Wat were some of the most amazing I've ever seen. In scope, they far surpass what's left of the fabled Incan ruins at Machu Picchu or the monolithic stone Moai of Easter Island; while they cannot compete with the sheer grandeur of Java's great Borobudur, the Temples of Angkor--if taken as a whole--rival that great complex in magnitude.
Many people--myself included until recently--associate images from a series of sites loosely catenated by some beautiful tree-lined avenues with Angkor Wat, which, though it is certainly the most ambitious of the group, is just one in the series. The rest vary in size and scope from small mausoleums almost lost amid the jungle (and seldom visited) to the great terraces that house the 200-plus heads of 12th-century (self-styled) God-king Jayavaraman VII. Beyond Bayon to the East lies Ta Prohm, or what is now known as "the Tomb Raider temple," crumbling and flaking off under the weight of great hundreds-year-old trees.
Julie, Sila Kai, and I spent three days touring the ruins: the first we spent as a family, biking the 5 kilometers from our hotel to the beginning of the site, and biking and stopping at various places throughout the early afternoon. The second day, while Julie took Sila Kai for the morning, I headed off at 5:00 a.m. to join the "penitent" (tourists, really) to catch an elusive sunrise. As it's the rainy season, and it was dumping buckets for much of our four days, you can judge for yourself how my "sunrise" photos turned out. Intrepidly, my Kiwi friend Amanda and I continued on our adventure shortly after sunrise, biking our way through the complex--often off-roading to see some of the out-of-the-way places. The following day was Julie's to explore, but I did make it back with SK in the late afternoon for a few hours. We stayed closer to home at Angkor Wat proper and checked out the extensive bas reliefs that adorn the outer walls of the main temple.
Though different than what I expected, the experience and the temples themselves were everything you might imagine, everything I hoped and dreamed they'd be. For now, it's back to waking at 5:00 a.m. not to follow the masses in pre-dawn pilgrimages, but to bike across the dusty and chaotic streets of Phnom Penh, or PP as the locals say, to teach a 6:00 a.m. English class.
You can't ask for much else from this ol' world. So, if anyone asks, you tell 'em, He's doin' just fine.
Many people--myself included until recently--associate images from a series of sites loosely catenated by some beautiful tree-lined avenues with Angkor Wat, which, though it is certainly the most ambitious of the group, is just one in the series. The rest vary in size and scope from small mausoleums almost lost amid the jungle (and seldom visited) to the great terraces that house the 200-plus heads of 12th-century (self-styled) God-king Jayavaraman VII. Beyond Bayon to the East lies Ta Prohm, or what is now known as "the Tomb Raider temple," crumbling and flaking off under the weight of great hundreds-year-old trees.
Julie, Sila Kai, and I spent three days touring the ruins: the first we spent as a family, biking the 5 kilometers from our hotel to the beginning of the site, and biking and stopping at various places throughout the early afternoon. The second day, while Julie took Sila Kai for the morning, I headed off at 5:00 a.m. to join the "penitent" (tourists, really) to catch an elusive sunrise. As it's the rainy season, and it was dumping buckets for much of our four days, you can judge for yourself how my "sunrise" photos turned out. Intrepidly, my Kiwi friend Amanda and I continued on our adventure shortly after sunrise, biking our way through the complex--often off-roading to see some of the out-of-the-way places. The following day was Julie's to explore, but I did make it back with SK in the late afternoon for a few hours. We stayed closer to home at Angkor Wat proper and checked out the extensive bas reliefs that adorn the outer walls of the main temple.
Though different than what I expected, the experience and the temples themselves were everything you might imagine, everything I hoped and dreamed they'd be. For now, it's back to waking at 5:00 a.m. not to follow the masses in pre-dawn pilgrimages, but to bike across the dusty and chaotic streets of Phnom Penh, or PP as the locals say, to teach a 6:00 a.m. English class.
You can't ask for much else from this ol' world. So, if anyone asks, you tell 'em, He's doin' just fine.
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