The temples of Angkor
As some of you know, we visited the temples of Angkor a couple of days ago. Since we've been busy travelling and sightseeing we haven't had time to show you what we saw and experienced there. Until now...
We arrived to Siem Reap by boat on friday afternoon. As we told you, we met Sophie, who we knew from Hoi An, and her boyfriend Simon on the boat. The four of us decided to go to the same hotel and in the Tuk-Tuk on the way there, we got to know the driver, Cobra. He offered to drive us around in Angkor for two days and also tell us a little about the temples. For a small fee, of course, but it was an acceptable fee.
Angkor is a region that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire from approximately the 9th to 13th centuries. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king". The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, from small pillars to the great Angkor Wat. Said to be the world's largest single religious monument! To quote Wikipedia. :P
We set out 5 am on saturday morning. The reason was of course to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was kind of crowded, lots of salesmen but it was still amazing! It was a sight like nothing else to watch the sun slowly rise over the almost 1000 year old temples. After the sunrise, we went into the temples. The inside of Angkor Wat itself wasn't really that amazing, but still impressive. Knowing that this site was built and used by people over 1000 years ago makes you feel kind of small and insignificant. Still, we're glad we live in this time, and not a 1000 years ago. :P I mean, there would be no beer, no Scrubs, no cell phones, no facebook. How did people even survive? A mystery...
Sunrise @ Angkor Wat. Amazing!
The city of Angkor is huge, and we tried to squeeze in as many sites and temples we could the first day. We saw Ankor Wat, the biggest temple, Bayon - the temple of many faces, Ta Phrom - the temple in which the first Tomb Raider movie was shot (that means we walked on the same ground Angelina Jolie once walked. Never felt closer to her.) But jokes aside, that temple was really cool. Trees more than 100 years old growing through the temple roof, huge piles of massive stone now crumbled, from what used to be large temple sites, the jungle slowly reclaiming it's former place by growing all over the site. The rest of the day we spent visiting lots of temples, some fascinating, some not so fascinating.
Chris in front of the Bayon temple.
Bayon temple, notice the faces on the pillars.
Goofin' around at the Bayon temple.
We returned onto town exhausted around 6 pm and had some dinner, got some shopping done at the market and had a "fish massage"! A fish massage is basically dipping your feet in a tank full of fish, hungry for the dead skin cells on your feet. Wierd at first, but relaxing!
Fishy massage...
The next day we picked up were we left off by taking a 1 hour tuk-tuk ride to an ancient temple site by a waterfall. Even though that site wasn't that fantastic, the tuk-tuk ride was still great. It is really the best way to see and feel the countryside. After that we saw another temple, and then headed back to Ta Phrom (batteries in all of our cameras ran out the day before) and then a quickie to Angkor Wat again for some more pictures. We went back to Siem Reap for a quite night and left monday morning for Bangkok & Thailand!
Enjoying the Tuk-Tuk ride!
Buying PETrol on the road to the temples.
Ta Phrom - "The Tomb Raider" temple.
Chris at Ta Phrom.
Bros @ waterfall.
/ C & M
We arrived to Siem Reap by boat on friday afternoon. As we told you, we met Sophie, who we knew from Hoi An, and her boyfriend Simon on the boat. The four of us decided to go to the same hotel and in the Tuk-Tuk on the way there, we got to know the driver, Cobra. He offered to drive us around in Angkor for two days and also tell us a little about the temples. For a small fee, of course, but it was an acceptable fee.
Angkor is a region that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire from approximately the 9th to 13th centuries. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king". The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, from small pillars to the great Angkor Wat. Said to be the world's largest single religious monument! To quote Wikipedia. :P
We set out 5 am on saturday morning. The reason was of course to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was kind of crowded, lots of salesmen but it was still amazing! It was a sight like nothing else to watch the sun slowly rise over the almost 1000 year old temples. After the sunrise, we went into the temples. The inside of Angkor Wat itself wasn't really that amazing, but still impressive. Knowing that this site was built and used by people over 1000 years ago makes you feel kind of small and insignificant. Still, we're glad we live in this time, and not a 1000 years ago. :P I mean, there would be no beer, no Scrubs, no cell phones, no facebook. How did people even survive? A mystery...
Sunrise @ Angkor Wat. Amazing!
The city of Angkor is huge, and we tried to squeeze in as many sites and temples we could the first day. We saw Ankor Wat, the biggest temple, Bayon - the temple of many faces, Ta Phrom - the temple in which the first Tomb Raider movie was shot (that means we walked on the same ground Angelina Jolie once walked. Never felt closer to her.) But jokes aside, that temple was really cool. Trees more than 100 years old growing through the temple roof, huge piles of massive stone now crumbled, from what used to be large temple sites, the jungle slowly reclaiming it's former place by growing all over the site. The rest of the day we spent visiting lots of temples, some fascinating, some not so fascinating.
Chris in front of the Bayon temple.
Bayon temple, notice the faces on the pillars.
Goofin' around at the Bayon temple.
We returned onto town exhausted around 6 pm and had some dinner, got some shopping done at the market and had a "fish massage"! A fish massage is basically dipping your feet in a tank full of fish, hungry for the dead skin cells on your feet. Wierd at first, but relaxing!
Fishy massage...
The next day we picked up were we left off by taking a 1 hour tuk-tuk ride to an ancient temple site by a waterfall. Even though that site wasn't that fantastic, the tuk-tuk ride was still great. It is really the best way to see and feel the countryside. After that we saw another temple, and then headed back to Ta Phrom (batteries in all of our cameras ran out the day before) and then a quickie to Angkor Wat again for some more pictures. We went back to Siem Reap for a quite night and left monday morning for Bangkok & Thailand!
Enjoying the Tuk-Tuk ride!
Buying PETrol on the road to the temples.
Ta Phrom - "The Tomb Raider" temple.
Chris at Ta Phrom.
Bros @ waterfall.
/ C & M
Kommentarer
Postat av: Marie
Ni är ju rena historieböckerna! Det ser helt underbart ut! Måste ha varit fantastiskt.
Många kramar till er
Postat av: Christina
Så jättefina bilder! Speciellt "Goofin´around"-bilden. Haha. Thomas gillade PETrol-skämtet! Kram på er.
Postat av: Zoran
Helt fantastisk!!!!!!!
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