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Angkor Temple tour (CAMBODIA)
One of the most impressive Temple’s in the World in the Angkor Temple in Cambodia. This temple looks like if it has been devoured by the jungle. Giant jungle trees grow over and around the temple stones, clasping them in a violent, slow-motion embrace; huge stone blocks lie in heaps where they originally fell; moss, vines, and thick white spider webs obscure many of the bas-reliefs. This was the Angkor that we’d always envisioned: wild, sprawling, overgrown, mighty, and ripe for exploration.
Between 802 and 1432 AD, a succession of Khmer kings funneled the enormous wealth of their kingdoms into a series of monumental building projects. Growing successively grander and more elaborate, the Buddhist and Hindu temples of Angkor stand as the apex of ancient Khmer architectural and cultural achievements.
The great city of Angkor gradually fell into decline in the early 1400's after repeated attacks and encroachment by the Thais. The Western world first heard about the temples in the 1860's, when they were discovered by a Frenchman named Henri Mouhot.
The temples of Angkor are recognized by many as one of the greatest architectural achievements of man. Scattered in the jungle outside of Siem Reap, the temples are a source of identity and pride for Cambodians, and they draw thousands of foreign visitors every year.
Architecturally, the temples of Angkor are fantastic. But the magic of the place lies in the details: the endless bas-reliefs, the texture of the sandstone, the rich green lichen on the walls, ancient graffiti, the uniform color of the bricks and the jungle tree trunks…
The magic of our Angkor experience was in the details too: the freedom we felt while riding a moped around the temples, the aggressive and comical salesgirls at the temple-side restaurants, the bullet holes in Angkor Wat's bas-reliefs and the history they implied, the peculiar violin played by an old man outside Ta Prohm, the monkeys at the side of the road, English lessons with three monks atop Wat Thmei, drinking coconut milk in the shade…