Angkor Thom

We hired a guide to take us to some of the sites on our first two days in Siem Reap. Our guide’s name was Phat – we pronounced it as it is spelled…only to learn a few days later that the “h” is silent. Yep, we called him Fat instead of Pat for two straight days – I was positively mortified. In any case, he was a perfect fit for our group (we traveled with the two other Hallmark expatriate families), being very informative, but not burdening us with every minute detail.

Phat also had an interesting personal history. His father was a physician who was killed during Pol Pot’s reign of terror in the 1970s for being part of the “educated elite” (while Pol Pot was in power, 20% of the population was killed). Phat was sent to a local orphanage to live through high school. He went to university in Phnom Penh and studied engineering for one year, but had to return to Siem Reap to support his mom and sisters. He’s been a tour guide for twelve years.

Our first stop was Angkor Thom (Angkor means city). While the ancient city is in ruins, it is one of the better-preserved sites. The 3.5 square mile city is surrounded by a man-made moat.

The massive Buddhist temple, the Bayon, at the center of the city was built in the late 12th century, with the sandstone being hauled in by elephant pulled carts and boats from a quarry more than 20 miles away.

Nearly every square inch of the temple features intricate carvings.

There are 54 towers in the temple, each with four faces. The highest tower was a place where only the king was allowed to pray. (It completely blew our minds that we were allowed to climb on/walk in all the temples!)

It is really hard to imagine how many people it must have taken to build Angkor Thom!

Next on our agenda was a temple built in the nearby jungle. It was in a greater state of decline, but still amazing. I won't overload you with more temple photos today, other than our group pic that was taken in a place that the movie Tomb Raider was filmed: