Siem Reap 2012: Angkor Thom

When in Siem Reap, you go see the temples. And that's what we did.

We woke up bright and early at 6.45am in the morning to get an early start on our first morning there, ready for our temple adventure. Waking up at 6+am in the morning wasn't as scary as it sounds because Singapore is, conveniently, 1 hour ahead of Cambodia. SInce my body is used to being woken up by the kids between 7-7.30am Singapore time (6-6.30am Cambodian time) everyday anyway, the early start was a snap.

Annoyingly, I continued to wake up by 6.30am every single morning I was in Cambodia. Ugh. Clearly my body didn't realise it was on vacation.

We started our day at Angkor Thom. This is a fortified city built by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII. The site is huge, said to be 10 sq km in size, and in centred on Bayon, an interesting structure with 54 gothic towers, decorated with enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The city has five immense gates, each over 20m high. There is one each in the northern, western and southern walls, and two in the eastern wall. We passed by the south gate as it is on the main road from Angkor Wat and were fascinated by the giant statues that stand in front of the gates. In a motif taken from Hindu mythology of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, there are 54 gods on the left and 54 demons on the right of the causeway. 

These are the gods...

And this is one in a row of demons.

You can see the huge gate in the background of the second pic. It's only wide enough for one car even though there's traffic coming from both directions, so there's quite a bit of jostling and reversing going on! The gates are decorated with stone elephant trunks and crowned by four gargantuan faces of Avalokiteshvara, facing the cardinal directions.

This is the back of the gate, at a point in time when there were no cars going through. You can see the heads and the detailing quite clearly here.

Past the gate, we were soon at Bayon.

"Unique, even among its cherised contemporaries, Bayon epitomises the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia's legendary king, Jayavarman VII. It is a place of stooped corridors, precipitous stairs and, best of all, a collection of 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance to the great king himself.These huge heads glare down from every angle, exuding power and control with a hint of humanity - this was precisely the blend required to hold sway over such a vast empire, ensuring the disparate and far-flung population yielded to his magnanimous will. As you walk around, a dozen or more of the heads are visible at any one time - full-face or in profile, almost level with your eyes or staring down from on high."

~ Lonely Planet Cambodia   

Lonely planet described this as "looking like a pile of glorified rubble from a distance" but I thought it looked better than that!

Walking the narrow corridors.

Some of the bas-reliefs, amazing in their detail. 

DD does an Aspara (Hevenly Nymph) - not so successfully.

The all seeing heads. You can get a good view of them when you climb to the third level, which was what we did.

From Bayon, we made our way over to Baphuon. Noted to have been one of the "most spectacular of Angkor's temples in its heyday", it said to be a pyramidal representation of the mythical Mt Meru.

Baphuon, from a distance. It is a long way in.

You have to cross a 200m long elevated walkway (made of sandstone) before you can the to the main structure.

Decided not to climb up. The stairs up looked very steep!

Taking a well deserved break.

After all that walking, we decided to give the Royal Enclosure a miss. We lingered over the Terrace of Elephants for a bit before we whizzed back to town for lunch. Angkor Wat up next.

Siem Reap 2012: Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor

We enjoyed a slice of luxury on this holiday as a result of booking ourselves into Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor in Siem Reap.

I had very much wanted to stay in this hotel in Siem Reap because it was one of the few places where a Raffles hotel would be within my reach, budget-wise! I had justified it as being for Noey because I would have needed a nice(er) room and big pool if I was to bring him. We left him behind in the end, but I didn't see why I should have to give up my nice room. Heh. Then again, it was only because I managed to book a promo where we got 3 nights for the price of 2 plus free breakfast that we sealed the deal in the end.

I was very glad we stay here because it was such a lovely hotel. It's got plenty of history, having opened its doors around 1932. The building was decked out colonial-style, and while different, it still managed to to remind me of the Raffles Hotel back here in Singapore. Maybe it was the white and black floor tiles! 

The service was also impeccable. From the reception, to the shop assistants, the wait staff at the cafe, housekeeping, random staff we met and spoke to on the grounds -- everyone was warm, friendly and willing to help. We were very comfortable and it was a real treat staying here. Or maybe it was the interrupted sleep I got that made it all seem so perfect!

The view of the main building from poolside

A view of the little in-house exhibition on the many faces of Buddha. This is in an outdoor area in the junction between the corridors leading from the old building to the new wing.

One of the many buddha's on display.

Old school lift. It still works!

Our comfy room. This is the State Room. It was the cheapest category, but it was very comfortable.

There was free wifi in the hotel, so I wasted no time in connecting! I wish we remembered to take a photo of the iMac that they have for common use in the sitting area along the corridor. And get this: there's one on every floor!

Old-fashioned switches and taps. LOVE.

Breakfast!

Part of the breakfast spread. The spread wasn't large, but it was more than adequate. 

Some of my Western selections. The green drink at the top is a mocktail they call "Good Morning". It's got a mix of some juices and some mint. Very refreshing.

My noodle soup. Such comfort food! I still think Asian breakfast is the BEST. They had eggs available in all styles, and I asked for mine soft-boiled. Popped them into a bowl and slurped them up. Delicious.

 

Managed to squeeze in a swim on the last day and the water temperature was PERFECT. Not sure how they managed that!

Did I also mention that they serve champagne at breakfast? I'm officially spoilt. Don't think I could go back to a regular hotel next time I'm back in Siem Reap!

Siem Reap 2012: Our Angkor Adventure

On Thursday, the husband and I slipped off on a short four day trip to Siem Reap.

I would never have thought that we would go to Cambodia for our first couple holiday, but that's the way it panned out. The plan to visit Siem Reap originated from my SIL - she was journeying up to do some research and invited the rest of the family to join her. (My SIL is doing post-grad studies in Art History. How cool is that, right?) I decided to seize the opportunity to take a holiday - any holiday - and bring Noey with me. DD later confirmed that he could make the trip so tickets were booked for the three of us plus my MIL.

Then, just last week, news reports of a "mysterious disease" which killed significant numbers of children in Cambodia started streaming in. The grandparents got stressed, and we decided to be safe rather than sorry, and just like that, it became a childless holiday.

It felt a bit weird, leaving the kids behind. I almost felt too free. Hah. But seriously, it was something I got used to quickly! I could zone out on the flight, not worry about nap times, eat anywhere we wanted (or not eat, for that matter), eat leisurely breakfasts, swim, have the hubby hold my hand, and sleep the whole night through in a comfortable bed. WOW.

It also helped that we got regular reports from my parents that the kids were happy and well-behaved. Happy children = happy caregivers = happy absentee parents. Win-win-win. In fact, my helper tells me that Noey drank three cups of milk a day, bathed without complaint and fed himself his meals most days without any problems. Hmmm, I'm clearly getting the shorter end of the stick here.

We FaceTime-ed them back in Singapore everyday, and yes, my heart wrenched a bit every time. I also couldn't stop myself from tearing when the husband chose to talk about the kids a bit too much. But knowing that they were having a good time with their grandparents helped me let go and just enjoy myself.

I was glad to find that Siem Reap was quite fascinating. It is a little town which exists almost solely to support the tourist trade of the millions which throng to see the ancient temples of Angkor. And those temples? They were really quite worth the hype. I went with no expectations, but it was hard not to get excited when you approach the ancient gates, or come face to face with the huge, intricately decorated, buildings which are thousands of years old. Surprisingly, we were not that impressed with Angkor Wat. For some reason, all of us felt rather underwhelmed. Instead, it was the 216 faces of Bayon and the tomb-raider-sque roots and ruins of Ta Prohm that captured our attention and imagination. Pictures and stories on these to come later.

I thought I was going to be able to disconnect and take an internet holiday as well during this time, but I found myself foiled by the amazing connectivity we found in Siem Reap. Unbelievably, there was an abundance of free wifi available! There was free wifi in our hotel, free wifi at every restaurant we ate at (you just had to ask them for the password), and free wifi at the airport. The only place they didn't have free wifi was at the temples. They didn't even have good phone reception around the temples, but I guess that was to be expected.

So yes, I was still able to log in to peek at what was going on online, though I tried not to participate. The free wifi made it easier for us to speak to the kids when we were out having meals so I was extremely grateful for it!

It was a break that both DD and I needed. And on hindsight, I'm glad we didn't bring Noey in the end, because we did a lot of walking, which I do not think he would have enjoyed so much.

More tales to follow. For now, I'm going to soak up my kids, whom I have missed dearly over the past few days.