Laurie’s Travels: Angkor What (Wat)?

We arrived in Siem Reap on January 20th and made daily trips to the Angkor complex, including Angkor Wat, and all of the many other temples in the surrounding area. Truly amazing. Angkor Wat was a Hindu temple built in the 12th century and shortly thereafter became Buddhist. They had quite an advanced civilization that was ravaged by wars and new regimes. The exact history of the area is interesting and complicated. Eventually the jungle took over and covered the ruins, and later thieves took off with the heads of statues and structures. They have restored some temples and are in the process of restoring others. It makes me wonder what life was like back in those days. As I strolled through some of the temples, I could hear the monks praying and exotic birds singing. Other times I heard the clanking of tools used while teams of locals worked to restore these ancient structures. The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site. At times, you could hear throngs of tourists streaming through to get that one great photo. Oh wait, I guess that's what I’m doing, but hopefully more polite and patient about it! We were warned about the large number of tourists, but it didn’t ruin our experience. We found if you made the effort to get out early in the morning, you might just be one of a few people visiting a site. We visited so many temples, I couldn't name them all!

Sunrise at Angkor Wat was beautiful with its reflection coming to life in the pond in front of the temple and sunset was absolutely magical thanks to the golden afternoon lighting and the fewer number of tourists.