Angkor Wat (Siem Raep)

Places of Interest - Cambodia

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introduction

The big city Siem Raep is the springboard to visit the eighth wonder of the world; the temples of Angkor Wat. Despite the fact that thousands of tourists are housed here every year just to go to the temples, despite its size it stayed a charming French colonial center with shady boulevards, French houses and a quiet flowing river. Thousands of hotel rooms, tour bureaus, restaurants, but also small food stalls and a cozy atmosphere.

Angkor, the Holy (former capital) city, of Cambodia has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1992 is a complex with ruin of ancient temples and cities from the Khmer Empire. The first city in the area was founded in 889 under the name “Yasodharapura” and this started a tradition of more than 500 years in which new temples and cities were built that became successively the capital of the empire.

The area is designated as a monument with it’s 400 km² in size and includes the Angkor archaeological park and the rural and forested areas around it. Angkor Wat is the largest and most famous temple of the complex. New attention was given to the jungle temple because it was used in the video games and film of Tomb Raider.

highlights

Angkor Wat:

Angkor Wat is a huge Hindu temple built between 1113 and 1145, during the reign of Suryavarman II. This temple is only part of an even bigger complex called the temples of Angkor and is the largest religious building in the world.

This temple is one of the most important relics from the period of the Khmer empire. The temple lay in the capital of the empire surrounded by a gigantic moat (where crocodiles have been seated) and by comparing its spirituality and symmetry with nothing else in the world.

The temple is built in honor of the Hindu God Vishnu and in the walls of the temple some 3000 celestial nymphs have been hewn. Probably built as a tomb, with stones that came from a quarry about 50 km away and then transported with rafts, they say that about 300,000 workers and 6,000 elephants have been working on the building. In every stone there are holes that were used to transport the stones. Angkor Wat is prominently on the flag of Cambodia.

Bayon:

The Bayon temple is the most centrally located temple of the ancient Angkorian capital Angkor Thom. This is a completely walled complex and was built in the 12th century. Bayon is best known for its 54 towers, each representing four faces. Unlike Angkor Wat, Bayon is a Buddhist temple.

Jayavarman VII, unlike his predecessors and descendants, was a Buddhist king. Yet you can also recognize Hindu elements; 90% of the population adhered to this religion. The 256 faces that count the temple may indicate Buddha, the king himself or the Hindu demigod Brahma who has 4 faces.

Most likely the above are all true and this was just one of the many possible examples of the political diplomacy of Jayavarman VII. Just like Angkor Wat, the Bayon temple is also surrounded by bas-reliefs. Since the population could not read, the king had to be able to tell his war stories in a different way.

Other buildings in the walled Angkor Thom are: Baphuon, Phimeanakas (possibly not a real temple but part of the Royal palace), a platform that is called terrace of the elephants because of the steles of elephants and a connecting platform , which is called terrace of the Ypres king.

Other attractions:

Other monuments are Ta Prohm (jungle temple), Preah Khan, Ta Som and Banteay Srei.

Angkor-Wat-Siem-Raep-Unesco-Temple-Khmer-Empire-Cambodia-Statues-Images

history

The city Siem Raep was no more than a small hamlet when French researchers found the complex of "Angkor" (back) in the 19th century. It was then still part of Siam (Thailand) which ruled over the city for more than a century. In 1907, when the French officially came to power here, it became a tourist area. No later than 1929 a large hotel came here and with a “lost” period during the war it is still "booming business" here.

The Angkor period took about 600 years; from the year 802 to 1432. Jayavarman II was the man who was a half-God (the earthly representative of the Hindu God Shiva) and the competing Kingdoms merged. A start was made with temples and an attempt with an irrigation system to cultivate the land. Syryavarman II was the one that in the 12th century restricted the Khmer influence not only in nowadays Cambodia but also in other countries such as Malaysia and Burma (now Myanmar). When he also wanted to teach the “Dai Viet” (the Vietnamese) to his empire, he led a great defeat. The Chams (from South Vietnam) revolted and attacked Angkor and destroyed the city. The Khmers chased the Vietnamese and built the temples that we now call the most important in the world; Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

In 1351 and the following hundred years the Thai conquered Angkor and the Khmers were forced to move their capital to Phnom Penh. You can see a lot of similarities with Angkor in Ayutthaya (the old capital of Thailand that was built exactly in those years). During the colonial period, the French (re)discovered the city again and the Angkor Wat temple served as a Buddhist monastery while the other temples were taken over by the jungle. In 1907 Angkor returned to Cambodia (after belonging with Thailand for about 100 years) and it was decided to restore the temples in its originality.

The damage caused by the war between the government army of Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge (with help from the Vietnamese Communists) between 1970 and 1973 had luckily been minimal, despite the fact that the frontline was between Angkor Wat and Siem Raep. The restoration work continues undiminished and it seems that the real treasures of the Khmer temples are under the ground.

tips & advice (2009)

Siem Raep has an international airport that is located about 7 km from the center. The bus station is located about 5 km from the center in the northeast. The boats to Phnom Phen and Battambang go from the small village "Chong Kneas" which is located about 11 km south of Siem Raep.

Siem Raep - Battambang: you can buy a combi ticket from Siem Raep to Battambang with a bus and boat. You will either be picked up at your hostel with a motorcycle or minibus and then taken to the pier where you will transfer to a boat in the direction of Battambang.

Costs are $ 18 and it depends on the tide of the water but on average count on about 7 hours of travel time.

If you want tasty, local (Khmer) and cheap food with a very good atmosphere, you have to spend an evening at a small table at Psar Chaa in the center of the city. Here are all small local food stalls where you can eat a delicious bite for an average of 1.50 dollars. Menus are now also often in English.

Name: Hostel King of Anchor

Address: Achar Mean Street

Price: $ 4

Content:

The hostel is just located outside the city center and it offers good rooms for reasonable prices. From the outside it looks like a super deluxe hotel and I think there are also many "more expensive" rooms. In the attic are a number of rooms without windows where it can get pretty hot but these are very affordable. There is a shower and a toilet. I had room number 7.

Staff is friendly, professional and you can book all kinds of tours etc. here. It is within walking distance of the center.

Hundreds of ruins of temples lie in a very extensive area of dozens of square kilometers. First you will have to ask yourself what you do and maybe even more important what you want to skip. Then you have to decide how many days you want to visit. Finally, there is the way how you want to “move around” in the complex.

Siem Raep and Angkor are about 7 km apart and you can visit the temples in different ways:

• You can go to the complex and walk;

• You can rent a bike;

• You can rent a tuk-tuk with a driver.

ENTRANCE FEE Angkor:

. For 1 day = $ 20

. For 2 or 3 days = $ 40

ADVICE:

Do not go off the beaten paths - there was terrible fighting here during the civil war of Cambodia and there are still many landmines around. Do not urinate in the bushes - there are very modern toilets everywhere.
If you decide to eat at the complex you can bargain easily (then the whole "restaurant" should not be full of course).
Come to the complex early at the day – an entrance-pass has to be made with a picture and this can take a while. You do not want to stand in line for hours.

TONLE SAP

It’s worthwile to book a trip to the Tonle Sap lake and view (and visit) the floating villages. It’s suppose to be a very commercial boat trip which suppose to be pretty pricey. You can also book a boat trip to the city "Battambang" where you can immediately see life on the big lake. You see both banks of the river, the lake and a big part of the river towards Battambang. You can have lunch at a local restaurant on the water where you stop halfway.

It is an open boat and there are about 25 to 40 people, including many local people.