Siem Riep & Angkor Wat

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Brochure Text

Day 25-27 Siem Reap/Angkor Wat: A short flight across the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia brings us to Seim Reap. After checking into your charming accommodation located close to the old market, set out for a first visit of Southeast Asia's most famous archeological sight, the temples of Angkor. The 100 or so temples are the sacred remains of what was once a much larger administrative and religious centre built between the 9th and 13th centuries to glorify a succession of Khmer kings. Most of Angkor was abandoned in the 15th century and the temples were gradually cloaked by forest until they were rediscovered by French archeologists.

Next day start with an early departure for a full day temple tour including Angkor Thom, the Bayon, the Gate of Angkor Thom, Baphuon, the Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants amongst others. Return to town for lunch and a break during the heat o the day before devoting the whole afternoon to the main temple, Angkor Wat.

Day 27 is a free day. Options include a bicycle trip to villages and temples outside Siem Reap, a last visit to Angkor or a short trek to Kbal Spean, the ‘river of 1000 lingas’.

Thursday 25th
Flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Riep. Never any delays on these flights apparently - but we get a 15 minute one! Arrive, private bus to hotel via the Angkor temple ticket area, where we all have to smile for our photo pass. Not the nicest hotel, but it will do - can see whole load of new buildings have been built recently...Floridian with Cambodian twist... Well, tourism is the 3rd largest industry in Cambodia after textiles and, um, forgotten!

Out to the Blue Pumpkin for lunch (fish amok ravioli), then decide to go to tethered balloon and Artisans d'Angkor for afternoon... Along with 11 others. Negotiate $5 per tuk-tuk, then get out to the ticket check and they tell us the balloon is broken until 1st November (chain has snapped - glad I wasn't on there then!). Hurried decision and 5 head back into town, and we negotiate $20 per tuk-tuk out to Bantrey Serey (sp?) - the unique pink woman's temple that I'd been thinking about going to Saturday.

Long ride - about 40km, but get to see some beautiful countryside, see temple - lots of detail, pretty - known as 'the Jewel in the Crown' of angkor temples - unique!. Buy a book 'Ancient Angkor' for $10 - good book - then Ricky buys same for $8, and Vittorio for $6. As book is worth $28 still feel got a fair deal! On the way back we stop at the Landmine Museum (interesting) and Pre Rup (quickly) - Melissa and Christine run to the top and say view is amazing but we don't have time to go too!

Back to the hotel, quick shower, and into town for dinner. Go to the Khymr Kitchen where get a Khymr curry (Khymr is the Cambodia language) for $2.50, and a nice banana shake. No need for pudding after that but head back to Blue Pumpkin to get a wholemeal roll to have for breakfast and - woo - is 50% off end of day bread! Sit and watch Kym eat a chocolate brownie, then she heads off to the internet café and Cassandra, Helen, Danoushka and I catch a tuk-tuk back... Not impressed by the blokes hooting at us as their car gets a bit close, but I suppose we should be used to the 'Hey Lady' kind of comments by now! Sleep!

Friday 26th
Ready for our first full day at the temples! We start with Angkor Thom, make our way to the crowded tourist area and our first real sight of the faces! There's an opportunity to go on the elephants here for $10, but I've just borrowed Lynne & Ricky's CD of photo, so will be some of the previous ride so decide to walk through, once our tour guide stops talking (think he's just REALLY enthusiastic but Kym asks him to keep it to snippets, rather than everything at once and then go see...). Interesting stonework and a lot of it has been restored after pillaging of previous centuries.

Back on the bus we go to the end of the Elephant Parade and there is Bayon - the famous temple of faces! Hundreds of tourists milling around - many of them Korean as we'd been told! Try not to take TOO many photos but it's all pretty fascinating... And we try to replace the head with my head, get the photo, and then the next group who try it get chased away by the guards! Look around, take photos in the sweltering heat, have photo taken with Apsada-style dancers (and David)... Yes. There is a donation required! Onto other buidings within Angkor Thom - a tumbledown temple, the Terrace of Elephants, the Royal Palace (and it's unusual buildings which we reckon were the massage parlours of their day!, then into a beautiful but tumbledown temple, and then head off to a local restaurant near Angkor Wat.

Some nice looking food on the menu - decide to have Beef Lok Lak again as it was so tasty last time! Lots of people get Khymr dishes served in coconuts... And the beef seems to be the last thing to be served. Was another tasty meal, and after that 2 hour break, we're ready for the other 3 temples of the day: Peak Nean, East Mebon, Pre Rup. All interesting in different ways - and excited to be going back to Pre Rup for some great views! As we're stood at the top it starts to rain and by the time we've climbed down some pretty steep steps and got to the bus we are mostly soaked through.

Back early enough shower and head into town, pick up Thai Islands and Beaches book, onto the (slow)internet, walk to Terrasse des Elephants for dinner - it's raining again. It's not open, so I know I won't meet the others, so decide to hail a tuk-tuk for the 3 street ride back to Blue Pumpkin. See Cassandra when I'm nearly there so after thinking about eating more locally, we head for the sofas in the Blue Pumpkin where I settle for Farmer's Salad! After we head for internet where Cassandra tries to extend her insurance - a call that became amusing - she finds it funny too! We head back quite late, and look forward to our maximum 5 hours sleep before our sunrise call!

Saturday 27th
415am, and what is that noise?! Alarm clock, great! Into the shower (you can't not here really!), and out again as quick as possible so Cassandra can get it and I can nap for 15 minutes. Into the bus and on the road (with a surprising amount of traffic) to Angkor Wat, the biggest and most famous of Angkor/Cambodia's temples in order to watch the sunrise. Our guide has a spot in mind and has got here early enough that we get it... The moon's still up, but slowly the sky starts to brighten. We see some red and start to think that we're going to get an awesome sunset (few and far beween in Asia), but that fades away and instead we try to capture to mysticism of the moment with sepia images!

Nice experience (and I still have at least 3 surises in Australia and one in Peru to look forward to), and as the light changes we get some nice 'in the water' shots, before heading inside to this most famous of temples. I like the aged black look, and a number of detail elements are pointed out until we get to the 2nd level (the famous 3rd level, where people try to climb the steep steps, has been closed - too dangerous as people tend to show off there). Here we wander around taking photos, before heading out some side doors where we take some 'amusing' photos, degenerating as we get downstairs and more silly photo ops present themselves. As we leave, past more monkeys, I'm unsure as to why this temple is SO raved about and deserves multiple visits. I've enjoyed it but I've seen as much as I want to and I've found it the least interesting of the temples I have seen.

Must be about 730/8am by this point, so we head to a local restaurant for breakfast. I've brought my Blue Pumpkin bread with me, and order museli/fruit to go with. OK breakfast, but I'm not sure that Museli is really got here... Just too many oats!

Back on the bus we head to Ta Proum which is the one I'm really excited about seeing as it's been kept pretty much in the state it was found, with the jungle creeping all over the buildings. Apparently it was used in the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider films (which I guess is where Angelina Jolie got her love of Cambodia from), and I thought I heard Indiana Jones too. The temple doesn't disappoint ... Really enjoy looking round here... Finding it quite eerie/mystical too, with some beautiful colouring. Feels untouched (Aside from the walkways!), but there's clearly intervention as scaffolding is used to maintain the site, rather than letting the jungle take over further. Few more photos and we're back on the bus. Our guide suggests 3 more small temples, but we've all seen enough for today and want to finish on a high so before 11 we're back at the hotel, all thinking it's the aternoon!

Spend an hour or so showering, relaxing with Thai beaches guide, and go to the garage (or gas station if you like!) for some food for tomorrow's bus journey... It's definitely used to Westerners and has some foods I've not seen for weeks... Including a small bag of Salt & Vinegar Kettle Chips (well, if you're going to find a rare flavour, they might as well import the best), $1.50 (which seems a lot but is only abou 75p, and they're not much less in the UK!), and some Maltesars, which really both taste the best ever!

1230 meet Helen and Danoushka in the lobby to go into town. They do want lunch after all! We get a tuk-tuk and as his price is what we first thought we forget to haggle, could have saved 25p between us... :-)! We go to Artisans D'Angkor first, where Cambodians are being taught a trade to make items for gift shops. As a weekend/lunchtime the workshops are nearly empty, but they take it in turns to be on call. We see laquer work, silkscreen painting, stone and wood carving and are then directed to the shop. Bit too expensive for me, but go for postcards/t-shirt (having said I wasn't going to get any, I have bought 3 this week!), then we head into town as it begins to rain - and everytime it rains it's heavy! Duck into Molly Malones... But decide to eat further down the road at The Temple. See someone's pizza so go for feta and bacon pizza, with which I apparently get everyone's soft drinks free.. So get a mango juice, with 'foreigner ice'! Not the greatest meal (think this bar is better known for its Apsara dancers (traditional dancing!)), but OK. Head into the Old Market, find some sunglasses for $5 to replace my cracked GBP3 ones... Try and find some more sports shirts but no joy (should have bought more in Vietnam, hadn't realised quite how bad my t-shirts have got, and as for my shoes - well, might have to replace them... Should have stuck with cheap flip-flops, these expensive hybrid-shoes just smell!). Manage to get a photo of the scary-type mannekin too!

Into the internet café to try and catch up and backup many more photos onto DVD. As it thinks about getting dark, walk back towards the hotel, but go to the internet café nearby to upload some more photos - Kym's in there and everyone else pops in to pick up their laundry.

710 back at the hotel, key is apparently with Cassandra, but she's not opening the door. After 10 mins go back to desk and, thanks, there's the key! Quickly drop everything off, and we head off to our 'posh' restaurant. Bit further away than I thought, and some darker streets, but OK in a group (Cassandra is missing, and later we find out that she started to walk that way, but became uncomfortable walking down the street so missed out).

Menu looks good - settle on a Chef's Salad (all washed in purified water) and a white/milk chocolate mousse (I never got the previous ones). Was all delicious and I manage to drink 1.5l water alongside. Everyone enjoyed it and we managed to settle the bill then walked back to the hotel where found Cassandra and I went to sleep by about 1030.. Absolutely shattered!

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Photos

Angkor Wat, Cambodia
((c) image purchased from iStockphoto)