ANGKOR WAT

I saved the best for last.  THE Angkor Wat.  The "city that became a pagoda."  The symbol of Cambodia (literally, as it's on their flag).  Thursday morning, bright and early, we took off for this temple of behemoth proportions, loaded down with water, fans and my Angkor Bible, all of which helped ward off sun stroke.  We would be at this site for three hours with no trees or tuk tuk rides to cool us down.  Some shade was provided by the huge towers and galleries, but as the sun moved towards its zenith, the fairly comfortable warmth of the last few days turned into a rather sweltering oven.  Fortunately, Angkor Wat is majestic enough to make almost any discomfort worth it.

Your last tete a tete with our favorite Angkor map.

Angkor (say) Wat?!

I braced myself for hoi polloi, trying to gear up for expansive views filled with strangers and engage my mental ability to block out people from the wondrous views filling my vision as we walked along the bridge (with yet another naga balustrade) over the moat towards the outer walls of the city, built in the twelfth century as a capital and state temple dedicated to Vishnu.  It was later converted to a Buddhist temple, and has since been vandalized with many heads and faces of Buddha statues and reliefs removed, making the walk through some areas of Angkor Wat fairly somber.  The overall spirit was greatly enlivened, however, by the plethora of devatas carved into exterior walls, each with some unique characteristic revealing a bit of personality.

Hoi polloi. It was also Lunar New Year, which meant lots of Cambodians were visiting today, as well.

"Library" within the outer wall.

Imperative photo of me with Angkor Wat. :D

"Library" within the inner wall.

Lovely ladies!

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony.

These are my favorite. I love that they're twirling their hair.

 

Steps up to the quincunx of towers at the topmost level. Of course, we came on the one day per week that they clean that area, making it off limits. Just one more reason I'll have to go back. ;)

These costumed people looked fairly bored and hot, but they made for a nice splash of color in the mostly neutral temple.

All the architecture is so massive, it makes you truly marvel at how this city was built by hand before power tools, cranes and construction trucks.

Headless Buddha. :(

Along one of the galleries featuring the bas-reliefs you're going to read about momentarily.

I got a little artsy. ;)

So, in addition to all this awe-inspiring architecture, Angkor Wat features some of the highest quality and most interesting bas-reliefs I've ever had the fortune to lay eyes on.  The Angkor Wat map above labels the theme of each series of bas-reliefs, two on each side of the inner wall separated by an entrance gate.  Thank God they're covered within an open-air gallery, or I'm not sure I would have made it all the way around, but this pro is opposed by a con: the shade made capturing the bas-reliefs on film somewhat difficult, so you might have to squint a bit to make out the image I'll be labeling.  They're a sad shadow of the real thing, but I figure they're better than nothing.

First up is Krishna's Victory over the Asura (demon) Bana (N gallery, E half).  The eight-armed avatar of Vishnu, god of protection, rides a garuda (bird-man) and fights the one-thousand-armed Bana.  That's about it, but a bunch of crazy stuff goes down in the middle of relief.

Krishna on his garuda.

Agni, the god of fire, on his rhinoceros. Who knew there were rhinos in Cambodia?

Both this dude and his lion-steed got speared. :(

Bana fighting his multi-limbed heart out. Krishna ultimately spared his life--all's well that ends well.

Battle Between Gods and Asuras (N gallery, W half).  The gods face E (to the right) and include twenty one deities in the Hindu pantheon.

Asura facing W (left).

Check out the horse being trampled by another horse. :/

The god of war, Skanda, riding a peacock.

Holding on for dear life.

Battle of Lanka (W gallery, N half).  This scene, the climax of the Ramayana, depicts Rama with his monkey troops defeating Ravana and rescuing Sita...I don't really know the story, either, but the monkey troops kick some serious ass.

Monkey bite.

Talk about sucking face.

Ow.

Battle of Kurukshetra (W gallery, S half).  This scene from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata depicts a battle between two warring clans with orderly marching at the fringes and hand-to-hand combat in the middle of the fray.

Mano a mano.

Not quite sure what's happening here.

The dark spots are where people have superstitiously rubbed the reliefs. I wanted to smack people's hands away when I saw them do this but thought that might be inadvisable.

Gorgon head shield! Not really, but this shield made me think of Greece.

The Reign of King Suryavarman II (S gallery, W half).  He's the dude who built Angkor Wat, so I guess it's only fitting that he get his own gallery.

The king on his palanquin.

The princesses.

The king again, recognized by the large number of umbrellas. The more umbrellas, the more important the figure.

Rag-tag Siamese (Thai) mercenaries.

Judgment and the Thirty-seven Heavens and Thirty-two Hells (S gallery, E half).  This one's easily my favorite.  The scenes of heaven are pretty prosaic, just people lounging in cabanas, but the hellish scenes are rife with torture and creativity.

On their way to...

Heaven.

The emaciated damned.

Gluttons being sawn in two.

Tied to a frame with nails hammered into entire body.

Churning of the Sea of Milk (E gallery, S half).  This creation story depicts the gods and asuras alternately pulling the body of a naga wrapped around Mt. Mandara to churn the cosmic sea

The asura Ravana holding the head of the naga.

Asuras pulling their weight.

Apsaras spring to life during the whole process.

Vishnu directs operations.

The gods doing their part.

Battle Between Gods and Asuras (E gallery, N half).  After working together so nicely in the last relief, the gods and asuras fight after the former reneges on their deal and the latter tries to steal the elixir of immortality.  Vishnu, the god of protection, defeats the asuras.

Asuras riding giant birds.

Angkor Wat was an incredible experience, overshadowed only by Ta Prohm on Tuesday.  I was satisfied with my Cambodian experience and so was not sad to leave, though the six hour bus ride back to Phnom Penh on Saturday was no picnic.  But the week was spent climbing through ruins, riding in tuk tuks, swimming in glacial water, eating exotic food, shopping for gifts and souvenirs.  The highlights of my last few days in Cambodia had to be the massage and (brace yourself, Amy) fish foot massage and pedicure I got Thursday and Friday.  So you put your feet in these tanks of fish, and they nibble at your feet to exfoliate and remove the dead skin...I'm not gonna lie, it was weird.  But I felt like it was one of those things I'm never going to have another opportunity to do, so I just dove right in, so to speak.  My feet weren't very popular (I'm taking that as a compliment that my feet are too smooth.), but Kyle's were the cat's meow.  So I left Cambodia relaxed but exhausted and headed back to the bustling and festive atmosphere of Hanoi at Tet.

Foosh (that's fish foot) massage!

Kyle's foot.