Day 62 – 3/18 – Angkor Wat

We flew yesterday afternoon from Vietnam to Siem Reap, Cambodia. But, Siem Reap is a very small town of only about 80,000 people, so that label would not mean much.

The purpose of the visit was to see “Ancient Angkor”…the Angkor Temple complex. This is a huge complex that covers 150 sq miles. The most famous temple in the complex is Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple that is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world. So that seemed to most appropriate heading.

I have to admit that I had not heard of Angkor Wat prior to booking our cruise. Kathleen had heard of it because to the travel magazines.

In 2000, Siem Reap had 35 hotels. Today it has 150. The combination of Cambodia’s “opening up” plus the publicity for Angkor Wat has caused an explosion of tourism. Tourism now is the second biggest business in Cambodia, behind agriculture. Cambodia had 2 million tourists last year, with Angkor Wat being the main draw.

The hotel we stayed in was top-notched. We had a bed that was bigger than any that I have ever seen. It was 7’-10” wide.

Most of the structures in the Angkor complex were built in the 12th and 13th centuries. During that period, the Angkor temples had a population of over 1,000,000 people. At the same time Paris and London had populations of only 40,000. One cannot help but wonder what happened to make them fall from such a position of power.

Right now we are feeling that this was the impressive single-day we have had on the cruise. I’ll post some photos and text of each of the following sites within the Angkor complex below:

1) Banteay Srey (“Fortress of the Women” Temple)
2) Preah Khan Temple (the Royal Sword)
3) Angkor Thom
4) Terraces of Elephants and Leper King (an “Olympic-type” stadium)
5) Baphuon (the temple of 216 smiling faces)
6) Angkor Wat
7) Taphrom (the temple with the huge Kapok trees encrusting everything. Our guide said this was where they shot parts of the movie “Tomb Raider,” but we suspect he meant the Indiana Jones movie instead.)