Art history come alive: Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which at first was frightening due to memories from Yunnan and horror stories about Southeast Asian busses from the Lonely Planet. However, the bus ride turned out to be quite pleasant, despite the bumpy roads, hard seats, and nonstop Khmer pop music videos. We watched the rural Cambodian landscape fly by from the windows, with beautiful palm tree gardens, expansive rice paddies, simple but elegant temples, and many small houses with straw walls all on stilts.

We arrived in Siem Reap at about 8:30PM, and we immediately went to a guest house that we had earlier reserved. Somehow, they lost our reservation, but fortunately they still had one room available. Ally, my Korean friend, and I had to share a double bed, but that was much better than paying another 13 US dollars a night for another room.

We then wandered the small town of Siem Reap, composed mostly of guesthouses, tourist cafes, and travel agents, to find something to eat. We stopped at the Ancient restaurant, and had a delicious Khmer meal of hot and sour soup (Khmer style) stir fried beef with cashews, and a dessert of homemade coconut ice cream and an assortment of Cambodian cakes. The ice cream was delicious, but I didn't particularly care for the cakes.

As we were waiting for our food, I wandered the streets in search of a tuk tuk driver for the next morning. Our hostel told us we could book a tuk tuk driver through them for 13 US dollars, but the first tuk tuk driver I asked gave us the day for 10. He planned on picking us up at our guesthouse at 5 in the morning so we could see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. Knowing we had an early day ahead of us, we finished our dessert quickly and went to bed.

Before I begin my narrative on our explorations of the city of Angkor, I thought I should give a brief history of the area. From about the 6th century onwards, there were various Khmer Kingdoms that held control of parts of Cambodia. In the 9th century, however, the king Jayavarman II managed to unify much of northern and southeastern Cambodia under one regime, and he set up his capitol in Angkor. Thus began the glorious Khmer regime, remembered and recognized by the exquisite and grand temples built at Angkor. The regime incorporated a mix of religions into their temples, mostly Hindu, Buddhist, and indigenous shamanism, depending upon the time period. The later temples, after about the 12th century, reflect a shift to Buddhism as a dominant religion. The height of the empire was in the 12th century with the king Suvaryarman II, when the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat, was built. By the 16th century, however, the city of Angkor was abandoned, not to be rediscovered until the turn of the 20th century by Europeans. Restorations of many of the temples are still in progress.

Over our trip, we visited about a dozen temples, some extremely large, and some only small structures. I will attempt to give a brief history and description of the temples we discovered.

We awoke the next morning very early, and hopped into a tuk tuk to drive to Angkor, only about 15 minutes away. I was so excited I felt on the verge of tears; I had read about Angkor in art history classes, but never had I imagined I would have the opportunity to visit (I remember thinking in art class sophomore year "Cambodia? Why would I ever go there?") When we arrived, we had to pay a pretty steep entrance fee; 40 US dollars for a 3 day pass. Cambodians enter for free, but I understand why, as very few Cambodians could enter at that price. Furthermore, the government wanted to stress their heritage. We arrived at Angkor Wat with many other tourists, and we sat on the edge of the inner mote to watch the sun come up. It was a glorious sunrise, set beautifully against the turrets of the Angkor temple reflected in the water of the mote. We then set off to explore.

Angkor Wat was built by Suyarvarman II in 1130 AD as a temple for the Hindu God Vishnu. It is meant to represent a microcosm of the Hindu universe, which according to legend is a mountain, Mount Meru, surrounded by four other mountains floating in a sea of cosmic milk. It is also like a pyramid, a common structure for many Buddhist and Hindu temples. It is composed of many concentric rectangles, with an outer gate, one mote, and inner gate, another mote, and then 3 more levels of the pyramid temple itself. Upon the outer walls of the temple are carved exquisite basque relief carvings depicting popular Hindu myths, including one particular famous carving, "The Churning of the Sea of Milk."

The carvings throughout the temple were incredible, every wall was covered with apsaras (usually beautiful topless women) gods, or floral motifs. Each banister of the outer wall was a large 5 headed snake. Particularly incredible were the basque relief carvings. The "Churning of the Sea of Milk" along the Southeastern wall shows Gods and Demons pulling on a snake that is wrapped around a mountain in the center, meant to represent mount Meru. According to legend, the Gods and Demons worked together to pull this snake because as the snake is pulled back and forth, it moves the mountain in a circular motion within the cosmic sea; this churning produces an elixir of immortality. The Gods, however, cheated the demons and stole the elixir instead of sharing it equally, so they both discontinued their pulling. Because they were no longer pulling, the mountain began to sink, so the God Vishnu, wanting to save the world, arrives and holds the mountain up. This story is portrayed on the carving.

After looking at all of the carvings and walking all the corridors, we walked to the top of the pyramid. We then had to climb down a particularly formidable staircase to return back. The carvings in the early morning sun is a scene I will never forget.

After a couple of hours at Angkor Wat, we settled down for a breakfast at a food stand. The food was pretty bland, but unfortunately, after eating nearly all of my egg sandwich, I discovered an ant cooked into my food. But luckily, I still survived. I also got to eat fresh pineapple; the fruit I ate in Southeast Asia was some of the best I had ever had.

It was here that we began to encounter the children of Angkor. Uncountable numbers of children were sent by their parents to sell such things as water, bamboo bracelets, and wooden flutes to tourists. It turned out to be very difficult to say no to them, and now I have countless numbers of wooden bracelets and a flute that I will probably never use. I guess just watching them walk around in bare feet with a sweet smile was too hard for me to resist.

After our breakfast we moved on to Angkor Thom, the largest Angkor city. The area of Angkor Thom was very expansive, but it encompassed many smaller temples. It was built much later than most of the other cities, in the 13th century, by Jayavarman VII, a fanatic Buddhist. Thus, Angkor Thom on the whole is a Buddhist city, encompassing many previously built temples. Its most famous temple, the Bayon temple, is known for the dozens of large faces carved into the turrets that look down on you as you walk in. The first thing we saw as we approached Angkor Thom was the gate. The road was lined with a version of the Churning the Milk legend, as demons pulling a snake were on the left hand side of the road, and Gods pulling a snake were on the other. The gate was huge, with a large Buddha face looking down upon those who enter.

The Bayon temple, the largest temple within the complex, was magnificent. It is composed of many towers, each with four faces, one on each side, facing the cardinal directions. There are occasional towers with only 3 or 2 faces, and the main tower has many more. I found the faces quite eerie staring down at me, although some of the faces nearer to my eyeline made me giggle, as their smiles were quirky.

After we explored the Bayon temple we moved to look at the rest of the Angkor Thom complex. There we found the elephant terrace, a long wall with beautiful carvings depicting elephant hunts. It forms one wall of the Royal Square, a concentric wall within which held another temple and the royal palace from the 12th and 13th century. I was particularly amused by the elephant heads that formed some parts of the walls, with their trunks extending down from about 10 feet about to the ground like a waterfall.

On the wall we met a German woman traveling alone. She told us extensive stories of her travels in Laos, China, and all other places of East Asia. She was a single woman who often traveled alone, and I could tell she thoroughly enjoyed the company of 3 young girls. We took her in our tuk tuk, as she had walked to Angkor and didn't have the time to visit other temples and walk back to town.

The elephant terrace was particularly enjoyable because there were very few people, so we had the opportunity to climb among the fallen rocks and ruins to explore. We even found a narrow alleyway upon the walls of which held carving after carving of apsaras and Gods.

After exploring the grounds of Angkor Thom, we moved to explore some of the lesser known temples. We then moved to a very small temple, very compact and well restored, called the Thommanon. This was also built in the early 12th century, distinctly recognized by its architectural similarities with Angkor Wat. It was very simple, but we enjoyed looking at the carvings of the devetas (female Gods) surrounded by an exquisite floral motif.

After the Thommanon we moved onto Ta Keo, which was built a bit earlier than the other temples around Angkor Wat, built in the 10th-11th centuries. It is significant because it was the first large temple built from sandstone, a great feat of engineering (the earlier temples were built from brick or the lesser aesthetically pleasing laterite). It was also the state temple of Jayavarman V, as it was this area that was the capitol at that time period. It had a beautiful mountain structure, but very little else of interest, as we discovered few carvings or any other distinguishing features.

The temple was very tall, and thus required us to climb very steep and narrow stairs. Just my friend Ally and I climbed it, our new German friend Barbara and my English friend Angela were too intimidated by the tall staircase. We sat at the top for awhile to take relief from the intense heat of the afternoon sun, and then moved on to the next temple.

The final temple we visited was made famous for the state of purposeful neglect it was left in. It is called Ta Prohm, and was built in the late 12th, early 13th century. It is a temple monastery, and therefore had many small buildings and dark corners filled with beautiful artwork. However, it was not its original state that made this temple famous. It was discovered overgrown by trees and other natural vegetation, and was so overgrown by natural elements that many trees and other plants became integrated into the foundation of the building itself. It was purposefully left in this state at its discovery, although it was restored in order to ensure that the temple did not deteriorate further than it had already. It was kept this way in order to show what Angkor looked like at the time of discovery in the 19th century.

Specifically what the temple is known for is the way that certain trees have intertwined their roots among the ruins. There are two specific types of trees that are found in the ruins of Ta Prohm, a silk cotton tree, whose roots reminded me of melting lava, and a strangler fig, with thin small roots that worked its way between the bricks. As they grown among the ruins, they change the structure of the buildings, and eventually, the building becomes dependant upon the trees for foundation. Therefore, when the tree dies, the building collapses as well. This makes restoration on this building quite taxing. Now the neglected state it was left in has brought it all the fame it receives today. More literature is inspired by this temple than any other temple, and part of Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider was filmed here as well.

By the time we reached Ta Prohm, we had been climbing the temples of Angkor in the sweltering heat for nearly 9 hours, so we were exhausted. We decided that Ta Prohm would be our last temple, but we felt very fortunate we were able to see it. Words cannot describe the beauty of this temple. It was the first temple that really made us feel like we were discovering something really special. I felt like the main character of the secret garden (besides the crowds of Chinese tourists that we had to weave our way through). Many of the buildings had already collapsed, or were on the verge of collapse and only held up by wooden frames, but it was easier to imagine this place in its glory more than any other temple. We were fully satisfied with our visit to this temple, but we knew we needed to go back and rest.

On our way out, I encountered a situation that made me almost ashamed of America (although I will always and forever love my country). I had read the Lonely Planet inside and out, and they had stressed above anything else to be polite in southeast Asian countries, such as dressing appropriately and asking permission before taking pictures. I saw two Americans, one of which was a girl in a very small tank top with her stomach hanging out, and the other was a young man. There were two children hanging in the trees and playing, and they were very cute. My friend and I got ready our cameras, and prepared to introduce ourselves and ask them permission to take  a picture. Then suddenly, these two Americans jumped in and took their picture without asking them, talking them as if they were animals in a zoo. I saw the look on the boy's face, he was clearly very uncomfortable from all the attention. After that, I seriously evaluated the way I took pictures. I did take a picture of those boys, and even though I asked them personally after the other two Americans had left, I could still tell he felt uncomfortable. I regret now taking that picture, and I tried to be more careful with the way I took pictures after that. However, I did encounter many Americans like this, that did not take into consideration being careful or thoughtful of other cultures and it made me sad. I talked with my friends a lot about it on my trip, and they thought I was being a bit too sensitive. But I explained to them that the reason I was so sensitive was because it was the lack of insensitivity on the part of Americans that I was fighting against.

We returned back to town a little sunburned, fatigued, yet fully satisfied with our day. We all collapsed and napped for about an hour before wandering into town to buy some dinner. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by our friend in Phnom Penh called the Khmer kitchen, where we ate chicken sauteed with cashews, a sticky rice soup, a coconut fish soup, and beef baked with mashed potatoes (which reminded me a lot of Shepard's pie). We then went back to the restaurant we had been the day before for a glass of wine and more coconut ice cream.

The next morning we awoke much later, and since Ally needed so much more time in the morning to get ready than Angela or I, the two of us went wandering the town to buy a bus ticket for ANgela back to Phnom Penh. Since she was short on money, she decided to spend the next week staying in Phnom Penh rather than going on with us to Laos; she would then meet us in Bangkok. On our way, we approached another young girl trying to sell us bracelets, which we bought from. Right after we bought bracelets, three of her friends showed up and asked us to buy things, and we said we were out of money. They then asked us to buy them clothes for school. They told us that their clothes were all very worn down, and that they needed some new clothes. We couldn't resist their pleas, so we followed them to a market to buy them some new clothes.

We were a bit concerned at first, because the girls seemed to know the people owning the store; I was convinced we were going to get cajoled into buying more clothes than we wanted. However, the girls (after we gave them a spending limit of 5 US dollars) picked out new T shirts, and we bought them for it. We asked them in return that they would try them on for us and we could take pictures. Even though I couldn't understand them, as they spoke Khmer, we could see the excitement in their faces as they tried on the clothes. Even though they probably didn't desperately need clothing, I could see that this made them very happy. I didn't regret the money I spent on these girls at all.

Now more broke than we had anticipated, we returned back to our hostel to meet Ally and buy some breakfast. We had a simple western breakfast, and then met our tuk tuk driver to go and see some more temples.  

The first group of temples that we visited on the second day was called the Roluos group, and were quite far away from the other temples. They were the original capital of Indravarman I, the successor of Jayavarman II (who declared the Khmer Rouge regime in the early 9th century). They included a grouping of three temples, all composed of brick. They were made famous more than anything by their distinct architecture and calligraphy written on the walls in sanskrit and ancient Khmer.

The first temple we visited was extremely small, called Lolei. It was built in the late 9th century. There was very little to see here, only a few towers with carvings on the doors. Many of the doors were sealed shut, but we could look at the beautiful calligraphy inscriptions and reliefs around the door frame.

The next temple, Preah Ko was very nearby. It was similar to Lolei, only larger. Apparently according to scholarship, it should have been a part of the Royal Palace, but no trace of the palace was ever found. It was the first temple built at Roluos, and was elegant and small. It, like many other temples to follow, was meant to be surrounded by a moat, but the moat area had been covered in vegetation. There were small halls and libraries that surrounded the main temple, although they had mostly deteriorated. The temple itself, however, still stood. It was 6 towers on a platform, all of which had doors which opened. We attempted to enter one of them, but the smell drove us away. Like Lolei, the doorframes were inscribed in calligraphy and surrounded by beautiful carved motifs.

The third and largest temple at Roluos was the Bakong temple. The Lolei and Preah Ko were certainly beautiful, but were nothing compared to the Bakong, whose beauty rivaled that of Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom. When we arrived, we were immediately attacked by more children attempting to sell us cold drinks and food. We told them we weren't interested, so they said to us "Ok, when you come back buy from us, remember you promised me!" I promised a little girl named Leah that I would buy a drink from her, and Ally and Angela made various promises too. Our tuk tuk driver offered to pick us up at the entrance on the other side, which made the little girls very angry. I told him that it was no problem, we needed a cold drink anyway, which made the children smile and cheer.

The Bakong temple, also built in the late 9th century, was the first significant mountain temple at Angkor. It was the first built in the structure that mirrored the Hindu universe of Mount Meru, as it was a mountain surrounded by a moat. The area was surrounded with beautiful palm trees and vegetation, making a clearly tropical setting. We could even hear Khmer pop over the loudspeakers (completing the Southeast Asian setting). There were many small structures surrounding the main temple, and some of them were in good condition. We were quite tired, however, so we made it a point to first climb to the top. This was relatively easy, as the steps were much wider than the temples we had climbed before.

The temple symbolically had 5 levels, representing a hierarchy in the Hindu pantheon, and the temple was dedicated to Shiva. We climbed to the top and took pictures for awhile, as we were already exhausted. We stayed there, enjoying the shade and the view, for awhile before climbing back down to meet our young sales people.

The children obviously remembered us, and took us each to their subsequent stands to get us drinks. They kept trying to push more and more drinks at us, saying things like "One more bottle of water" and "get a drink for your driver." As we sat there drinking cold sodas and fresh coconut juice, we began talking to the little girls, especially the girl Leah. She explained that she was 8 years old, and her English was already quite impressive. She also knew a bit of many other languages, such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and French. I knew this was because of her job, but I was still impressed.

Her stall was run by her aunt, who at first just tried to get us to buy cheap souvenirs. After awhile, however, she gave up and just sat and chatted with us for awhile. Her niece's English was better than her own, but we had a short discussion about education in Cambodia and America. She asked how much university cost, and I was a bit afraid to tell her. She told us that University professors in Cambodia make less than 1 US dollar an hour. We then left to see a few more temples closer to Angkor, but first all the little girls wanted to pose for a picture.

We then took a 20 minute tuk tuk ride to the temples near Angkor, where we went to another large and famous temple called Banteay Kdei, which reminded us a bit of Ta Prohm (much of the brickwork were overgrown with trees). It was a Buddhist temple, and like Angkor Thom, had many faces on large towers, especially on the main gate. It was built in the 12-13 century, although it is possible that it was built over another older temple (probably Hindu) and made into a Buddhist temple. The temple was not as open as the rest of the temples, and thus had many columns that we weaved in and out of. Each of the columns had small intricate carvings of dancing men with happy faces. It was fun to see them all looking at us from the columns.

After we came out of Banteay Kdei, we found our tuk tuk driver playing a game with some of the other tuk tuk drivers. They had a small soccer ball, and were trying to keep it in the air by kicking it, hitting it, or butting it with their head. They invited us to play, so Ally and I joined the circle and made an attempt at playing their game. It was fun for awhile, even though we both played very poorly. Everyone was so friendly, laughing and joking together. They kept throwing us the ball, trying to help us improve. After about 20 minutes, the sun was beginning to set, so we left the game to go and see our final temple.

The final temple we visited was Pre Rup, which had very little of interest except for cute lion statues on the corner of each of the levels. Pre Rup was an older temple, the first capital of the Khmer Rouge regime. We went there because we had heard that the sunset was particularly exquisite at that temple. We climbed to the top to watch the sunset with many other tourists (many of whom were Chinese and had set up tripods to take pictures). It was a beautiful sunset, set against a landscape of palm trees and tropical vegetation. It was a nice way to relax after a long two days of climbing.

For dinner that night we had Khmer barbecue, which was a fun interactive dinner similar to hot pot, or fondue. We were given small pieces of meat seasoned and covered in egg yolk. We were then given a hot, dome shaped grill, and around the bottom of the grill was a soup. We put the meat on top of the grill to cook, and put vegetables and noodles in the soup around the edge of the grill. We were at first intrigued by the barbecue because they had an assortment of rather strange meats available, including ostrich, snake, kangaroo, and frog meat. For our dinner, we got a large assortment including chicken, pork, squid, fish, crocodile, snake, and ostrich. All of the meats were extremely tasty, I was particularly fond of the crocodile. We washed down these meats with iced sweetened lime juice.

We still had one morning left in Siem Reap; Ally and I left for Laos that Monday afternoon, and Angela took a bus back to Phnom Penh at about the same time. We felt we had seen as much as we wanted of Angkor, so we wanted to spend the final morning just around Siem Reap. We had read about cooking classes at a nearby restaurant; we so enjoyed Khmer food that we really wanted to learn to cook it. Therefore, for only 10 US dollars we signed up for Khmer cooking classes. The restaurant was an interesting place; it was owned by a French man, and had a free book exchange and a welfare program for Cambodian children. They sold recipe books for 10 dollars, and the benefits went to Siem Reap children to help them attend secondary school.

Our cooking teacher first took us to the local market to buy food. I had never seen so much fresh fruit, raw meat, and other kinds of food. It was an eclectic market; one of the funniest sights I saw was a row of fresh vegetables, and randomly between two stalls of vegetables was a section of stuffed animals.

Our teacher asked us which fruits we wanted to try, and she bought some watermelon, tangerine, mango, and another fruit with large seeds (and I still don't know what it is). She also bought us some sweet rice cakes, and bought some more that she later handed out to the cooks in the kitchen as a morning snack. We bought very little at the market, as most of the food we needed was already at the restaurant.

After we arrived back in the kitchen, the staff had already prepared plates of ingredients that each of us would need to cook our chosen dishes. I had chosen to cook Lok Lak, a Khmer beef dish with a citrus black pepper sauce; Ally had chosen to cook chicken Amok; and Angela had chosen a pork soup with coconut milk and fresh greens.

We started by cutting up banana flowers, which we later used for a salad. We then cut up limes and squeezed out the juice. Lime juice was a common ingredient in the food that we ate. Ally was then asked to boil some chicken and sautee peanuts while Angela and I chopped garlic, tomatoes, and cooked chicken for our dishes and the salad we prepared. After we had chopped everything that needed to be chopped, we began cooking our dishes. Mine was relatively simple; I sauteed some garlic in oil, and then added the beef. I then added salt, pepper, and chicken stock powder. After the beef was almost cooked, I added oyster sauce, ketchup, and black pepper, mixed together with some water. I then made a black pepper sauce, which was salt, chicken base, black pepper, and lime juice mixed together. That was the end of my dish.

Ally and Angela's dishes were a bit more complicated. For Angela's dish, she sauteed pork in garlic, and then added soup base, green beans, mushrooms, and coconut milk. I'm sure she added other spices, but I didn't see because I was preoccupied with cooking mine. Ally's involved a special oil mixed with curry in which she cooked chicken with garlic. She was then given mushrooms and onions, curry, and coconut milk. The dishes seemed so complicated, but we relatively easy to make.

The best part of our cooking class was then sitting down to eat our dishes, presented nicely on beautiful dishes. We also prepared a banana flower salad, mixed with bean sprouts, diced chicken, lime juice, and peanuts. We were then given a large plate of fresh fruit. We couldn't have asked for a better last meal in Siem Reap.

After that, we caught a tuk tuk to the airport to catch our flight. Our trip to Siem Reap was more than satisfying. The temples of Angkor were a sight that I don't think any of us will ever forget. The food was amazing, even the food we cooked ourselves. And the people we met were so friendly and nice, it makes me want to visit again. This was my favorite part of the trip, and it is an experience I want to remember forever.