VACATIONS FROM HOME: ANGKOR ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK

BIG BUSINESS
Party on

Angkor Wat is a sprawling, massive, majestic Hindu/Buddhist temple near Siem Reap, Cambodia. Erected in the 1100s, Angkor Wat covers over 400 acres and is surrounded by a moat. This temple is historically and culturally important to the Kingdom of Cambodia. The five towers of Angkor Wat represent Mount Meru, which in Hinduism and Buddhism is the home of the gods and the center of all spiritual universes.

So important is Angkor Wat it is depicted on Cambodia’s flag, the only country in the world where a building is featured as its main symbol.

It is also the main draw for both national and foreign tourists. Yearly visitors to the Angkor Archaeological Park, where the Angkor Wat temple is located, number in the millions. The current number of foreign visitors purchasing tickets to the temple complex this year is over 800,000. A one-day pass is $37USD, a three-day is $62USD and a 7-day is $72USD. This is a multi-million-dollar enterprise and it’s worth every Riel (Cambodian money) to see this magnificent structure.

Cambodian nationals do not pay a fee to enter the Angkor Archeological Park.

Check the updated numbers here:

ANGKOR RECEIPTS

As part of our travel package, Overseas Adventure Travels, OAT, arranged for the required pass, but if you’re traveling on your own a pass can be purchased at the Angkor Archeological Park and your photo is taken, and they do check the IDs.

ANGKOR ARCHEOLOGICAL PASSES

OH, ANOTHER TEMPLE?

Before our recent visit to Cambodia, we had no inkling of the expansive temple network beyond Angkor Wat or of the city of Angkor itself. Angkor was the center of the Khmer Empire for several centuries beginning in 800 AD and the metropolis covered over 400 square miles.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world and was commissioned by Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple and dedicated to Vishnu, the god of creation, preservation and protection, but after the monarch’s death, the city was attacked and plundered by the Chams, the Khmer’s traditional enemies. A later king, Jayavarman VII felt the Hindu gods had failed the people of Khmer and he decided to go full Buddhist and Angkor Wat transitioned into a Buddhist shrine.

FLAG OF BUDDHISM

Buddhism remains the official religion of Cambodia and Jayavarman is considered by historians as the greatest king of the Khmer Empire. During his reign he commissioned several other temples and was benevolent enough to have over 100 hospitals built and even several rest homes for travelers. He even introduced welfare for the needs of his Khmer subjects.

Anyway, over the course of our recent 5-day visit to Cambodia with Overseas Adventure Tours or OAT we toured several of the temples. In fact, we visited so many of them, that despite each one being unique and different, by the end of our trip the initials “OAT” stood for “Oh, Another Temple?”

Admittedly it got to be a blur with the temples, but OAT did intersperse the visits with other activities and were never heavy-handed with the individual history of each temple visit. Plus, we got to stay in a very nice hotel for the duration of our stay.

OVERSEAS ADVENTURE TRAVEL WEBSITE

HOME BASE

The Tara Angkor Hotel, just a short (and cheap) Tuk Tuk ride to Pub Street in Siem Reap, and just a ten-minute drive to Angkor Wat, was a very luxurious and comfortable hotel. After pretty much living out of our suitcases for three weeks during our time in Vietnam, staying five nights at the Tara Angkor hotel was relaxing. With a pool and an expansive breakfast, the hotel is great, even if we had to teach the bartender how to make a proper martini.

TARA ANGKOR HOTEL

TEMPLE TRIPPING

There are around 70 temples located in the Angkor Archaeological Park. Thankfully we didn’t try to see all of them, but here’s a quick description of the ones we visited.

Pre Rup

This Hindu temple was erected in the 10^th Century and is thought to have been used as a

Pre Rup

crematorium. “Pre Rup” translates in English to “turn the body” and in traditional funerals it is customary to rotate the body during the service. Pre Rup is not as popular as other temples and one can explore it in relative peace, but we just gave it a quick “spin” before moving along. Dad joke alert.

Banteay Srei

Also built in the 10^th Century, Banteay Srei was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. This temple is very popular with tourists and is known as the "pink temple” because of the sandstone used in its construction, or the “lady temple” because it is said the intricate carvings could only have been made by the delicate hands of a woman.

Hanuman

Banteay Srei detail

There were several spooky Hanuman statues sitting stoically throughout the temple grounds. These half-man half-monkey gods are guardians of the Hindu god Rama and are not just the titular character of the Cambodian beer. (It’s not very good… but it’s better than monkey piss). Dad joke alert.

Ta Prohm

This temple is very popular and very ominous. It was featured in the 2001 film “Lara Croft, Tomb Raider”, the live-action version of a popular video game.

Commissioned in the 1100s by Jayavarman VII and built without mortar, the temple was abandoned when the Khmer Empire ended in the 1500s. Neglected for centuries the jungle has reclaimed the site with massive, thick limbed Spung trees snaking along and sometimes through the walls. There is a preservation effort to restore Ta Prohm, but for now this very popular temple brims with people ogling the impossible growth of trees that seem like they are devouring the stones themselves.

Ta Phrom

There are bas-reliefs of various animals engraved on the stones throughout the temple, and on one archway is something that looks like a stegosaurus…that’s a dinosaur. There are many theories about this etching, which implies man and
dinosaur co-existed, including a hoax by a modern film crew. Not a Dad joke.

"Stegosaurus"

Angkor Thom

The greater area of the ancient city of Angkor was one of the largest pre-industrial cities covering roughly 390 square miles. Angkor Thom was the city center and within this citadel that covered 9 square kilometers which was surrounded by a 12-kilometer wall and a 100-meter-wide moat, it is estimated 100,000 people lived. The Royal Palace of the Khmer Empire is gone, but there are several popular temples in Angkor Thom. We got to visit one.

Tonle Om Gate

Tonle Om Gate

To enter the citadel, we crossed over the moat on the impressive Southern Gate causeway aka the Tonle Om Gate, one of 5 entries to Angkor Thom. Either side of the causeway has a massive stone carving of the mythical 7-headed Naga with stone giants pulling on the body of the serpent. One side has Devas, with slender oval eyes and wry smiles and the other side has Asuras with round bulging eyes and grimacing faces. Basically, this represents the incessant tug of war between good and evil.

The giants have eroded badly but are in the process of being restored.

The gate and its wall are equally impressive. The one temple we visited in Angkor Thom was Bayon.

Bayon

Bayon

This temple is at the very center of Angkor Thom and second in popularity to Angkor Wat. There are 37 towers and carved into them are over 200 smiling faces. Some believe this is the face of Jayavarman VII.

We were allowed to walk through the temple for a half hour and at one point a Buddhist alms box was collected by the smallest monk we encountered on our trip. He was just a boy, clad in the orange robes and shaved head of a monk. He grabbed the box, gave us a cursory look and disappeared into the dark recesses of the temple.

Angkor Wat

Hindu temples are usually oriented to the east facing the sunrise which evokes a sense of new beginnings and hope, but Angkor Wat is oriented to the west. Dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, who restores the balance between good and evil and as the preserver of life, statues of Vishnu face to the left or the west.

Angkor Wat from the west

The main causeway approach to Angkor Wat is on the west, and most tourists enter the complex this way. Our OAT tour guide had our driver bring us in from the east. There’s less traffic and it gave us an unfettered view of this magnificent temple. He would pick us up at the main entrance after we walked the galleries that are filled with carved bas-reliefs of Hindu history and climbed the towers, all the while dodging hordes of visitors.

Angkor Wat from the east

Considered to be the largest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat covers more than 400 acres and is then surrounded by a 15-foot-tall wall and then a moat. Angkor Wat is the main reason people travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia and it is a UNESCO world heritage site.

tower at Angkor Wat

When Angkor was abandoned in the 1500s, the jungle reclaimed much of the land, but conservation efforts that started with the French Colonialists in the early 20th Century and are continuous to this day are helping to maintain this magnificent structure.