One Day Tour at Angkor Wat - part 1

I've always wanted to visit UNESCO world heritage sites. One of them is Angkor Wat, the number one attraction of Cambodia. I can still remember my teacher in Civics and Culture mentioning this to us in class. I never bothered to dream about travel at that time but now travel is my addiction.

Going back to the temples, we showed the guards our entrance IDs again. This time we went with our tour guide, Mr Chenla (sorry, forgot to get the correct spelling of his name). Our hotel was also kind enough to provide us a dozen of bottled water placed in an ice bucket to combat the heat and thirst while going through the temples.

King Suryavarman ordered Angkor Wat's construction in the 12th century to serve as his official temple and royal capital city.This is the straight path towards the towers. But this view only provides at least 3 towers. We were asked to go towards the left side for a different view.

This side from the pond enabled us to see the 5 towers. Our guide suggested this pose which we gamely did. It came out nice. :)

Going towards the entrance of the first building into Angkor Wat was a stone balustrade of a seven headed serpent or "naga". In the Sanskrit, this represents power, water and fertility in many Hindu texts. The Khmers adopted this Hindu Indian myth.

A lot of beautiful carvings were on the walls of the Central Angkor Thom. These were about the stories of their gods such as Vishnu conquering the demons, Churning of the Ocean of Milk and Battles of the Gods and the Demons. Observe that the stones are now shiny because in the past tourists were allowed to touch them. Now, a rope or a wooden barricade is placed to distance the tourists from the walls. 

We were led towards the left (or maybe the north) side of the complex. It was something like a corridor where we saw a groom and bride having their photo shoot. Not to be outdone, we had ours too.

We were led by the guide a bit further outside the gate and asked us to have a jump shot. Another cute idea from him!

There were guards who regulated the entrance to the towers. They did not allow tourists who were wearing shorts, sleeveless tops or mini dresses that didn't reach the knees. I was allowed to come up because I've put on my jacket. I roamed the second floor of the complex. The stairs were very steep. 

Up close with the center tower.

We came back down and was led to a great hall so massive we appeared very small.

Heading out of Angkor, we passed by the South Gate of the Angkor Thom. It is a challenge to wait for the area to be empty of people. I was lucky to have this shot of Wincee.

From here some tourists would opt to ride an elephant towards the Bayon temple.

The Bayon

Next, we headed out to Bayon temple. This is the central temple of the ancient city of Angkor. This was built around 1190 AD as a Buddhist temple but with Hindu elements. 

Bayon is famously known for the huge stone face of Avalokiteshvara. Here is also where tourists are able to have a nose to nose photo of the stone face.

There is an estimated 216 count of the face of the bodhisattva of compassion on the temple.

The temple had a lot of passageways and rooms in it. The place is as crowded as Angkor. We had to get a good timing to take photos without photobombers. This time Wincee took a  photo of me and in a split second after this was taken, people were coming in from different directions.

Some tourists opted to have their photos taken with Apsara costumed women. This had a fee of course.

Baphuon

Just a short walk from Bayon is another temple often times overlooked by tourists. The Baphuon temple was built in the mid 11th century and is a three tiered temple mountain dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.

Unlike the temples we have visited earlier, Baphuon almost feels like it's a temple all to ourselves.

We had to climb steep stairs again to reach the top. There were no guards this time to regulate the dresses of tourists.

This is where Wincee was able to literally have a "Temple Run" kind of photo.

Me, sitting like a boss. Enjoying my view from the top.

This is the west wall of Baphuon. I really thought there was something about the bricks that at first glance was only piled up. From my readings, I found out that this was actually constructed as the face of a reclining buddha in an abstract form. 

This concludes the first half of our tour. We were dropped off at a nearby restaurant to eat lunch and rest a bit before starting the second part.

Thank you for your time and 'til next blog! :)