theOven

Angkor Wat is one of the worlds biggest religious buildings and was built in the 12th century in the Jungles of Cambodia. It was built as a temple for Vishnu, the Hindu God, but was later changed into a Buddhist temple when the Angkor king changed religion. Angkor Wat (means Capital Small), and it was a part of Angkor Thom (means Capital Big) which together was the capital of the Angkor kingdom that reached from China in north to Indonesia in south, when it was at it’s most powerful. In the 17th century the whole city was evacuated when the Siam (Thai) invaded the country and it was left in the Jungle until the 1880’s when a French explorer discovered the temples on a trip through south east Asia.

The big attraction Angkor Wat is an amazing experience to visit. The whole place has a feeling of greatness and you can’t even imagine who it looked when Angkor was on it’s biggest. The art and details are fascinating and very impressing, however it is a bit confusing that all the wall art is from Hinduism and all the statues are from Buddhism.

In Angkor Thom, which is a city, I have to say that the Bayon was very impressive. From a distance it looks like just another ruin, but when you get close you can see 52 pillar with four faces each looking to the north, east, west and south. The South gate is also worth a close look as you pass through it to get into the city. I also think that the Bauphon will be very impressive when they finish the rebuilding of the puzzle.

Other than that I think that the Ta Phrom temple that was used in the Tomb Raider movie was good. An awesome place to take photos. They haven’t been able to clear off all the trees there yet, so it’s like a jungle is growing on top of the temple. There are also a few temples a bit further out that is worth a look.

But don’t except to see fully restored temples when you go to Angkor. After many years left in the jungle the temples had been crushed by nature, and trees and bushes was growing everywhere. The French quickly started the restoring of Angkor after their discovery. However in 1975 when the Vietnamese lost Cambodia and the French was long gone, Khmer Rouge took over the power. As a communist party they did not allow any religion, and since Angkor was a Buddhist centre, they chopped up almost all the Buddhas and Buddhist symbols in the temples and undid years of geological work.

You are allowed to go almost everywhere at the temples and few areas is restricted. This might be cool for the tourists, but not for the constructions. You can see sign of too much touching and climbing already, and whilst the temple guards are sleeping in every doorway and window, some tourists goes wild.

Cambodians have had the main responsibility to restore Angkor Wat and that has been a little bit of a disaster. In some places they have just put in brand new constructions, instead of restoring the old ones. If an area is hard to access, don’t be surprised to find a steel-construction close by to make it easy to access. At the moment the Germans, Indonesians, Indians, Japanese and French have found the Cambodians work so insufficient, that they are helping to restore all the temples in co-operation with Cambodia.

The temples were an awesome experience, but after 3 days of temples, I was a bit templed out. They started to look alike, and since most of them are built in the same era and style, many of them are similar. But this is a must stop destination if travelling in south east Asia.