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Published: August 21st 2010
On the road
With Mr PremSiem Reap
It took the best part of the day to get from Phuket to Cambodia. We flew from Phuket airport at 6.55am to Bangkok, then after a transit of about one hour, boarded another flight to Siem Reap in the north of the country. Siem Reap is the launching point for visiting the temples of Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world.
The temples were created by the Khmer civilisation and are dated between the 8th and 13th centuries by a succession of Hindu and Buddhist kings. Every temple is created out of stone and include varied and elaborate carvings, making each temple quite unique.
Angkor Wat refers to the most famous temple, which was built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. It's most famous for amazing photos at sunrise. But there are dozens of temples all around the area of varying sizes and shapes.
This was one of the parts of the trip we had both been really looking forward to. As it would be Catherine's 23rd...hmmm...okay....28th..brithday in two days time we had opted for a bit of
Cool temples
Brent finds something older than himself.. luxury and booked a nice boutique hotel which had a special package deal which included a free massage and free dinner (Brent didn't have to plan a thing!!). The hotel was one of our favourites, with simple but clean rooms with ensuites all surrounding a swimming pool and lush green gardens. It was about a 4m walk from our room to the pool!
The hotel had a lovely communal feel to it with most people sitting out by the pool in the afternoons talking to each other. We met some great people there and enjoyed each others company in the afternoons. That night we we were walking down to find a restaurant to eat at and bumped into an Aussie lady who was visiting Camboda as a stopover from visiting her daughter in London. After deciding on a place called the Red Piano for dinner, she joined us for dinner which was lovely.
Temples day 1
We decided as Cath's birthday was going to be a day of indulgence, to get straight into the temples on our first full day. The tickets for the temples allow you to visit either for one day, for three days over a
week period, or for 7 days over the period of a month. We opted for a three day ticket as one day really can't give the temples justice, and, as our trustee Lonely Planet guide said, would be sacriledge. We also look LP's suggestion to visit some of the smaller and further out temples first, gradually building our way up to the most famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.
The temples were so diverse in size, layout and detail it was hard to get bored. Some were one level and in a lot of ruin, some where in good nick and included three or four levels, which often had to be reached by a lot of very very narrow steep stairs (not good for those with a bit of vertigo!). We hired a tuk tuk driver Mr Prem to take us around the temples for the day. Tuk Tuks are a great way of seeing the temples because you are not stuck behind glass like in a car, you can interact more with what is around you, but you still have the benefit of being shaded from the sun and rain & have a nice cooling breeze on the
Stone carving
Detail in the temple walls was amazing face. We were also supplied with bottles of water, stored in an icebox which was lovely, as it was in the mid 30s everyday and with humidity in the mid 80%!w(MISSING)e were constantly covered in a nice sheen of sweat whenever we were outside.
First up we headed to the
Roluos group, a series of three temples to the South of the main cluster including
Preah Ko. We also saw
Preh Khan, which was used as a buddhist university, where we had to climb around a lot of ruins, and
Neak Pean, an unsual tower which had a circular island in the middle of a series of four ponds.
After completing the first five temples we wanted to see by early afternoon we decided to call it a day and retreat back to the hotel for a swim in the pool.
Birthday Girl
The next day Cath was awoken with a cup of tea in bed (an event which happens about twice a year!!). After breakfast we chatted on skype to my parents for a bit before it was time to open my presents from Brent. Then it was time to relax by the pool
Looking old
The temple...ah-hem! for the morning, then back to the room for a bit to watch a girly romantic film and stuff ourselves with Cadbury's black forest chocolate and brie and crackers. We then had our free in room massages and then went out for our three course meal. At the end of the meal the staff presented Cath with a huge chocolate cake with her name and birth date written on the top of it in icing. What a lovely surprise.
Temples day 2
The next day we were back out with Mr Prem to visit more temples. This time we visited another 8 of varying sizes. We begun by making the 45 minute trek out to the most outlying temple
Banteay Srei, 20km north of Angkor near the foot of the Kulen Mountains.
We then made our way back to a temple called
Ta Prohm, known for the massive tree roots which have become interlaced among the ruins (great for Brent to photograph!) This temple, built in the 12th century was also used as a monastery.
After Ta Phrom came
Ta Keo, the temple that Cath didn't really see. Ta Keo is described as a "temple mountain"
Stairs of death
Climbing up seemed like a good idea at the time.. and for good reason! We're sure the ancient Khmers had really small feet as the steps in the temples up to higher levels are not only very very steep they are also very very tiny! Cath called it a day after one level (and a significent amount of vertigo!) whilst Brent climbed all the long long way to the top.
We then went to a temple called
Banteay Kdei, which is mostly known for its entrance points of wide stone arches with large buddhist faces carved on them.
Banteay Kdei is situated across from
Srah Srang, a 10th century temple, located in the middle of a lake. Unfortunately, as it was rainy season, the temple was underwater (!) so we were unable to see anything but a flag poking up from the water. We did get some gorgeous photos from the landing point for boats looking out across the lake.
It was then time to head back just as the heavens opened and it rained for most of the rest of the day.
Landmine Museum
We then had another restful morning by the pool before getting tuk tuk out to the Siem Reap landmine museum
Birthday girl
Still a youngin' which was set up by a man called Aki Ra.
After being orphaned as a young boy by the Khmer Rouge Aki Ra became a child soldier with the Khmer Rouge in the early 1980's, then later fought with the Vietnamese Army and then with the Cambodian army. After laying hundreds of landmines Aki Ra then dedicated his life to disabling and removing them.
There are many hundreds of thousands of landmines and unexploded ordnance which litter Cambodia's countryside. It's a sad tale that even though Cambodia was not involved in the Vietnam war, because both sides used the country as a means to transport men and equipment, not only were thousands of mines laid, it was also heavily bombed during the war. Even now ordinary Camodians are still being killed or maimed by these. The museum was a stark reminder of this and the effect it has had to many peoples lives. We see victims of the landmines all over the country, many missing an arm or leg, or both.
After the museum we headed into the main pub street in Siem Reap, aptly called "Pub St" to watch the All Blacks play. We stumbed across
Ta Keo
Cath'll just stay here, yeah? an Irish bar (strange that....) and there was a nice group of people to watch the game with...and what a great game the ABs had!
Sunrise (?) at Angkor Wat
The next day it was time for the finale - sunrise at Angkor Wat. Unfortunately our good luck with the weather had disappeared and it had rained most of the afternoon and into the evening the previous day. We had hoped it would clear up when we got up at 4am (yes, FOUR am) the next day but unfortunately as we stood on the otherside of the moat infront of Angkor Wat that morning and sunrise came and went - withOUT a sun!!
Well, there's not much we could do about it as we were leaving the following day but we still got some quite moody photos of the dark skies. We then spent the morning walking around Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.
While Angkor Wat by itself is the world's largest religious monument,
Angkor Thom was the largest of the Khmer cities and comprises of many individual temples. Here we saw
Bayon which was most striking for the large number of carvings of buddhist faces
Ta Keo 2
While Brent works his way up the stairs into the stone. Also part of the city is
Bapuon temple, the elephant terrace and the leper king terrace.
It was then time to visit one more small temple before we called it a day - we had throughly enjoyed the temples but had seen enough by day three! It was then time to go back, pack our bags again and spent a bit more time in the pool before heading onwards to our next destination, Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh.
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Mum Couch
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Loved the tree roots
I just love all the tree roots photos especially the tree with temple! Birthday cake was a nice surprise was waiting to see a photo. love Mum