078 – Angkor Wat

My goal was to get up at 5 and see the sunrise this morning. That did not happen, but I did book a sunrise tour for tomorrow.
Today I will take a tour of the temples and see how many I can get checked off the list.
Like Ayutthaya, the Angkor complex in near Siem Reap, Cambodia is a bunch of temple ruins. Angkor Wat, the most famous is still a functioning Buddhist temple, although they are off to the side, and not practicing in the ancient temple itself.

I have no idea how they could with all the tourists roaming about.

Knowing I knew nothing, when I was dropped off at the main entrance by my driver for the day, I was quickly approached by several who wanted to guide me around, and today, I took one up on the offer. Glad I did because I really learned a lot.

Angkor Wat means “Temple City or Capitol City.” Angkor meaning “city” or “capitol city” and Wat meaning “temple grounds” or “enclosure.”  
Located on a site measuring 162.6 hectares, it was originally constructed in 1150 CE as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu.
It was built by Khmer King Survavarman II in the early 12th Century as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.
The temple is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu Mythology. It is surrounded by a moat and enclosed with an outer wall 3.6 km long.

So everything here is symbolic. After a long walk to get to the moat, I was told the bridge is called the rainbow bridge.
The Naga, if you remember from Thailand, is the king of the snakes, and has 7 heads. The bridge is guarded by the Naga and it’s seven heads. There are seven days of the week, (not sure how that applies to this situation, but it was said), and… there are seven colors of the rainbow. That is why they call the original bridge to Angkor Wat ‘rainbow bridge.’ 
The bridge connects earth, ocean (the moat) and leads to the heavens (the temple).

The lion is used as a guardian for protection from the bad spirits. The lions prevent bad spirits from crossing the bridge and go to heaven.

Sandstone was used to build the bridge. Cut from a mountain about 65 km from Angkor Wat and carried by elephant. 6000 elephant brought the stone from the mountain.
The original bridge 250 m long by 12 m wide and had the body of the naga running down both sides as a railing.

There are some holes in the stone in the bridge. Those were to transport the stones from the mountain to the site. Some were carried by ox cart and bamboo boat, others by the elephants.

I managed to key in on the one stone that looks like feet to me, only to find there is no significance to these ‘feet’ other than the holes used to move the stone.

Uh… huh. In a place where everything has significance, I think there could be a better story than that.

Anyway, the markings you see around the feet are from restoration efforts. Several countries are working together in restoring and maintaining the temple. The bridge was restored in 2 parts, one by Japan and the other by France. The main part of the temple is currently being worked on by Germany and Croatia, I think he said.

The moat around the temple is man made. It is 1.3 km wide by 1.5 km long around the temple and is there so the temple has a representation of the ocean, not to keep out unruly bad spirits, although that was a bonus.

Angkor Wat is unusual because the entrance faces west. Most Angkor temples face east, and I read that scholars are divided as to why it is different here, but my guide said the temple was built for the god Vishnu, and when you pray to him for protection, apparently you are to face west. He also said, because it was a mausoleum for the king, it represents sunset, or death, so it faces west. No idea if that is true, but here we are. I am not going to turn the temple around or deny what the guides are saying about their temple.
The point is, the temple faces west, and we learn later it is precisely aligned to the compass, and the alignment is very important.

After crossing the bridge, we come to the outer gates. There are 5 gates on the west wall. The middle gate is the king and only for the king. To the right and left are used for the high officials and priests. The last 2 gates on the ends were used for the elephants, and are thus called elephant gates which are also used for common people.

At the center of the temple stands 5  remaining towers. Originally there were 12 according to my guide, but several have fallen over time.

From a distance, the 5 towers can be seen only from certain places. Most of the view shows the 2 front towers and the center tower.
The view of 3 towers is so iconic in Cambodia, it is on their flag.

But I digress. It is extraordinarily hot here today. I thought Thailand was hot, but today, even in the early morning it is over 38 C and headed for 40 (That is 104F for you Americans). I only mention this because this is the first temple and I am already losing my attention span. Forgive me if I wander.

This is one of the two famous ‘reflecting pools’ popular among tourists to take pictures of the structure. Originally they were to bathe before entering the temple, but now they are for pictures. The key is, that only from the left side can you see all 5 towers. From the right, only 4 come into view, so I was advised by my guide when I come back in the morning to come to this side, stand in this spot, and I will have the best view.
Unfortunately I am short and there is a snow fence type thing in front of me at this position because they are working on a restoration of some kind, but I will make every effort to hold my camera high in this spot tomorrow morning for the ideal Angkor sunrise shot.

The walls inside the temple are covered in over 2000 apsaras, which are Hindu dancers. Most of them topless, and well admired by people given the blackened parts of the bodies from residue build up, I learned where most of the apsara carvings are different, there are only 37 styles of head dress, so many are the same.

Just as in Thailand, there is a 51.5 meter long gallery surrounding the main building, that depicts the scene of the The Battle of Lanka between Ravana and Rama. The battle took place following Ravana’s abduction of Sila, rama’s wife. Rama and Lakshamana, his younger brother, backed by monkey troops with Hanuman as their commander, marched towards Lanka to rescue Sila from Ravana. The 10-headed  and 20 arm Ravana rides a lion-drawn coach in the fierce battle, but ultimately, the monkey troops prevailed over their rivals. Rama killed Ravana and Sila was rescued.

It was a nice respite from the sun, but the pics are not great and it was hard to see, but the long hall was impressive.

Inside the main structure, there were 4 bathing pools. The ones outside were used to clean up before coming inside to… apparently bathe again. the 4 pools represented earth, wind, fire, and water, and were used in ceremonies and blessings.
They have a drain somewhere in each pool that could be closed to allow the rainwater to fill the pools up. The drains are now left open all the time so as not to cause more erosion or other issues with the structure.

And on a day I wouldn’t mind a swim. Darn it.

Above is the center point of the complex. My guide and others in the area took great pride in pulling out a compass and showing that this block is aligned exactly with the 4 directions of the compass. He also went on to explain that at the equinox, (march 21, just missed it, darn it; and September 21) the light lines up and… something magical happens. Honestly I did not understand exactly what he was saying, but he did point out that other places on the planet, such as Machu Picchu were in the exact same alignment. Extraordinary given the era they were built and the distance between them.

These are the original stairs the king used to climb up to the sacred center tower, or what is called the Bakan. Originally this tower was open to the 4 cardinal points but later, when Angkor Wat became a Buddhist center, the 4 entranceways were filled in with sandstone.
But these stairs are how the king, and those worthy of heaven went up to pray. After Angkor Wat opened to tourists, these stairs were used, but several were apparently deemed unworthy of heaven as they fell from the stairs and were injured or died.
The stairs are intentionally steep and intimidating for a reason.
So, they closed these stairs, and around back constructed a set of stairs over an original set of stairs so tourists could be tourists and not die.

These were deemed the ‘safe’ stairs. I assume because they added a railing, and yes, I did climb them. My guide left me at this point of the tour because he was not crazy enough to climb the stairs in this heat to see something he had already seen.

But I’m all about climbing on this trip, so up I went.

Left to my own devices after I decended from “heaven,” I wandered a little while trying to make a bee line for the exit.

This is a huge complex. I was hot, tired, and ready to move on, but first I had to get out, and that was another 20 minutes of walking around, trying to find the ‘out door’ and looking for one of those awful mini villages of vendors to supply me with much needed cold water.

Found the water, and I could have had a beer. The Angkor variety which is very popular in Cambodia.
I did not.

Just to finish up the whole Angkor Wat experience, I did return the next morning for the sunrise event.
I should have known when the traffic was backed up for miles that it would be busy. It was.

I should have known that I would not get the ideal spot on the fence as planned. I was close, but not quite right.
I also should have expected that ‘religious experiences,’ often are not.
All the planning and coordination I could have put into this, such as going earlier or getting the perfect spot and somehow eliminating the thousands of others trying to do the same thing… even if all of that was perfect, I cannot control the sunrise.

It was not a ‘dud,’ but it was not great either. Neat, yes. Glad I did it? I was there, so yes. Was it a moving, awe inspiring moment?
Nope.

But I tried. And it helped me realize how many of the real moments in life, the non manufactured moments that are never meant to be perfect, truly are.
Yes, bliss can be achieved sitting on a beach or on a mountain after a long climb, but equal or better moments can be had simply sitting alone; or talking with a friend. Having one of those laughs where you shoot stuff out of your nose and can’t stop laughing afterwards for no reason whatsoever.
Travel is wonderful. Experiencing new things is how we grow and relate to the world. I am not disappointed I took the time to go on this journey, but when things are not perfect, I step back and ask what did I miss?
Would a bike ride at home provide me with more satisfaction than a speedy tuk tuk ride and run to the perfect spot for sunrise?
I have no idea, but I do know I did this. It was something I will have to talk about for a long time, but it was also… not perfect.
I learned again, what others define as ‘religious’ or ‘awe inspiring’ is often not how I would define the same experience, and that… is somehow important.