I am so glad I went over to Cambodia to see this! After having spent three full days from before sunrise to after sunset (i.e. about 15 hours every day) in the many incredible temples, I feel I could easily use an other week to just wander around, discover, and spend more time in these wonderful places. There is so much to see! Literally many dozens of huge temple complexes in ruins, many of them already impressive due to their incredible size. The grandest of them, the temple of Angkor Wat itself, is of dimensions that are simply mind-blowing! And then everything is covered in most delicate stone-carvings... After their re-discovery, the ruins have been cut out of the jungle, in some parts trees remain where their roots went through the stone walls. It is very hard to capture the magic of these places in pictures; I feel I have entirely failed to do so, at least.
My favourite temple is probably Bayon where the huge faces of Jayavarman VII are smirkingly looking at you from every imaginable angle. Sunrise and sunset here are incredible. In Bayon at this time it is possible to avoid the masses which tend to be on the grounds of Angkor Wat at any time, and the sounds of the jungle around make for a more than suitable atmosphere. Bats swish around your head and give rise to a carpet of funny twittering noises in the dark niches of the towers, cats hush through the impenetrably dark corridors... I would love to spend a night up here in the ruins! Next time, maybe.
In Siem Reap, I had met Cathriona who introduced me to the pleasures of riding around in the huge park in a tuk-tuk. Discovering the ruins together was a real pleasure. I had actually planned to go around by bicycle, but the heat and the distances would have made this into very serious exercise, I suppose. It is very convenient to have 'your' tuk-tuk driver waiting for you near the ruins - you can spend as much time as you want in a place and when you are ready to move on, you just hop on the vehicle, find a comfy position, and enjoy the refreshing breeze when driving along. During the day we would mainly live on fresh coconuts (a perfect drink and the soft flesh, when young enough, is a truly delicious snack) and pineapples, which are conveniently sold amongst all sorts of souvenirs next to most temples.
