Siem Reap–Temples

So someone wrote a post about the temples at Siem Reap and then no one posted it and we went away for a week to Northern Laos.  So slightly after the fact, the remainder of our trip to Siem Reap.

The next day dawned and the water was higher still… but we were able to go out to 2 of the main temple complexes Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom
Prior to the trip we had watched a series of 6 educational programs about the Khmer kingdom & Angkor Wat. These had been sent through by the Shepherds after they had participated in a series of Otago University lectures on the subject.  It really helped understanding the background of this amazing series of temples – and our pictures don’t show the scale of the place.  One little fact adds some perspective is that when Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century there were over a million people living in the city supporting the complex.  By contrast London was a booming town of 50,000.

The temples of Angkor Thom were described as looking like a pile of stones from a distance, but the wonder was in the detail.  And that seemed to be the case.  Lots of faces carved into stone, tug-of-war bridges…


We may only have managed a small portion of the temples of the area, but what we saw were amazing.  Maybe we will get another dry weather weekend in Siem Reap.

We came back to Siem Reap town and swam in a wonderfully deep salt water pool before the All Blacks played France in the RWC.  Watching in Cambodia was better than Laos as the commentary was as broadcast from NZ.  In Laos when we watch at home the commentary is provided in Thai – unless we head out to one of the bars in town.

Another little quirk was that our hotel gave us a promotional scratchie after dinner as part of an official Rugby World Cup promotion.  We won 2 cokes and 2 glasses of wine.