Temple Pants & Tennis Shoes

Cambodia isn't exactly what you would call a tourist hot-spot. In fact, besides a few European friends and some other City-U students that have gone backpacking in Asia I hadn't really heard of anyone visiting the country before.

The main tourist draw are the famous Angkor Wat temple ruins. I'm sure most of you probably have never heard of them, but if you've ever seen Lara Croft Tomb Raider then you have actually already seen them! Siem Reap is centered around the temples and most probably wouldn't exist if they didn't.

After a long, hot, sweaty night in our hostel Haley and I woke up at 4:30am to meet our tuk-tuk driver and get driven to the temples for sunrise. First problem of the day was that there were padlocked gates in front of our hostel so we weren't exactly sure how to get out. Lucky for us there was still staff around; unlucky for us we had to wake the staff up to open the gates.

We met our driver and he took us to buy temple entrance tickets and then into the temple to see the sunrise. Most of our trip revolved around making up songs and finding weird ways to entertain ourselves/keep our sanity in the heat. Temple day was no exception.

Because of the Hindu/Buddhist religious beliefs some areas inside the temples requires you to wear clothing that goes past your knees. After the Grand Palace debacle in Thailand Haley and I bought our "temple pants" in Thailand to make sure we were ready for the Cambodian temples. The song of the day was all about our dashing temple pants and tennis shoes combo.

Temple pants & Tennis shoes

Tickets in hand we headed into the temples through the King's door (we learned this later from our tour guide). The entrance to the main ruins had a door for the King, everyday people, priests, and of course an elephant door!

In their own way the ruins are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The sunrise with the silhouette of Angkor Wat in front was also gorgeous!

Hungry, we met back up with our tuk-tuk driver who would take us back to a hotel for breakfast. In addition to the $20USD we paid for a one-day temple pass we also paid $30USD to get driven around by our driver all day and get picked/up dropped of to our hostel on the days when we were coming/going from Thailand. A little skeptical at first, I quickly decided that the investment was well worth it. Not only are tuk-tuks a great way to cool down in the heat, but I can not imagine having to walk the entire temple grounds. Our driver was also extremely sweet and determined to get us where we needed to be faster than all the other drivers. He was definitely a speed junkie and wasn't afraid to drive in the shoulder/off the road to win the "race". 

Personal tuk-tuk and driver

We both refueled and then headed back to the temples around 8am. Because we had already gotten our passes our driver was kind enough to take us to another "attraction". Cambodia is famous for it's killing fields. 

During the the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) thousands of people were executed all across the country.   Pol Pot, the leader of the regime, arrested and eventually executed everyone suspected with connections to the former government. The main targets of the prosecution included Thais, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham, Camboidan Christians, and Buddhist monks. Total death estimates range anywhere from 1.7-2.5 million over the span of the Khmer Rouge regime. 

Memorial 

The first stop of the day was the Temple of Bayon. The temple was built in the late 12th c./ early 13th c. as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII. The two major religions across Cambodia are Hinduism and Buddhism. The temples were built for one religion or the other and some were modified to the other religion in certain time periods. Bayon is most famous for its Buddhist period and the hundreds of stone faces on the towers of the temples.

Super stylish temple pants

 

 

moped, moped, elephant

 

 

At Bayon we also learned a little about the building process of the temples. As you can imagine moving thousands of tons of rock through the jungle was not easy. It took thousands of men and a lot of time to complete the job. All of the stone pieces were also carefully carved and placed systematically to create the giant faces in the towers.  

Hundreds of puzzle pieces

 Despite it being only 10am the temple grounds were unbearably hot. The temple pants/tennis shoes combination wasn't exactly the coolest outfit choice, and only two hours into our day I (as well as the majority of our tour group) was already drip sweating. The sweat on my legs and thin cotton pants were not working well together and unfortunately for me caused the pants to rip! I was not a happy camper... 

Kissing a face of the tower

 

Bayon Temple

Next stop on our tour were...more temples! They are all stunning but after a while everything starts to blur and look the same. The 107 degree weather, ripped pants, and pools of sweat also don't help put you in a learning mood.