This was for me the main event this trip: a visit to the Angkor temples.
Ever since I read about it in a 1980s National Geographic article I wanted to go here.
Three times in the past six years I had planned a trip which included a visit here, this time it was happening!

In the past 10 years tourism has increased tremendously here, creating a bit of a Disney effect and not without danger for damage to the temples either, but I was determined to make the most of it.
I did struggle with the heat during the three days we visited the various temples and in retrospect I think I should have gone for a sunset here too, but I completely overlooked that possibility.

Restoration is ongoing and an enormous amount of work has been done since things were picked up again in 1995.

As in Phnom Penh we saw notices of the Japanese as financial benefactors, investing in Cambodian culture. About Koreans we heard different things: they build hotels around Seam Reap, fly tourist down there in their airlines, have them stay and eat in hotels which they build and staff with Koreans; nothing much trickles into the Cambodian economy. No doubt some grants disappear in the pocket of some highly positioned Cambodian government officials.

The famous stone faces of Angkor!

More than a thousand shrines were erected by the Khmer in the city of Angkor during a building spree whose scale and ambition rivals the pyramids of Egypt. Most, varying in dereliction, are still overgrown; but a considerable amount have been uncovered.

The fungi on the sandstones make it hard to distinguish the finer detail of decorations.

This is of course what it is all about.

Exquisite detail in these statues and the surrounding embellishments.

No doubt these stone carvings have been cleaned (in part) with the utmost care: they are irreplacable.

Now isn't that exquisite!

I had a hard time avoiding the stream of tourists in my photos, but with a little patience it worked out ok.

The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat.
Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Over the ruins of Yasodharapura, Jayavarman constructed the walled city of Angkor Thom, as well as its geographic and spiritual center, the temple known as the Bayon.
Bas-reliefs at the Bayon depict not only the king's battles with the Cham, but also scenes from the life of Khmer villagers and courtiers.

Work resumed after the end of the Cambodian Civil War but and, since 1993, has been jointly co-ordinated by the Indian, German, Japanese and UNESCO through the International Co-ordinating Committee on the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), while Cambodian work is carried out by the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA), created in 1995.

Initial stages of restoration had proven that sometimes it was to take drastic and rigorous measures: to take it all apart, stone by stone. All the stones were unique and had to be fitted in the same place again. During Pol Pot's regime all documentation was destroyed in 1975., creating a puzzle in three dimensions!
Around 300.000 sculpted stones laid scattered on 10 hectares of forest around the monument. When the site reopened in Feb.1995, the project faced a major difficulty: how to come up with a method to find the unique position of each stone of the monument. A daunting challenge indeed.
The west façade was the only part still intact and a plan was created thus. Following symmetry and of homothety, characteristics of the Angkorian architecture, the recording of decorations observed on each of the 3 levels of this temple, led to determine which decorations were to be searched for the different levels of the other 3 façades.

A database of all the existing decorations was then put together and served as a reference to the search and identification of the stones scatterd in the forest, based on bringing them together according to the level.

The logical next step was to locate the positioning of each stone on each isolated level in order to find the only possible order on how this masonry could be restored.

The Baphuon temple restored but quite a few stones left..

Indeed very steep steps were to be climbed to get to the top.
There were two types of Angkor temples: those of the pyramid kind (temple mountain) and those that were to be walked through on ground level. I rather preferred the latter!

Grand view from high up.

BBC News Asia-Pacific has a nice and informative page dedicated to the opening in July 2011.

I have tried to make the 'Reclining Buddha' visible in this photo.
This website theintercontinentalgardiner.com, has a 2012 photo where it is totally overgrown and very invisible!

From the Baphuon temple we walked through a bit of jungle, passed over a wall
which was in a stranglehold by a tree. Fascinating and amazing; those words keep coming back.

We passed Phimeanakas temple.

Trampling through a 30° Celsius heat with a high humidity (we had left home while it was 4° C and I was still adjusting) and gone up on Angkor Thom's Bayon as well as Baphuon temple, I felt no urge to climb another mountain temple. So Alexander and I just followed our guide in his dusty trail, no questions asked.

This first day of our visit was an excursion booked through RiksjaTravel.nl from home, to get our bearings.
The use of a guide is not required really. It facilitated transport, but every taxi-, tuk-tuk driver or 'moto' knows where to take you. Get in line for a pass (we took a 3-day pass) and thus equipped you can point out to your driver, if you come prepared with a book or map, the temples you want to visit.

Our guide, Lo Mhong (what it sounded like), was very active in streaming names and dates, which I failed to remember entirely. For me he failed to bring it alive; he could have told me interesting bits about the process of restoration and present day circumstance. Still, he had a 1 year old kid to feed and he did everything to show us around the way he'd been instructed I guess.
One thing I held against him, was dropping us at some highly travelled tourist market, a real tourist trap. Could have done without that.
Advise: buy some of that delicious pineapple the streetsellers offer, really refreshing!

Terrace of the Leper King [Wikipedia]
The busses and tuk-tuks show this as a major drop-off and pick-up. Further on the right are a series of
towers, Prasats Suor Prat, their use obscure; it would have been nice to wonder over but it was hot
and our guide was in the lead for the program, heading for lunch. One image on Day 3, while driving past.
Our tight schedule did not allow for a closer look at this terrace either; it is a big place..

Mother Nature took Men's finest creation in a devastating stranglehold!

We drove away for lunch somewhere and returned for the marvelous and stupendous Ta Prohm.

TA PROHM was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university.
It is located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray.

Ta Prohm is a find for photographers, one huge photo opportunity!

It seems that this entire wall was decorated with exquisite detail.

The design of Ta Prohm is that of a typical 'flat' Khmer temple (as opposed to a temple-pyramid or temple-mountain, the inner levels of which are higher than the outer).
Five rectangular enclosing walls surround a central sanctuary.

The temple of Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. Although the film took visual liberties with other Angkorian temples, its scenes of Ta Prohm were quite faithful to the temple's actual appearance, and made use of its eerie qualities.

Most of the above on Ta Prohm was learned from WIKIPEDIA

And here is more on the subject: www.autoriteapsara.org/en/angkor/temples_sites/temples/ta_prohm.html

And now we proceed to... ANGKOR WAT!

Angkor Wat, the most famous temple of Angkor and deserted? No. not quite. But all the large groups (Koreans! Chinese! Americans!) retire to the hotel for lunch, take a rest, and come back later in the afternoon.
We took advantage of this routine.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture:
the temple-mountain and the later galleried-temple.

Angkor Wat (Khmer:'is the largest') Hindu at first, then Buddhist temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.

Probably taking a break from the larger crowds, waiting for the Koreans to return. The kids make the most of it.

Yes, quite a climb! Angkor Wat is designed to represent Mount Meru, a sacred mountain in Hindu mythology.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and
south of the Kulen Hills.

The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls. The central figure here is King Suryavarman II, the founder of Angkor Wat.

Central place of worship.

Dedicated to Vishnu, Angkor Wat was built as the King's state temple and capital city. In the late 13th century, it was gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.

This concluded our first day and visit to Angkor, we say 'Akun' (thank you) to our guide, and look forward to Day 2