Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat: Part 7 of Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Angkor Wat, Bayon and a Failed Sunset

Angkor and the Khmer Empire: A Little History

We came to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, and that was what we did on the very first morning. But first a couple of paragraphs of history

Angkor Wat on the Cambodian flag

The Angkorian period started in 802 when Jayavarman II moved his court north from Sambor Prei Kuk (see yesterday’s post) and built the first temples. Suryavarman II (1113 - 1150), the builder of Angkor Wat, kicked off the golden period which ended in 1219 with the death of Jayavarman VII, the so-called Leper King (there is no hard evidence that he ever contracted leprosy). Jayavarman VII was a prolific builder but after his reign no further stone temples were built; perhaps the switch from Hinduism to Buddhism discouraged temple building or maybe local resources were exhausted.

Jayavarman VII

The temples and palaces remained in use until 1431 when they were sacked by the Thais and the Khmer empire was forced to move its capital south. From 1570 to 1594 there was a short lived royal rediscovery of Angkor and an even shorter burst of interest in the seventeenth century, then it was left to the jungle. It was rediscovered by French missionary Charles-Emille Bouillevaux in 1858.

The Khmer Empire in 900 CE

At its greatest the Khmer empire extended from southern Burma to the Malay Peninsula. Their main rivals were the Cham whose ruins we saw at My Son two years ago and whose descendants we met a few days ago in Chau Doc. They were decisivly defeated by Jayavarman VII in a naval battle on Tonle Sap Lake and today live as an often impoverished minority in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Angkor Wat

Some 12km outside Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and the rest of the vast Angkor complex, sits in a national park surrounded by tropical foliage. Guided by UNESCO the Cambodian government has resisted the temptation to allow hotel building round the park and they would even like to remove the few local inhabitants. Buying them out would cost money and UNESCO frowns on strong-arm tactics, so they are still there. They are doing no harm, so why not to leave them where they want to be?

As we parked, our car was surrounded by the usual swarm of kids selling postcards. They wanted $1 for ten, compared with 50¢ each at the National Museum, so we bought some. Lynne also fulfilled her need for yet another fridge magnet. We may soon need a bigger fridge.

Lynne outside the perimeter wall, Angkor Wat

Originally a Hindu temple to the god Vishnu, Angkor Wat is by far the largest of the Angkorian temples. Building started in 1120 and took 30 years.

Through the perimeter wall, Angkor Wat

We approached from the east where the ground is higher so you do not have to look up to see the classic outline of the five corn cob towers (of which three are visible from most angles).

Approaching Angkor Wat from the east

Originally surrounded by a moat, the temple is built on a stone platform with three concentric enclosing walls.

Angkor Wat, surrounded by a moat and sitting on a stone platform

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

On top of the first wall is a series of galleries with carvings depicting scenes from the Mahabharata and other Hindu epics. This is a blog not a guide book, so I will not describe them all, but I will mention the Churning of the Ocean of Milk on the east gallery partly because I like the story, but also because the, presumably new, carving is crisp and clear. 88 gods hold one end of a monstrous snake, while 92 demons grip the other. The snake is wrapped round the holy Mount Mandara which rises from the Ocean of Milk. By pulling alternately they are attempting to twist the mountain and thus churn the Ocean of Milk into amrita, the elixir of everlasting life.

Gods heaving on a giant snake, The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Angkor Wat

Apsaras dance above the Ocean, while the ‘waters’ teem with marine life.

Dancing Apsaras, The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Angkor Wat

After overcoming various difficulties they succeed and the Ocean gives birth to Airavata, the three headed elephant god and Lakshmi the goddess of beauty who becomes the wife of Vishnu. The demons attempt to abscond with the amrita but Vishnu intervenes to ensure that eternal life is reserved for the gods. [Update: This was the first of several encounters we have had with the story and I have collected all the images in a single post.] Elsewhere some carving is damaged, some has been restored, but in the most sheltered sites the original is in excellent condition.

We reached the second enclosure by way of the Gallery of a Hundred Buddhas, the statues collected here during the temple's later incarnation as a Buddhist monastery. Some were moved to Angkor conservation in 1970, the rest were destroyed along with much else, by the Khmer Rouge.

Second level gallery from the top of the first enclosure, Angkor Wat

1300 apsaras, each one unique, filled the gallery enclosing the second level.

Second level gallery, Angkor Wat

The stone stairs to the third level are steep, narrow and uneven. In the past they were sometimes open to visitor and sometimes closed depending on how many accidents there had been recently. Now, a set of wooden steps, still steep but no longer narrow and uneven, allow anybody of modest fitness to reach the top - though some need rather more help and reassurance on the way down.

The old stone steps to the upper level, Angkor Wat

From the top the views over the complex.....

Looking east over Angkor Wat from the third level

....and surrounding woods are breath-taking.

Angkor Wat and the surrounding forest

We made our way slowly down and out through the western entrance, before walking along the edge of the more southerly of the two pools flanking the central causeway. We turned to face the classic view of Angkor Wat, complete with reflection in the pool.

Looking back at Angkor Wat from the west

Lunch in Siem Reap

It was nearly lunchtime and we drove back into town where the company had laid on a meal in one of the upmarket restaurants near our hotel. We sat in a pleasant shady courtyard, but the place was seriously short of atmosphere, indeed there were only four people, including us, in the restaurant.

We ate a set Khmer menu carefully calibrated to upset nobody. S returned as we finished. 'Wasn't that better than yesterday,' he said. We disagreed. The restaurant in Kompong Thom may have been large and noisy and not, at least outwardly, as clean, but the vast majority of lunchers were locals, it felt real and the food was as good - if not better - and half the price. He found our point difficult to grasp.

Lynne was flagging. After conquering the cold she had picked up on the plane she was now struggling with a stomach problem and it seemed a good idea to have a little down time during the hottest part of the day.

The central section of Angkor Wat, the photo is a bit out of place, but so what?

Angkor Thom and the Bayon Temple

We set off for Angkor Thom at about 3.30. A little north of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom was once a city, surrounded by a moat and protected by an earth embankment. Sacked by the Cham in 1177, it owes its later fortification to King Jayavarman VII.

An 8m laterite wall sits on the embankment. The city, which covers 3km², is rectangular, the walls aligned north-south and east-west and there are five gates, one on each side with an extra one, the Victory Gate, on the east.

We entered through the south gate, which is the grandest of the five and is surmounted by a gopura, like an Indian temple gate. The causeway across the moat is flanked by 54 gods on one side and the same number of demons on the other, all hauling on a stone snake, as in the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. Sadly, most of the heads are replicas.

South Gate, Angkor Thom

Inside, a wide grassy glade leads down to the Bayon, the only temple we would see today, leaving the rest of Angkor Thom for tomorrow. The grass by the roadside was covered with monkeys. Some chased each other round squealing loudly, while others sat in dignified silence picking fleas from each other's fur.

Bayon, Angkor Thom

Built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries by Jayavarman VII, Bayon was the last state temple to be constructed and the only one intended as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine. Later the central statue of Buddha was replaced by one of Vishnu and, when Theravada Buddhism became the state religion, Vishnu was supplanted by a stupa. It is now a jumble of stones on several levels and it is difficult to pick out what was what.

Inside Bayon, Angkor Thom

The most notable features of the Bayon are towers bearing four large, enigmatically smiling faces, possibly Jayavarman VII, one pointing in each of the cardinal directions. There are dozens of them, and the image is repeated on a million post cards.

Stone faces, Bayon, Angkor Thom

Some of the carvings are in excellent condition (or, more proably, restored) including those of the naval battle on Tonle Sap Lake in 1177 when Jayavarman VII decisively defeated the Cham.

Jayavarman VII's naval battle against the Cham, Bayon, Angkor Thom

Sunset from Phom Bakheng

Leaving Angkor Thom by the same gate as we arrived, we parked just outside at the foot of Phom Bakheng.

Lynne felt unwell so decided to stay on the car with the driver, the helpful and solicitous Gung (other spellings may be available), while S and I climbed Phom Bakheng to watch the sunset.

Stalls at the foot Phom Bakheng

Steep and badly eroded stone steps lead straight up the side but we – like everybody else - followed a well-made and gently graded track winding upwards round the hill. The path was further improved by the makers of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider who needed to haul their filmmaking equipment to the top.

On the summit, wooden steps lead up to a temple platform where all the peoples of the world were gathering to watch the sunset.

The steps to the summit platform, Phom Bakheng

S stayed at the bottom as numbers on the platform are limited, people being allowed up in small batches. Realizing I would be up there for forty minutes or more, I phoned Lynne to check she was happy with the idea before climbing the steps.

On the temple platform, Phom Bakheng

Being on the platform was like standing on the Tower of Babel; English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, Italian and Chinese were the languages I recognized with more or less confidence, but I am sure there were many more. There were Buddhist monks, too, their vow of poverty not apparently affecting access to digital media.

Buddhist monk, Phom Bakheng

The views were spectacular. To the north was jungle, while to the northwest the artificial lake of West Baray was surrounded by paddy fields. The lake was constructed in Angkorian times and there is a temple on an artificial island. To the southeast was the distinctive outline of Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat from Phom Bakheng

We watched the sun descend in hope but with little expectation. With a little finger's length still to go it lost its glare, turned into a fiery red ball and vanished into the bank of scuzzy haze blanketing the horizon. The assembled multitude shrugged its collective shoulders and headed downwards.

The sun disappears into the haze, Phom Bakheng

Lynne was awake when we returned but went to sleep as soon as we were back at the hotel. Later she was in no fit state to venture any further than the next door restaurant where she watched me drink some draught beer (not, as far as I could tell either adulterated or watered down) and eat a Thai red curry - or was it a Khmer curry? I am not sure there is much difference. The chicken came in a rich coconut sauce which was good, though a hint of chilli would have been appreciated; the Khmer, if not actually chilliphobic seem happy enough to leave them alone.

Starting down from Phom Bakheng

Working on a kill or cure basis Lynne had a gin and tonic and a plate of chips. At the time she pronounced it 'good' but it all reappeared later, so perhaps it was more kill than cure.

Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Part 1: Return to Saigon, Cookery and Music

Part 2: Through the Mekong Delta by Sampan
Part 3: Chau Doc
Part 4: Phnom Penh (1) Royal Palaces and Museums
Part 5: Phnom Penh (2) Killing Fields and Torture Chambers
Part 6: Across Cambodia to Siem Reap
 Part 7: Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat
Part 8: Siem Reap (2) Angkor Thom and Other Temples
 Part 9: Siem Reap (3) Tonle Sap Lake
Part 10: Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town
Part 11: Luang Prabang (2) Back on the Mekong
Part 12: Luang Prabang (3) Elephants
 Part 13: Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
Part 14: Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and UXO
Part 15: Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha
Part 16: Vientiane (2) A Buddha Park and a Fond Farewell

Across Cambodia to Siem Reap: Part 6 of Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Phnom Penh to Siem Reap by Car

Cambodia

Phnom Penh to Skune

S picked us up at 8.30 with his driver, the ever-cheerful Mr Gung, and we left Phnom Penh heading north for Siem Reap.

Through the straggling suburbs of Phnom Penh

It took a long time to leave the straggling city behind, but eventually we crossed the Tonle Sap and headed north into Kompong Cham province across a flat land of red earth with paddy fields stretching as far as the eye could see.

Paddy fields stretching away into the distance

The highway was being widened and improved which meant that for substantial sections the usable road was very narrow indeed. There was no surface at all through the small town of Banteay which disappeared in a cloud of red dust.

Basket transporter - There is a motorbike under there somewhere

Skune and Fried Tarantulas

We stopped at a rest house just outside Skune, a town famous for its tarantulas which are stir fried and sold as food. According to the Rough Guide our car should have been surrounded by spider sellers as soon as it stopped, but this did not happen and we saw only one stall selling them. Cooked, they looked less like spiders than I had feared, but they still did not look like food. The big pile of grasshoppers mixed with garlic and chilli looked a little more edible, but not much.

Stir fried tarantulas, Skune

Perhaps closer to comfort food were grolan, bamboo tubes stuffed with sweetened sticky rice cooked with black beans and coconut.

Grolan, Skune

Skune to Kompong Thom

We continued into Kompong Thom province along a road lined with houses on stilts - the rainy season really is rainy here - through country where the main crop is cashew nuts. Cashew farmers live in poverty, S told us, because although there appear to be a large number of competing wholesalers, they are all owned by one man who uses his monopoly powers to keep prices for the farmers low and the consumers high.

Nuts set out to dry, near Skune

As will become clear, S liked his conspiracy theories. At this point I accepted his story, but later claims about subjects as diverse as the Cambodian genocide and draught beer called it into question. He did, though, raise an important point a little later, and on this one he was in agreement with the generally more plausible C. 'Cambodia,’ he said, ‘is a parliamentary democracy. We have elections every five years, and for the last thirty five years we have had the same prime minister. How do you think that happens?'

House on stilts, rural area Kompong Thom Province

Hun Sen formed an interim government under the Vietnamese in 1979. He has been in power ever since and his CPP party has won every election. There are active opposition parties and observers say the elections are free-ish but C and S are right, such political longevity does not happen where democracy functions normally.

Houses on stilts, rural area Kompong Thom province

Kompong Thom: Edible Insects and Lunch Without Them

We reached the small and surprisingly neat state capital - also called Kompong Thom - in time for lunch. Beetles.....

Beetles, Kompong Thom

...and locusts were available, but I still have difficulty accepting insects and arachnids as food. Across the road from the insect stall was a large restaurant which seemed to be feeding half the population off Kompong Thom, and such itinerant foreigners as were passing through. A tomato based soup rich with prawns and pieces of squid was more to my taste, and a dish of chicken with the inevitable cashew nuts was pleasant if hardly ground-breaking.

Locusts, Kompong Thom

Sambor Prei Kuk: 6th Century Chenla Capital

National Highway 6 would take as all the way to Siem Reap, but a little north of Kompong Thom we turned onto the 64 which has recently acquired a metalled surface. After a few kilometres we left the tarmac and joined a well-made but unmetalled road which took us the 15km to Sambor Prei Kuk.

Phnom Penh, Kompong Thom and Siem Reap on the map of Cambodia

In the 6th century an area known as Chenla, covering most of modern Cambodia, seceded from the declining Funnan Empire of the Mekong delta and built a capital at Sambor Prei Kuk. From 616 to 635 it was ruled by King Ishanarvarman who started a two hundred year period of tower building. The towers are all that remain of the capital which declined steadily in importance after 802 when Jayavarman II pronounced himself universal monarch and moved his capital to Angkor, thus starting the Angkorian period of Cambodian history.

The nearest tower has collapsed and only the lingam remains, Sambor Prei Kuk

Several groups of towers and the remains of a pool lurk in the jungle. They were first cleared in 1962 but war intervened and the area became finally free of guerrilla activity only in 1998.

Sambor Prei Kuk

A couple off small children joined us, a boy and a girl, hoping to sell us scarves. They asked our names, introduced themselves and followed as S led us to the first set of towers.

They are simple structures in reasonable repair considering their age. Despite being guarded by lifelike roaring stone lions, the statutes of gods have long disappeared, though a lingam or two remains.

Roaring stone lion, Sambor Prei Kuk

There are three main groups of towers, the central group also having the remnants of a ceremonial pool.

Ceremonial pool, Sambor Prei Kuk

The children scampered along behind us, occasionally giving advice, 'mind your step,' 'be careful of those roots they're slippery,' but leaving us alone when we came to look at the towers.

The final group are octagonal, and when we discovered the children could pronounce this tricky word better than our professional English speaking guide, we knew we were eventually going to buy some scarves.

Octagonal Tower, Sambor Prei Kuk

Octagonal towers may have seemed a clever idea at the time, but it looks less clever 1400 years later. Cracks have appeared in the angles and several are slowly splitting into 8 parts.

Whether the wall holds up the tree of the tree holds up the wall is debatable, Sambor Prei Kuk

It was a hot day and walking along the shady jungle paths was very pleasant, but to venture far off the well-worn route runs the risk off encountering unexploded ordinance. Careful exploration is still finding more towers hidden in the jungle, but we remembered to say a silent ‘thank you’ to the brave people of the mine clearance teams who had made our visit safe – not to mention the lives of the ordinary people.

The paths are safe, the surrounding jungle is still mined, Sambor Prei Kuk

We asked the kids how much they wanted. ‘One dollar,’ they said. At that price it was hardly worth bargaining so we gave them a dollar each and became the proud owners of two scarves.

Indefatigable scarf sellers, Sambor Prei Kuk

Our Guide Provides an Alternative View of Pol Pot

As we walked back to the car, S said, ‘Pol Pot was born near here.' We nodded and he continued: 'He was not a bad man.' We looked astonished; we had read that some Cambodians retain a surprising regard for him, but there had been no hint of it from C. S went on to explain that Pol Pot was a victim not a perpetrator, trapped into being the unwilling agent of others. ‘It was all the fault of the Vietnamese and the Chinese,’ he said.

The claim makes little sense. The Vietnamese had just brought their own massive war to an end and were preoccupied, the Chinese supported the Khmer Rouge, as they would any other new nominally communist regime in southeast Asia, but although they had influence they were too distant to have power. Nonsensical as it may be, it represents a Cambodian way of coming to terms with the Cambodian on Cambodian nature of the killing. S was not a Cambodian ‘holocaust denier’- millions of people died and every family was affected, so that is not a tenable position - but he did say that the photos we had seen in Luol Sleng were taken by the Vietnamese to blacken the name of Pol Pot and asked: 'Why would the Khmer Rouge document their own crimes like that?' Clearly he has never been to Auschwitz and seen the mug shots on the walls there. The Nazis proved beyond doubt that genocidal killing and meticulous bureaucracy are not mutually exclusive.

'Why are the perpetrators not being sent to the Hague for a proper trial?' he asked, and answered himself: 'Because the Chinese will not allow it.' It was a valid question, but maybe not quite the right answer. Why has there been so much delay? Perhaps there are some people still in or close to power who need to hide certain events in their past.

Spean Praptos Bridge

Spean Praptos Bridge

Back on Highway 6 we continued for a couple of hours, pausing at Spean Praptos Bridge. Built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII (The so-called Leper King) its 20 pointed stone arches span 87m across the gorge of a small river. Once the longest corbelled stone-arch bridges in the world it is exceptionally wide for its date and had proved to be very robust. It carried all the traffic of the highway until recently when a new bridge was built and the old one now carries nothing heavier than motorcycles.

Spean Praptos Bridge

Arriving in Siem Reap

We reached Siem Reap at dusk and checked into a hotel beside the narrow and barely moving Siem Reap River.

Siem Reap is not a large town with some 50,000 permanent residents, but in the season tourists double the population and it has all the facilities that such a mass of relatively well-off people could require.

It had been a long day and we did not feel like going far, but the restaurant next door provided a good dinner of ginger with chicken (a ginger lover's delight) and beef lok lak, which appears on every menu and consists of stir fried beef in a sweetish sauce accompanied by chips, which pleased Lynne as she was more than tired of rice. Washed down by a pitcher of draught Angkor beer it came to a very reasonable 12 dollars.

S later told us that draught beer was cheaper because it was watered down and adulterated. After a thorough organoleptic examination of the fermented beverage situation (beer-swilling), I decided that although neither Angkor beer nor Cambodia beer are ever going to win prizes, they are perfectly acceptable in both bottled and draught form, and the draught is, if anything, slightly preferable.

Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Part 1: Return to Saigon, Cookery and Music

Part 2: Through the Mekong Delta by Sampan
Part 3: Chau Doc
Part 4: Phnom Penh (1) Royal Palaces and Museums
Part 5: Phnom Penh (2) Killing Fields and Torture Chambers
Part 6: Across Cambodia to Siem Reap
 Part 7: Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat
Part 8: Siem Reap (2) Angkor Thom and Other Temples
 Part 9: Siem Reap (3) Tonle Sap Lake
Part 10: Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town
Part 11: Luang Prabang (2) Back on the Mekong
Part 12: Luang Prabang (3) Elephants
 Part 13: Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
Part 14: Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and UXO
Part 15: Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha
Part 16: Vientiane (2) A Buddha Park and a Fond Farewell