Ruined! (Again)

Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. I just can't say it enough. Wow.

I spent 11 hours today touring the ruins of Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. Wow. This place is just surreal. It looks like something out of a movie set. OK, that's probably because it has been used for movie sets. (Tomb Raider, anyone?)

Most people just refer to the entire area as Angkor Wat. But that really isn't accurate. Angkor Wat is just one temple in this area. There are dozens of others, most built 1,000 years ago and laid undiscovered by modern man until about 100 years ago. Some, like the one used in Tomb Raider, were overtaken by nature long ago. Trees started to grow in the ruins of Ta Prohm, and what were once little saplings are now 100+ foot trees fully intertwined with the ruins. Others are in various states of decay. Climbing about on them is a weird feeling - everything is just so... old. It doesn't seem right to be clamboring over these ruins. But I did. Luckily, this is the low season, so the number of tourists is small compared to high season. In many temples, there were times when there was no one else in sight.

Angkor Wat is an incredible sight. It is the largest of the temples, and the most fully preserved, as it was used in much later periods than the others. It is surrounded by a huge (huge!) moat. The causeway is almost 2 football fields long. I took a quick 2 hours to tour it, but plan to come back tomorrow. I thought about getting up at 4am to see the sun rise - supposedly a magnificent sight - but I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe Monday.

I ended the day with a 15 minute walk uphill to the base of Phnom Bakheng, then climbing up dozens of incredibly steep sandstone steps (how do the tiniest people end up with the steepest, highest steps???) to position myself for a view of the on-coming sunset. This is supposedly the place to be. Again, in high season, 1,000 people will crowd in at the top of the temple. There were probably around 100, including a group of monks that were in full tourist mode - digital cameras, camcorders, etc. (One wanted to pose for a picture with me and another blonde girl. That was weird.) Unfortunately, mother nature was not cooperating and delivered only a cloudy sky, not a spectacular sunset as the guide book promised. It was still a nice view.