Monday, April 26, 2010

Angkor Wat – A Must Visit Place!!!

Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and later became a prime site for buddhists. This temple is located in Cambodia and is the epitome of Khmer architecture. This is the only temple that remained as a significant religious site since its foundation. This is the countries’ prime attraction site for visitors and combodia selected the symbol of this temple on its national flag.

Cambodia National Flag
Angkor Wat’s (means “city temple”) construction and design started in 12th century during Suryavarman III’s reign. But the construction work stopped after the kings death. In 14th century this temple was converted to Theravada Buddhist use. This is the biggest temple in terms of area but with less activity. This is one of the Combodia’s world heritage sites and its worth visiting this place.

Our 3Wic team visited Angkor Wat this month. It was a dream for me to visit Angkor Wat after seeing the picturesque scenes pictured in the movie Lara Croft – Tomb Raider starring one of the beauty queens Angelina Jolie. The only difficulty i faced throughout the journey in Cambodia was that, there were no ATM’s around. I had to carry the great deal of cash in my pockets. Happy that, there were no thieves around in Cambodia, that made our trip indeliable ;) The restaurants around the place are very cheap. The food available here is of two types, one is of Khmer variety and the other one is Thai. If you are a Non Vegetarian, you will enjoy it the most ( i am a pure veg, had to struggle a lot there :( :( while my team were enjoying the delicacies :) )


Its better to get a 3 day pass here, if you are going for a 1 day pass, i really feel its a waste of time, you would end up seeing nothing. The temperature here was hot, but better compared to Indian climate.The site is protected by the World Heritage Trust. Around 7 million people visit this place every year. Most of the temples here you see are only ruins. But one has to give credit to the WHT, which has taken a lot of effort to restore it to a good condition. The only temple i found in good shape is Ta Phromh. This temple has a huge complex like a monastery with trees grown on all sides. I havent seen a temple like this before.

We stayed in a luxury hotel there. It was completely a heaven, the food, the ambience was completely superb. If i were rich as Bill Gates or Ambani, i wouldnt have left that place.

I loved visiting this place, if you get a chance to see this massive monument, dont give it a miss!!!

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