Wake up at 4.15 a.m., so a short night after a very good Indian curry dinner the evening before. To give you a price indication: we both paid tonight - yes, we returned to the same restaurant - together USD 20. As said before rather expensive for such a poor country in such a simple restaurant; but at least they have free internet access :-).
Our local guide and tuk-tuk drivers brought us in the dark via a short ride from our hotel to our first stop. We decided to do it the other way around as Lonely Planet recommended to avoid the huge crowds and we did well!! How wonderful to discover almost on our own the famous huge faces of Bayon of Angkor Thom, showing up slowly but surely as the sunrise gained importance. Bayon covers a collection of 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling, enormous faces of the Khmer king Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance to the great king himself.
Arjan & Hans went mad by taking lots of pictures, I think both had today their record day.
Toshiharu-san, a Japanese team is (or was, not clear) restoring several outer areas of this temple and I have seen the Japanese support for some other temples around Angkor Wat, too.
The temples of Angkor Wat are a source of inspiration and national pride to all Khmers as they struggle to rebuild their lives after years of terror and trauma.
The Cambodian 'god-kings' each strove to better their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world's largest religious building, Angkor Wat. The hundreds of temples surviving today are but the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire; a city that, at its zenith, boasted a population of 1 million when London was a scrawny town of 50,000. The houses, public buildings and palaces of Angkor were constructed of wood - now long decayed - because the right to dwell in structures of brick or stone was reserved for the gods.
The Angkorian period spans more than 600 years from AD 802 to 1432. This incredible period of history saw the construction of the temples of Angkor and the Khmer empire consolidate its position as one of the great powers in Southeast Asia. This era encompasses periods of decline and revival, and wars with rival powers in Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar (Birma).
The French 'discovery' of Angkor in the 1860s made an international splash and created a great deal of outside interest in Cambodia. But 'discovery', with all the romance it implied, was something of a misnomer. When French explorer Henri Mouhot first stumbled across Angkor Wat it inclined a wealthy, working monastery with monks and slaves.
Moreover Portuguese travellers encountered Angkor already in the 16th century.
With the exception of Angkor Wat, which was restored for use as a Buddhist shrine in the 16th century by the Khmer royalty, the temples of Angkor were left to the jungle for many centuries. The majority of temples are made of sandstone, which tends to dissolve when in prolonged contact with dampness. Bat droppings took their toll, as did sporadic pilfering of sculptures and cut stones. At some monuments, such as Ta Prohm - which we visited as well - the jungle has stealthily waged an all-out invasion, and plant-life could only be removed at great risk to the structures it now supported in its web of roots.
Angkor is declared in 1992 as World Heritage site and international and local efforts continue to preserve and reconstruct the monuments. In a sign of real progress, Angkor was removed from Unesco's endangered list in 2003.
Many of Angkor's secrets remain to be discovered, as most of the work at the temples has concentrated on restoration efforts above ground rather than archaeological surveys below.
Via some other more or less interesting temples we made our way in the afternoon - because of the high temperature, it was hard working .... - to the supposed to be highlight Angkor Wat. But such turned out to be a deception: huge crowds of - mainly Asian - tourists (first time since we are in Cambodia); one of the spines covered with scaffoldings, and for an unknown reason it was impossible to climb all the way to the top. The latter would have something to do with a fallen rock, but it may have something to do with fallen tourists as well: only already in our hotel we heard of 2 - and saw 1 - fallen tourists from the indeed very steep steps of the temples.
We spook to 2 other members of our group and they were as disappointed as we were. Maybe it has to do with the fact, that our day was long and it was steaming hot again, which is quite exhausting. Maybe we were tired of the numberless vendors around the complex trying to sell us for instance fake books. Anyway, the Angkor Wat temple was not our highlight, but we certainly enjoyed the first temple we visited, Angkor Thom / Bayon.
We decided to leave Angkor Wat, as the sunset would be a deception as well. It went very cloudy and even some rain fell down. The return ride to the hotel was rather pretty because of the fresh wind going through the tuk-tuk.
After another Indian curry in the nearby restaurant we had a 2 hours massage by the blind, an interesting experience. We entered a damped and not-so-good-smelling room with about 10 beds after having received by the blind principal able to speak English and who instructed 3 blind masseurs who did a good job. First of all they were sizing our length and before attacking an arm, a leg or our head, they sized it again. They knew very well what they did and found exactly the stiff muscles needing some pressure to loosen. It sometimes hurted, but such only shows - Lija, correct me if I am wrong (and: how was Egypt??) - that some work on it was necessary ; the day after we were still feeling comfortable.
No news about the Bangkok airport, we only heard that a flight programmed for tomorrow from Amsterdam to Bangkok has already been cancelled.
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