The Indiana Jones Experience

Built around 1100 years ago by rulers of Cambodia and much of what is now Thailand and Vietnam, Angkor Wat and the dozens of other temples surrounding this most famous temple are fabulous.  Each temple is very different as each was built by a different King who sought to make a newer and better temple to prove his supremacy to his predecessor and to immortalize himself as a semi god by using his face as the face of Buddha on the temples.  Some temples have been taken by the jungle, others have been put back together after hundreds of years of disrepair, and all are still actively worshipped at by Buddhists from any one of the 4 modern monasteries on the temple area grounds.

The respect for these holy sites by locals is clear and some are even closed every 8 days for prayer.  These are the facts, but the experience of seeing Angkor Wat is very unique. 

    Walking through these temples is right out of Indiana Jones.  Green moss adorns many of the buildings, stones of collapsed buildings lay beside ornate pillars that still remain.  Statues missing their heads of Vishnu, Buddha, elephants, dancing girls, and human-bird hybrids dot the landscape (the heads were pilfered for sale during the genocidal period of the Khmer Rouge and because the ones repossessed are difficult to match to their bodies, the head just sit inside the Siem Reap museum). Moats surround many complexes and 50 ft walls are decorated with massive bas reliefs of religious stories.  

The sun peaks through the ruins to feed the trees that seem to grow from the century old stones themselves. 

Buddhist chanting permeates all walls and brings an eerie charm to your time in the temples.