Angkor Wat?

I wasn't too sure what to expect of Angkor Wat. I'd heard varying reports from other travellers in terms of how long to spend there; from a morning, to two days to a week so it was pretty hard to work out exactly how much time to spend there.

I knew a little bit about it. It's one of the seven wonders of the world so obviously a must-see. The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire, is a combination of awesome architecture and spiritual devotion. Each Cambodian god-king strove to better their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry which resulted in the world's largest religious building - Angkor Wat and one of thee world's strangest - the Bayon.

I think the Angkorian period spanned for more than 600 years or so...from AD 802 to 1432. So it's pretty amazing these temples are still standing (in various states) considering the years of terror, poverty and war Cambodia has suffered. At it's height the empire stretched from Burma to Vietnam, a city that boasted a population of one million when London was a 'tiny' town of 50,000.

Today the temples are a point of pilgrimage for all Cambodians - it was amazing to see the sheer number of locals sitting around the moat of Angkor Wat, praying at various enormous Buddha statues around the temples. Now I can appreciate architecture and I like nothing more than embracing a history and culture but I'm not one for staring at engravings for hours on end. I like to get in there, appreciate, take it all in then leave. Thankfully Brooke and Brett were of the same opinion so we decided on spending a day there.

We decided to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. What a way to spend a Monday morning. The fact I wasn't spending another Monday morning dragging myself (kicking and screaming) to work, to deal with pressing issues like how much coverage can we generate on another bottle of shampoo or even better, a review on a previous campaign, or a personal favorite another ridiculous demand from a client such as 'can you find out how much it will cost for Kylie Minogue to perform at our party...the budget is 10k'. So waking up at 430am after 3 hrs sleep was a very small price to pay.

Rater, friend of Mr Banana and a fellow tuk tuk driver was our man for the day. We boomed around (literally) from temple to temple and timed each visit to perfection. It wasn't too busy. The sun rise over Angkor Wat was amazing. The temple itself was incredible. I literally stood there in awe as the sun rose, the temple reflecting the lake before it and a guy constantly asking if I wanted a coffee (back to reality). I like coffee plus I was knackered to I welcomed his offer!!

Ta Prohm was next. It's a fabulous ruin and the original Tomb Raider temple. It was definitely the most atmospheric ruin at Angkor and has been left to be swallowed by the jungle. It's stunning. The temple is cloaked in shadows, its crumbling walls and towers a embraced by various roots. A local man who was one of the caretakers of the temple showed us around. One of the most jaw dropping moments for me was when he took us into a small chamber and started thumped repeatedly on the left hand side of his chest. It echoed. He then thumped other areas of his chest and there was no echo at all. It was amazing. He said it had been designed purposefully so that it only echoed when you thumped your heart area, nowhere else.

Other highlights included the Terrace of Elephants and one of my personal favs The Bayon which boasts over 200 giant faces with enigmatic smiles. It was fabulous and truly beautiful in the shadows of the afternoon. Preah Khan was great in terms of its sheer size. Watching the sun st over Phnom Bakheng with a million other Chinese and Korean tourists was pretty amusing too. I also managed to overcome my fear of heights (slightly) and climbed to the top of the temple. Frankly it was mainly because I'd hiked up the side of a mountain to get the top, there was no way having got there I was going to miss out on the view because of a few narrow and very steep steps!! Thankfully I didn't freeze on the way down - big pat on the back for that one!!