Ancient Angkor

Arriving into Cambodia at Siem Reap we went straight to one of the highlights of our Southeast Asia trip. The Angkor Archaeological Park includes the remains of many ancient cities dating from between the 9th and 14th centuries when the Angkor empire was one of Southeast Asia's greatest. Many of the stone temples and religious structures are incredibly well preserved and are a magnificent palaces of the gods built by the kings. The temples span both Hindu and Buddhist periods of the empire and include shrines to Shiva and Vishnu as well as the Buddha and the kings themselves. Symbols such as nagas (mythical eight-headed serpents), asparas (celestial dancing nymphs), smiling face towers, and lingas (phalluses) adorn the temples many of which are themselves structured to symbolise the mountains of Mount Meru, the centre of the Hindu universe.

Angkor Wat is the most famous city and is the world's largest religious monument. It's central temples feature the towers which are Cambodia's national symbol and its city is surrounded by a moat and a wall with many intricate bas-reliefs - carvings showing stories such as the battle of Kurukshetra between rival Hindu clans and the procession of King Suryavarman II, the founder of Angkor Wat.

The experience of magnificent Angkor is only somewhat tainted by the hoardes of snapping tourists zipping around the site in noisy tuk tuks and trudging around in big tour groups. In keeping with the fitness efforts and budgetary constraints we opted to travel around by bicycle, a slower but more relaxed approach although it seemed that our $2 bicycles were considerably less well maintained than every other cyclist we saw. We just went to around six or so of the many main central temples but were able to enjoy these at our own pace, giving Ali time to attempt to locate all the details from our guide book. Although the large numbers of women and children touting their souvenirs, drinks, fruits and guidance can become wearing, many have very good English as well as an excellent sales patter. The Cambodians seem so incredibly friendly and we enjoyed a long conversation with one woman who told us all about her wedding in Cambodia and life as a vendor. She married an Austrian and hopes to move to Europe but doesn't seem to get on with his family because she is too slow at cooking and cleaning!    

After two days cycling we took a tuk tuk for the long journey to Beng Melea, a distant temple deep in jungle which is taken over by trees, roots and vines and Banteay Srei, a miniature temple with small and intricate cavings which are said could only be the work of women, as well as the Cambodian Landmine museum where we began to learn about the recent and troubled history of modern Cambodia.

Unfortunately Leila accidentally overdosed on super drowsy travel sickness tablets. Whilst this created some challenges during the day it did enable her to benefit from a solid 9 hour sleep on the night bus onwards to Sihanoukville (a far superior night bus to our previous experience with near horizontal beds and no noticeable vomiting).