Five months into our adventure in Cambodia, Jeremy and I finally visited Angkor Wat. What most everyone outside of Cambodia doesn't realize is that Angkor Wat is just one of over a dozen temples built between AD 800 and 1400 by the kings of Cambodia around the former capital city of Angkor. Angkor Wat is the biggest and best-preserved, so it gets the most press, but there are many other treasures to see in a visit to the Temples of Angkor and their neighboring city Siem Reap. But instead of gushing about how awesome and beautiful the temples are and posting photos that you could easily Google, I'll tell you about some of the more interesting and individual experiences of our visit.
While at Angkor Wat, we had the opportunity to have our fortune told. The first step of the fortune telling was to place a small book on the top of my head and insert a stick between the pages. Then the fortune teller read the advice written on the page chosen by my stick. Finally he tied a red Buddhist prayer bracelet on my wrist.
Erica's fortune: Erica will find success in all endeavors she sets her mind to
Jeremy's fortune: If Jeremy meditates, he will attain his goals
Tricia's fortune: Tricia will find a prince and have 1,000 children (!)
Continuing through Angkor Wat, we saw plenty of carvings of apsaras, female heavenly nymphs. Apsaras are carved everywhere throughout the temples and Angkor Wat is said to have more than 3,000 of them. Although it's hard to tell in the photo, these apsaras are special because the two on the left are giving big toothy grins, while most apsaras smile beguilingly with their lips closed, like the one on the right.
In addition to Angkor Wat, we went to another of the big-hitter temples called Bayon. I had a bit of fun pretending to gaze forlornly from a tower window. Although, based on her fortune, perhaps we should have had Tricia in the photo, pining for her prince!
On our second day of temple-touring, we pressed our luck by heading to one more temple in the late afternoon. The skies looked very gray, but we all said "no problem, the rain will hold out." Baphuon temple has three levels, and the drops began to fall just as we finished the climb to the top. The light shower quickly turned into the downpour the SE Asia monsoon season is known for. We were soaked to the bone by the time we got back to our tuk-tuk, but luckily all our cameras survived!
Jeremy, Tricia, and I thoroughly enjoyed our temple experience. But to be perfectly honest, Angkor Wat was not my favorite! I'll end this post with photos from my three favorite temples:
Banteay Srei:
Preah Khan:
Bayon:
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