Having hired a tuk tuk (and driver) for the day getting to Angkor Wat was easy.

We left the driver in the car park and after shaking off hundreds of hawkers asking us to buy their postcards, water, bracelets, books we made our way across the road to the walkway leading to the temple. A massive structure stood in font of us, in its day it would have been incredibly grand however looking at it after centuries of battering form the elements with the architecture still looking as grand and imposing as ever it seemed all the more impressive.

The grandeur of this temple was evident as soon as we began making our way over the massive stone walkway across to moat to the rather unimaginatively titled the fourth enclosure. Eloquently carved, every nook and cranny had something different to reveal. Beyond the fourth enclosure stood the five majestic towers stretching above the massive three level temple that is Angkor Wat.

Passing through the first gate we came to the third enclosure – this is as far into the temple as the citizens of Angkor were allowed to get. Running around this enclosure giant bass-reliefs line the walls depicting scenes form Indian mythology and of Hindu gods. The beautifully carved reliefs were once coated in golds and reds the remnants of which can still, in places, be seen centuries after their conception.

As we tired of the reliefs we made our way into the third enclosure, the first level of the pyramid and the Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas. A vast collection of Buddhas were once housed here but now all that remained were some very impressive carvings on the ceiling and a number of statues, some with heads, many without. I’ve heard that during the Khmer Rouge time they beheaded many of the Buddha statues because of their hatred of religion. These statues are left standing in the temples the jagged edges where they were decapitated slowly being smoothed over by the passage of time.

Walking around looking in awe at the incredible masonry surrounding me I managed to completely missed anything of note on the second level of the pyramid, until I came to the steps taking me to the third level. I stood at the bottom craning my neck to the top thinking: “There is no way I am climbing up there.” Sarim reliably informed me that was the only way to the top and if I wanted to see the third level I had to go up.

The ancient steps made of stone were set at a 70 degree angle and worn precariously away in places. In the middle many of the steps were barley wide enough to place your foot sideways, but being the way to the top we all dutifully set off stopping for pictures along the way.

During the time of Suryavarman II (The Khmer king who ordered the building of Angkor Wat, more information on him can be found here.) only the high priest and king were allowed to visit the third level. Looking back down the dentifying drop from the top of the (so called) steps it seemed to me like he’d done everyone else a favour by not allowing them up.

From the third level I could get a much better look at Angkor Wat’s five towers. We stopped at the shrine and lit some incense. Sarim having once been a Buddhist monk told us to get three incense sticks and explained what they represented although annoyingly I have now completely forgotten. Wondering around the top level I had a look in the guide book read up on the third level. I was alarmed to the read that (at the time of writing) the third level had been closed due to a number of serious injuries and fatalities caused by people falling down the steps! That made me confident about navigating my way back down! However I was informed by a guy at the top that after the installation of a hand rail on one side they were now deemed safe for tourists!

I made it back down unscathed but a little shaky, then watched Emily and Kat remove their flip flops for the clime only to burn their bare feet on the rock that had been heated by the mid day sunshine!

We had another temple to visit today so we made our way out of Angkor Wat and onto the next temple Bayon. More on that in another post.

* Posted by j150vsc on 11/08/2007.