Temples, Temples, Temples
08.10.2023
Temples, temples, temples
That headline sums up my insanely exhausting 3rd of October 2023. Let's start at the beginning. At first, though, a totally random question: Guess who hired a comfy limo with aircon for convenient temple hopping? …........ - I don't know, someone probably did. However, that someone was certainly not me. The better question would have been: Who got up at 04:00am and cycled through a rainy night while holding an umbrella? ;-)
I was surprised how much was already/still happening on the streets of Siem Reap at that time of the night. People were sitting in front of pubs, I heard monk prayers, there were street vendors roaming around with their carts and of course a few tuktuks and minivans that headed in direction to Angkor Wat to witness the sunrise. However, my plan was to hike up Phnom Bakheng, a mountain with a temple on top promising spectacular views over Angkor Wat. Cycling with an umbrella wasn't actually that difficult and less tiring than I thought it would be...at least for the first 5km. I left the inner city and took the pitch black main road to Angkor through the forest. At times the little reflector thingies in the middle of the road were the only things that gave me a sense of distance and orientation. I have to thank myself for bringing a front and rear LED bike light with me on my trip because without them it would have been very dangerous. While I was almost silently cruising through the rain I could focus on all the amazing sounds of the forest: thousands of toads/frogs but also cicadas/crickets mixed with the raindrops splashing onto leaves. It was a fascinating, calming experience, something you miss out on when taking a car or tuktuk whose engine sounds will overpower the free concert mother nature provides.
At first I failed to spot the windy path up Phnom Bakheng that was supposed to appear on my left. It was simply too dark but with google maps I figured that I had to turn around and go back a bit. I slowed down and with pretend owl-eyes I looked out for the path now on the right.
My front light was almost dead when I parked my bike at the foot of the mountain, so I decided to save the remaining energy of the battery and walked in the dark. It was perfect timing because the first light of morning glow had just kicked in. After 15min I heard a motorcycle behind me and felt cheated when a women passed me effortlessly while I had to rely on the power of my legs and also because I was under the impression that motorised vehicles were prohibited on the trail. Later on, I found out that she was the first guard on duty for the site and I reached the top of the temple only 10seconds after her. It was 5:45am and the rain had conveniently stopped – temporarily!
The view wasn't that great on a cloudy, foggy day and the light available was not enough to shoot good quality pics without using a tripod...a tool I had at my disposal of course. After walking in circles with my full frame camera and my little action cam on a long selfie-stick I climbed down the temple and photographed a bit more on the mountain plateau. It is beyond me how they (the ancient Khmer people) came up with the idea to errect a temple consisting of tons and tons of ultra heavy blocks of stone that high up. They couldn’t have made it much harder if they tried to. There are only narrow, unpaved, serpentine-like trails up the mountain. Even if they used poor elephants for the labour– how did they make it up there, let alone dragging a sh*t load of rocks with them?
Okay, phase one of my scheduled trip was ticked off my virtual list. I had the plan to cycle in a big circle (factually more a rectangle) around the area visiting a few temples along the way finishing the trip with the visitation of the Ta Phrom Temple – it’s the famous temple often shown with huge tree roots creeping around its entrance. They used the location in the 2001 Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie. Spoiler alert: there are dozens of trees doing the same thing at various other temples in the city of Angkor but somehow that one particular tree got all the fame.
On my way to get there my first stop was the Bayon Temple which is the oldest in Angkor Wat and the original centre piece of the complex consisting of dozens of temples. I have added a little map with my route and the temples I stopped at.
Quick sidenote: I kind of complained about the high entrance fee for Angkor Wat in my previous post. That was before I realised that a 3 day pass gives you access to more temples than most people would want to visit unless they have indeed take a whole week to explore and can’t get enough of them. Every temple has guards, clean up troopers, efforts are being made to preserve and restore the sites as well as to keep them safe and visitable for tourists. Seeing the bigger scheme, the entrance fee of USD $37.00 (1day), $62.00(3 days) and $72.00(7 days) is absolutely justified. Now it is much clearer for me what a big portion of the entrance fees are used for.
Little excursion onto the premises of the Preah Se Ary Metrei Pagoda while heading towards the Bayon Temple.
The Bayon temple sits in the middle of a roundabout (or shall I say rectangleabout?) within a bigger 3x3km rectangle that is separated from its surroundings by a moat with gates in the centre of all 4 sides. There are lots of monkeys around that aren't shy at all and I got warned by other tourists not to get too close to them as they can be aggressive. I had been sitting as peacefully close to them as I could, snapping away with my camera and fortunately I hadn’t been perceived as hostile by the resident animals. A baby monkey came to me touching my camera with a big lens and hood on it. Of course a that moment auto-focus didn't work and I couldn't the ultimate National Geographic worthy extreme close-up shot. Bummer! When baby monkey tried to sneak behind me to inspect my backpack I had carefully shush him away. I didn’t wan’t him to figure out how to open it and then start fighting over provisions of food and other more valuable belongings of mine. Touching his little hand was so sweet, though.
When you think of going through a temple you might imagine to walk on a flat surface, then entering the next higher level, walking around and maybe finding stairs that lead to a third level. In reality you constantly walk up and down stairs. Everytime you enter a new room or hallway, there is a big step when you pass through an opening. Since they are often slippery or decayed, people have constructed wooden constructions consisting of 2-3 steps up and then 2-3 steps down behind the opening.
Another misconception I had was that the temples are pretty symmetrical with easy to understand floor plans. Instead every hallway in all temples I visited was different. I was especially surprised to find diagonals within that otherwise strict rectangular structure of the Bayon Temple. It also features unexpected half level platforms that make it a rather complex 3-D maze. By the photos you might think that although the statues and carvings are different, in essence all temples are almost the same. Let me assure you that you will get a very different impression when you walk through each of them. There is a lot of architectural variety incorporated into those structures. I kinda rushed through the Bayon temple after spending proabably too much time at the entrance in the beginning trying to get my macro lens' auto-focus working again to take more monkey pics. Each side of the temple is only 130m long but it still took me 1 hour to make it through and I hadn’t even seen every corridor there is. Anyway, it was only 9:00am and there was no time crunch – yet!
A tour guide chatted me up and dropped quite a few interesting facts about the temple. For example when the Hindus took the temple over and used them for their own purposes they decapitated most buddha statues. You can see that phenomenon of headless statues frequently in the entire Angkor Wat temple complex. Religious fanaticism on full display – sad!
I told my guide that I was grateful for his educational teachings but that I didn’t intend to book a tour with him. I didn’t want to give him false hope that he could make some cash of me. He ensured me that it was okay but he insisted to lead me to his sister's restaurant not far away that also catered for vegetarians and vegans. I was hungry since I was being on the move for almost 5 hours already. So I followed his motorbike with my bicycle, we stopped now and then for me to take photos and he kindly explained more about the history of what we were seeing to our left and right. Around 700m north of the Bayon temple there are a lot of wooden restaurant stalls next to each other, covered in different types of tarps to protect against sun and rain.
I was seated, checked the menu and quickly understood why my voluntary tour guide wanted to make sure that I would eat at his sister's place. All meals were at least USD$6.00 or more. Not outrageous but surely a good notch higher than what you pay at other no frills outdoor restaurants. Since the area is the only place to grab food within several miles I was happy to pay that price. It meant I could continue my temple-palooza without a growling stomach.
I speed things up a bit: it started raining again several times during the day and holding up my umbrella became more strenuous but my determination to make it to the Ta Phrom Temple eventually countered the ever increasing fatigue.
My next stop was the Prasat Preah Khan Temple. To get there I first had to pass the North Gate of Angkor Thom, that is the Northern gate of the Bayon Temple and subsequently cross the moat.
I continued cycling parallel to a looong-ass basin for 3.5km and checked out the Ta Som Temple. I skipped already a few other temples along the way because I realised that I would run out of time if I stopped at every sight-seeing landmark.
I really liked the Ta Som Temple! It is more ruin than intact temple, heavily overgrown by trees and moss, embedded in the woods. The Angkor Wat Temple gets all the publicity and yes, it is huge and impressive, but personally I liked other temples more and recommend to not only go and see that one temple. The well maintained roads connecting the temple sites are beautiful with large huge trees and pleasant to travel on.
When I returned to my bike from the Ta Som Temple I unknowingly made a huge mistake. Instead of continuing my journey to the Ta Prohm Temple that was only 8km away, I cycled in the opposite direction (basically I just cycled back the same way I came from).
After a few minutes I spotted a long bridge/jetty stretching into the body of water I had travelled alongside for a while now. I felt like I had to stop and check it out because I would regret it if I didn't. Turns out the bridge lead to a man-made island with another temple (Neak Poan Temple) that is located on a tiny island within the island. Islandceptional! Lol
After I was done with temple number 5 for the day and the afternoon was progressing relentlessly, I just wanted to move on to my last stop – the “Tomb Raider Temple”. I pedalled with as much power as I could, now despising the rain that prevented me from going faster as I had to hold my umbrella that was very wind-prone and even more so at higher speed. Finally I saw a monument in the distance. It looked familiar...I took pictures of it and then it dawned on me. It was the North Gate of Angkor Thom.
North Gate of Angkor Thom
1.5km after the gate I would be back again at the Bayon Temple. My brain couldn't comprehend how I had ended up so far away from where I expected to be. It was a gut-wrenching revelation.
Bayon Temple, this time seen from the West
My phone didn't work and I suspected the battery had died, so I didn't know if it was better to cycle back again to the Ta Som temple or to continue my way, cycle around three sides of the Angkor Wat Temple and then further to my final destination. At the park entrance with a ticket check-point where I had entered Angkor Wat two days prior, I asked a guy if he could show me how to get to the Ta Prohm Temple. He could, helped me out by letting me have a look at google maps and I soldiered on. My silly mistake earlier caused a detour of over 20km when I was already exhausted and late. Passing the South side of Angkor Wat was mentally tough, knowing that I could just scrap my plan and be home in 25min. But I told myself that I might never come back and then wish until the end of my life I had not given in to laziness and convenience. Also I am very stubborn if I want to make something happen. I changed my mindset and saw reaching the last temple as a challenge, a workout. That way I embraced the tiredness and hunger and fought against it fervently.
I am glad to report it was worth it. The Ta Prohm Temple is special with dozens of ancient tree roots growing in, through and around the very decayed temple structures. It definitely looks more amazing live than in the photos that can not convey the aura of the temple remains.
If there weren’t all the other tourists it would be the perfect location to spend a relaxed day at by yourself, with your partner, your family or friends. Sit in the shade of the massive temple walls or in the dappled light of the trees, read a book, have a picnic, play a board game. There are so many little nooks and secluded places within the temple that make you feel protected and immersed in nature. Because of the picturesque decay and plants slowly reclaiming the territory the site exudes fairy-tale vibes.
When I reached Siem Reap after cycling close to 60km it was 06:30pm and already dark. I took a shower and made my way to the Sambo restaurant to say goodbye to the incredible staff there.
As mentioned before they have helped me to boost my Khmer vocabulary significantly with the outcome that I really like speaking the language especially after receiving the positive feedback different people that I speak well and clearly. That came to me as a big surprise because regarding pronunciation I am still unsure about the phonetic nuances of many words and I am certain I don’t do it 100% correctly. Fortunately there seems to be quite a bit of latitude for foreigners to butcher the language and still being understood by locals. :-) I have expanded from only knowing the mandatory “thank you” to being able to say: yes, no, hello, good morning, good night, how are you, I am fine, yummy, how much?, bye and 2 more ways of saying thank you. It is a pity that I will leave Cambodia next week and my Khmer languages skills will likely gather dust for a while.
When I look back at that insane sight-seeing day it is not only the temples and surrounding landscapes I saw and photographed that I cherish but the huge amount of interactions I had with locals and other tourists. With some of them I talked up to 50 minutes. I mentioned already the not-really-my-tourguide-guy, then there was an Indian couple that yelled after me when I had left my waist belt with my phone, money, room and bike keys on the ground when another tourist had taken a portrait of me and I had taken it off for the occasion. Akush ( I believe that was his name) was a math teacher living in the USA for many years. Then there was Olga and her daughter from Estonia I took photos for with their phone. She responded in kind before we walked back together to the entrance of the Preah Khan temple having a nice talk. There was Poang, a Cambodian girl that showed me where I had to park my bicycle at a parking lot. I engaged in a funny and pleasant chat with her. Shortly after that on the bridge to the Neak Poan Temple I provided rain cover to Bogdan from Romania offering my umbrella. He was (and still is) a conservationist around my age who was basically doing my planned travel journey through different Asian countries in reverse. We were like-minded in our world view, sharing the love for endurance sports and somehow it felt like I could have been him if I had been born and grown up in Romania. We had an inspiring conversation. And lastly there were Rolando and Ariadne who I met at the Ta Prohm temple. They are a couple from Mexico/USA (?) travelling around the world since borders had opened up again after the pandemic craziness. Rolando is working online while Ariadne is a Salsa teacher trying to figure out how to combine the travel lifestyle financially with her passion for dancing instead of going back to do her regular job in something like banking (can't really remember).
For you, those people are simply strangers and it doesn’t matter what they do and where they come from but for me my encounter with each of them had and probably will have a profound impact on my life and they all contributed to my exciting day that I fondly will think of for many years to come.
