A Day at Angkor (Jan. 28) by Maya

On January 28th, 2017 we went to Angkor Wat. It was super cool and interesting!

We woke up at about 4:15am so that we could get to Angkor Wat in time for the sun rise. We took a tuk tuk and got to the sun rise just ahead of the crowd. We decided to split up so that we could get some different photos, so the boys went around to the back of the temple and mom and I stayed at the front.

First light- we waited over an hour for this.

Slowly getting brighter

Reflection in the lotus pond is pretty

The sun is officially up!

Now we can see some more details

Mom wanted a photo of the 2 of us in front of Angkor Wat

There were at least 2 hundred  people at the lotus pond!  I managed to sneak in front

because we got there pretty early (and because I'm a kid), so our pictures don't show the crowd too much.

Lucas found us once the crowd cleared a bit. 

The sunrise was pretty amazing, and it may have been worth getting up early for!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the temple, Lucas and Dad had the place to themselves for quite awhile.

no crowds in the back!

but lots of cool photos to take

people are starting to come around to the back while the sun is still coming up

After the sunrise we got a small guided tour and lots of information about the Angkor Wat temple.

I was amazed by how big Angkor Wat was when I first saw it from a distance.  There were  also a lot of carvings that were telling stories and myths of wars and of regular life.  The carvings are called bas-reliefs and they were really detailed and they were everywhere.  It must have taken so many people so many hours!  Our guide said it was built in 37 years by 1 million Khmer people and 4000 elephants!

Our guide telling us what some of the stories in the bas-reliefs are

Apsara dancers were carved everywhere - our guide said the King had 3 wives and

1000 Apsara dancers who performed for him while he sat in the middle of the Angkor Wat temple.

Khmer King Suryavarman ll built Angkor Wat in the mid twelfth century and dedicated it to the Hindu God Vishnu.  It was built 6 km from Siem Reap and got lost/abandoned for up to 600 years because there were wars going on and other temples being built. In 1861 a French explorer was wandering just outside of Siem Reap and came across Angkor Wat, there were monks taking care of it but they never told anyone about it, but  when the explorer found out he told the whole world.  Now it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World (on some lists at least).  The Cambodians definitely call it one of the Seven Wonders of the World! 

Our guide took this one of us on the 2nd level of Angkor Wat

We also learned that the moat around Angkor Wat is there to keep it standing .The temple is made of sandstone, and you know how it's easier to walk on wet sand than dry? The foundation of all the temples is made of wet sand so if the moat wasn't there to keep the sand moist and strong the temple would probably have started to collapse by now.

A Buddhist monk looking out over the huge moat of Angkor Wat

There was more information that he told us but it was a little bit hard to understand his English so I don't remember much more. Now I'll tell you how much fun I had dreaming about longer tuk tuk rides in between the temples (I needed some rest!).

Some other pictures of Angkor Wat that I like:

This is one of the gates.  The corncob shaped spire has broken off. 

There were 9 spires when Angkor Wat was built, now there are just 5 left

The view from the lotus pond on the right - we watched the sunrise from the one on the left.

We got this sneak peak the night before when we went to buy tickets for the sunrise. 

We learned that there are about 300 temples in Angkor, and Angkor Wat is the biggest and most popular.  We visited 5 of the temples in total.  After Angkor Wat, I was really exited to go to the next temple but I was a bit tired from waking up early. The next temple that we went to was called Bayon with mixed religion of Buddhism and Hindu. King Jayavarman Vll  made it for himself. It was a cool temple with faces all over it and in some places it was really dark and creepy.

faces at Bayon Temple.

We visited more temples but Preah Khan was my favourite! It's my favourite that we visited because it was a bit destroyed and they hadn't successfully restored it and I thought it was neat to see all the rocks piled and the plants growing all over. Lucas and I climbed over a pile of rocks and found some cool trees and looked around a little more and found a huge wall! It was really cool but right know I'm still wondering what it was used for?
 

ruins on the ground and trees on the wall

more ruins at Preah Khan

It was a fun day but really exhausting and it would be neat to go back some day and see the changes of Angkor and visit the killing fields and genocide museum.

                  
   By MAYA!