Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

Monday 22nd March

Started early and hired a tuk tuk to take us to Angkor Wat in the morning then on to Angkor Thom in the afternoon.

Angkor wat is on an epic scale and is a masterpiece of symnetrical design. It is also fascinating as like Mayan architecture, it uses the false arch throughout.

This failure to discover the true arch similarly constrains the sizes of the structures, although they are still impressive.The other major feature is the use of bas-reliefs, intricately carved in the fine sandstone, to show Hindu legends around the base but dancing girls (apsaras) inside.

Angkor Thom was a sacred ciity, the most fabulous building of which is the Bayon. This is a magical temple mountain with numerous sandstone 'spires', each carved with four massive enigmatic faces, pointing in the corresponding cardinal directions.The inside is a complex of passageways and courtyards, all arranged in intricate cruciform shapes around the central circular sancturary. This is a mysterious gloomy structure, with a large bat fluttering around inside one of the 'spires'. Again the outsides are covered in bas-reliefs.

Walked to two further temples which were interesting, but not of the same standard as the first two.

Then back to the hotel, hot, tired but happy.