Tonle Sap Lake

This lake is one of the most unique ecological water wonders in the world. It is the biggest lake of South East Asia that changes every monsoon and dry season of dimension.
With a minimum size of 2.800 km²  and about 1 m depth at the end  of the monsoon season the lake is fairly small. During the rainy season the water of the Mekong river reverses its flow and pushes back the surplus of  rain water into the Tonle Sap lake. This  transforms the lake into a big natural water reservoir and the lake increases its dimension until 15.000  km² with a depth 0f 8 m.  This unique embankment creates a rich biodiversity of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals around the lake. The aquatic habitat provides 75% of the inland fishing catch and supports over 3 million people with food.
The lake houses over 300 species of fresh water fish, 20 variety of snakes, 10 variety of turtles a crocodile species and a leopard cat species.
The Tonle Sap lake is connected with the Mekong river at the south part of the lake, there is a transport boat that goes over the lake from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh that takes 4 till 5 hours with a speed of 50 km per hour. In this way you can see all the water activities close by.
With the continuous change of  the water level the people who live on the lake have to move their houses away when the water level goes down. Whole villages including schools, shops, churches and pig farms  are getting pulled away to a place where the water is still high enough to float.
You can rent a boat to go along the Tonle Sap river and watch the fisherman working. It will cost you about US $20,- for a few hours, and brings you all the way until you reach the Tonle Sap lake.
Source:http://www.angkorwhat.net

Siem Reap Recreation

You are in Siem Reap. You have visited Angkor Wat and got a full immersion in its magic. You've found your spot to sleep. You've rest, you took a shower to wash all the dust away. You had a nice dinner, following the advice in our restaurants guide. And now?
 Now it's the time to have some fun. A few years ago, Siem Reap has almost nothing to offer as nightlife, but now the situation is changed, and the city become more and more alive ever evening. Between all the possibilities, drinking is a really popular activity among tourists of every part of the world. One street in particular has so many bars to gain the nickname "Bar St.". Most of the bars have an happy hour, normally at late afternoon or early evening. If your day has been tough, it can be the right moment to start to relax and chill out. Some of them offer a dance show or some other traditional Khmer show. As told before, all the bars listed below are located in Bar St. or in its surrounding (don't expect that every street in Siem Reap has a proper name).
Laundry Bar - Located between the Psar Chaa (the old market) and Bar St. this is a funny, trendy bar. It has a pool table, where you can play against an unknown, just write your name on the blackboard, and when its your turn, you can join the challenge. A nice way to meet new people. Some evening they have a DJ set, and it becomes really crowded, and it's an alternative, at late night, to the Zone Club described below.
Figo - Also located close to the Psar Chaa (old markey) this is a gay bar, with a lot of promises: amazing food, generous drinks, handsome stuff, unforgettable athmosphere, free wi-fi internet, great music, pathetic drag queens, air-con, and a free service of transportation from your hotel or guesthouse to the Figo Bar. It's of course opened to the non gay clients too, it's absolutely to try.
Ivy Bar -  They have probably the wider assortment of liquors in town. They have a pool table, and sitting in its patio tables is a nice way to observe the center of Siem Reap's life.
Molly Malone's - A guest house, a restaurant and a bar. What do you wanna have more? This is an authentic Irish pub, so the Guinness in cans is the queen.
Temple Bar - It looks like a temple, being decorated with laterite stone. It's really big and full of people.
Angkor What? - This is one of the oldest, and it remains one of the most popular. They support the Angkor children hospital, so if it's not properly good for your health (and liver), drinking there can help someone else.
Linga Bar - It's a gay bar, really trendy and stylish, and open of course also for straight people. The cocktails are excellent.

If you still not tired, and you don't feel to go to bed, there is a place where you can spend your night and is The Zone. This is a club, located a little bit out of the center, direction airport. International dance music, drinks at a fair price. Most of the people are cambodian, so come here to see how they have fun. The cambodian are really hot people, and they are really curious about foreigners, so it's impossible to exit from this place without having one or more new cambodian friends.
Source: http://www.angkorwhat.net

Digg It Digg! Angkor Wat Temples

The great temples of Angkor Wat are situated in the province of Siem Reap. This area is considered the biggest temple complex of the world and revealed itself after being hidden in the Jungle for many years.The whole area is about 400 km² that also includes the surrounding forest, so you will need good shoes to make it around that area by feet.

 Never the less you can also visit the temple complex with a “remorque” motorbike which is a small motorbike where you can sit side by side in two behind the driver. This is a great way to visit the area as it is very cheap and the driver can tell you much about the temples and history. Taxi are available too, as well as motor and bikes for rent. For those who love to see from the top, you can rent an hot air balloon, or even an helicopter.

There are two ways to visit this area and still see the main attractions, the little circuit and the big circuit. The little circuit is 17 km and brings you to the main temples of Angkor. The big circuit takes 26 km and is an extension of the little one but continues on east side of the area.

To visit Angkor you have to pay quite a high entry fee, you have choice of three different passes which you can buy at the entrance boot. A one-day pass cost US 20 dollar, a three-day pass cost US 40 dollar and a one-week pass cost US 60 dollar. Remember to have a photo with you if you desire to buy a pass for more than one day.

There are more than a 100 temples in the whole area, more than you can see on your visit but the most famous ones you will discover during both circuits trough the temple area.

The highlights are:

Angkor Wat

This temple is 1,5 km² x 1,3km and built by Suryavarman ІІ and is considered the biggest Asian pyramid. It is 65m high and divided in several layers. The central part has on the four corners four towers in the shape of a lotus flower. This temple is the largest and most breathtaking temple of the whole complex. The most famous decorations of Angkor are the heavenly nymphs (Apsara), there are more of 300, each one is unique and in total we can group them in 30 different styles. The central temple complex is an 800 meters long bas-reliefs, includes the Battle of Kurukshetra, the Army of Suryavarman II, Heaven and Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Elephant Gate, Vishnu Conquers the Demons, Khrisna and the demon King, Battle of the Gods and the Demons and the Battle of Lanka.

The Bayon

Built by Jayavarman VII the temple stands in the center of Angkor Thom. With its 54 towers and 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara, this temple looks best in the morning just after sunrise or at the end of the afternoon as the sun shines on the faces. Its magic is does not appear from a distance, it looks more like a pile of stones. But coming close to the temple the faces start to appear and reveal its magic on you. The temple was built on 3 levels:the first 2 are rectangular, while the 3rd is circular. The Bayon has over 1.3 Km of bas-reliefs corresponding to more than 11.000 figures. Most of them depict every day's life scene of the Cambodia in the XII century. Inside the Bayon, we suggest you to visit The Cams of the Run, Linga worship, A Naval Battle, The Chams vanquished, a Military Procession, Civil War, The All-Seing King, Victory Parade, The Circus comes to Town, land of Plenty, The Chams retreat, The Chams Sack Angkor and the Chams Enter Angkor.

Ta Prohm

Still covered by the jungle this place is exactly left as they found it. The Ta Prohm is not only a possibility to imagine how the whole temple complex looked like when re-discovered in XIX century The trees swallowed the temple and nature takes back its space, and it has been left like this.  Don't miss this astonishing mix of nature vs humans. The charm of this temple is, you don't know where (or when) the nature finish and the human work starts or vice versa. Amazing!

Elephant Terrace

A 350 m long terrace of elephants. It was used as a giant viewing stand during public ceremonies, royal ceremonies and so on. Many lions decorate this enormous path. Now it's surrounded by the green and very relaxing, but try and close your eyes, imagine thousands of peoples on it, then the army, the king,the music, the dance. Daydreamers will have tough time to leave this place.

Banteay Srei

This temple lays quite far from the rest but absolutely worthy to visit. The soft colors of the sand stones and the beautiful reliefs make this temple a typical example for the Khmer culture. This temple is dedicated to Shiva, its'  well preserved and most of its declarations are 3D, including delicates women carrying lotus flowers, and epic scenes. This temple is 21 km far from Bayon and about 35 km from Siem Reap. It's worth a visit.

Each temple would deserve a whole book, or an encyclopedia, but this goes fa beyond the purpose of this site, that is only to stimulate your curiosity? Did we do it?

Source: http://www.angkorwhat.net

Angor Wat: an amazing spot on planet earth.

 If you've read anything at all about Angkor Wat, you'll probably know at least three things: Angkor is one of the most beautiful and suggestive place on the planet, the Angkor Wat Temples area is much bigger than the Angkor Temple alone, and last, nothing is homogeneous, being the temples built in different times, during a four centuries process.
Well, if you know this, it's a good start. This site was created with the intention to guide you through Angkor, but not only. We'd like to give you information about how to arrive to Siem Reap, the closest city to the ancient site. We'll speak about how to find a good hotel or guesthouse, where to eat the best food, how to relax after a whole day spent visiting Angkor and so on.

AngkorWhat.net features:

• Complete overview of the Temples of Angkor
• The mother of all the Temples, Angkor Wat.
• The enigmatic smile of 216 giant faces of the Bayon temple. 
• The Ta Prohm temple, where Tomb Ryder has been shot. 
• If you like carvings, we will visit together the temple of
  Banteay Srei 
• Finally we will dive into the jungle to discover the River of a
  Thousands Lingas at Kbal Spean

 Other features:

• Watch Angkor, Siem Reap and Tonle Sap from a satellite, using
  our special version of Google Maps.
• Visit the photo Gallery with more than 150 amazing pictures.
• Find how to arrive to Siem Reap via air or bus
• Find a good hotel or a decent and clean guesthouse to sleep. 
• Where to taste the authentic delicious Khmer food.
• If it's evening and you are not yet tired, visit the recreation page for suggestions about bar, pub, disco and nightlife in general.
• Discover the surrounding of Siem Reap, in particular the Tonle Sap Lake.
• Basic Travel Info about Cambodia.

Source: http://www.angkorwhat.net

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) is a Hindu temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation — first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple"; Angkor is a vernacular form of the word នគរ nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word नगर nagara meaning capital or city. wat is the Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder, Suryavarman II.[1]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

Angkor Wat History

Angkor Wat is depicted in 

Cambodian national flags 

since 1863

Angkor Wat lies 5.5 km north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred on the Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

Angkor Wat in 2009 

overlooking the pond

The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and part of his capital city, which itself was seventeen times bigger than Manhattan Island. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its 


Angkor Wat tower.

original name is unknown, but it may have been known as 
Vrah Vishnulok after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.[2] In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer.
Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometres to the north.

Northern library by the 

Angkor Wat Complex

In the late 13th century, King Jayavarman VIII, who was Hindu, was deposed by his son in law, Srindravarman. Srindravarman had spent the previous 10 years in Sri Lanka becoming ordained as a Buddhist monk. Hence, the new King decided to convert the official religion of the empire from Hindu to Buddhist. Since Buddha was born and died a Hindu and since divisions between both the faiths appeared seamless, citizens were quick to follow a faith founded on tranquility without a need for material gain and power.

Angkor Wat temple in 2009

This made the conversion relatively easy.[3] Hence, Angkor Wat was converted from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.[4]

Monks at Angkor Wat

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was Antonio da Magdalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decorations and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of".[5] However, the temple was popularised in the West only in the mid-19th century on the publication of Henri Mouhot's  travel notes. The French explorer wrote of it:                              

    "One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."[6]

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site.

There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.[7]

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation.[8] Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.[9]

The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with its neighbor Thailand, France and the United States. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.[10]

The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on August 11, 1863. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Thai control since the Thai invasion of 1431 AD.[11] Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.

During the midst of the Vietnam War, Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk hosted Jacqueline Kennedy in Cambodia to fulfill her "lifelong dream of seeing Angkor Wat."[12]

In January 2003 riots erupted in Phnom Penh when a false rumour circulated that a Thai soap opera actress had claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.[13]

 Evening view of Prasat Angkor Wat in the distance

 Source:http://en.wikipedia.org