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Published: February 18th 2012
Banteay Srei
One of the recent discoveries, beautiful sandstone templeSiem Reap translates to Siam conquered – the relations between Cambodia and Thailand are still strained, especially as you get closer to the border between the countries. We flew into Siem Reap airport, and took a cab to our hotel. The driver, Long, was really nice and helpful, so we arranged for him to tour us around to the temples of Angkor Wat for 2.5 of the 4 days we had in the city.On the way to the hotel, we told him about our trip so far, and jokingly mentioned it would be great to ‘crash’ a Cambodian wedding….more on that later!
He took us to the hotel where we checked in, grabbed a quick lunch, then set out to
Bantey Srey, a temple built in the late 10
th century during Rajendravarman’s rule, 37 km outside of town. It was the latest temple to be discovered, and we enjoyed seeing the afternoon sun stream onto the pink sandstone carvings. Bantey Srey was our first encounter with the very forceful book and scarf vendors that surround most of the temples. Our price negotiations for the Angkor temple guide were drawn out and tenuous, with us ‘walking away from the table’ multiple times,
Khmer inspired pool
Our pool at Le Meridien was certainly inspirational after a hot day at the temples as the price gap between buy and sell slowly closed. To avoid a filibuster, we conceded the last USD and used the $6 guide book (retailing for $29.95) for the rest of our temple explorations over the next few days. It was a very valuable text, not only for content, but to present at each of the following temples to ward off additional book vendors – they then tried to sell us the DVD. We caught sunset at
Pre Rup temple.
After going back to the hotel and freshening up, we headed into Siem Reap town to grab dinner and explore the city. We met up with Suzanne, a very nice Australian that runs small group tours for women. It was great hearing her impressions of Siem Reap over dinner. The night ended with a dart game at Laundry bar, where Suzi was victorious!
The next morning, Long picked us up for a tour to the outer temples. He casually mentioned his sister wasn’t able to go to a friend’s wedding that night, and we could join him in her place. We rushed back to the room to grab the nicest clothes in our packs, we would have to
Beng Meala
Climbing the ruins and hanging from vines change en route from the sunset cruise we had planned. We started with
Beng Meala, 60 km east of Siem Reap. Our trip was well worth it; Beng Meala was truly an amazing temple. It was built in the Angkor Wat style in the 11
th century, and as we toured it we felt like we were in a different era. The Khmer Rouge had destroyed much of the temple walls, and the trees have taken over much of the temple. There were also areas that have been roped off due to some mines still possibly being hidden in the woods. We had an amazing guide, who was actually the police guard for the temple. He has lived on-site for 10 years, and shared the amazing history as we climbed through the temple grounds. This was our favorite site from all of Angkor temples, with Bayon and Angkor Wat probably coming in at spots 2 and 3.
We then continued on to the Rolus group of temples, where we saw Lolei, and Bakong. Lolei had a very colorful Buddhist temple on site, see the picture we posted. Bakong’s scale was impressive, along with its large free-standing sculptures of elephants guarding every
A secret passage!
We whistled theme song to Indiana Jones corner of the temple.
At lunch Suzi tried the local specialty ‘Amok’ a coconut curry with chicken. It was presented inside a coconut, delicious! Kostek had delicious pork with onions and our favorite Thai soda bubbly water. After the temples we set out on our boat tour through Kampong Phluk floating village for sunset on the lake. It was impressive to see so many families living on stilted houses high above the water. We were met with smiles, waves, and ‘Sous D’ai’ (hello in Cambodian) as we made our way through the village. We enjoyed sunset on the very large lake. Afterwards, we headed straight to the wedding, where we were warmly greeted at the reception by friends and family of the bride and groom. The bride and groom came over to us quite a few times during the reception, asking if we were having a good time and encouraging us to get out on the dance floor. We had a great time at the wedding. The food, band, multiple regalia changes of bride and groom, and dance moves taught to us by fellow guests made it a memorable time.
The following day, we laid low poolside and
Beng Meala - most natural
The trees were taking over - it was amazing enjoyed ‘high tea’ at the resort. It was great to have a full day of relaxation and reading amongst the temples and colorful city center.
Our last full day in Siem Reap was Valentine’s Day. Long picked us up at 5 AM and took us to
Angkor Wat for sunrise. We were early and lucky to grab the ‘last spot’ along the reflecting pool awaiting sunrise. It was great to tour the temple early in the morning. Even though there were many people also there, the size of Angkor Wat allowed for many unobstructed photos. At many of the areas we were the only ones there, a very cool experience.
At the apex of Khmer political and military dominance in the region during the 12
th century, Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat in the form of a massive 'temple-mountain' dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu. It served as his state temple, though the temple’s uncommon westward orientation has led some to suggest that it was constructed as Suryavarman II’s funerary temple. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall measuring 1300 meters x 1500 meters. The temple itself is 1 km square and consists of three levels
Leaves!
A tribute to the Poconos surmounted by a central tower. The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings. Nearly 2000 distinctively rendered apsara carvings adorn the walls throughout the temple and represent some of the finest examples of apsara carvings in Angkorian era art. But it is the exterior walls of the lower level that display the most extraordinary bas-reliefs, depicting stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historical wars of Suryavarman II.
After Angkor Wat, we indulged in breakfast where curious monkeys came around to investigate. We then headed to
Angkor Thom, which is actually not a temple, but a city with many temples within. We were particularly taken with
Bayon’s many faces and the
Elephant Terrace. We finished the trip by walking through the impressive Apsara reliefs along
the Leper King Terrace, and then onto
Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm is located approximately one kilometer east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing
out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors. It is interesting to note that the temple of Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. Although the film took visual liberties with other Angkorian temples, its scenes of Ta Prohm were quite faithful to the temple's actual appearance, and made use of its eerie qualitie
We felt 4 nights in Siem Reap was ‘just right’ for us, enough time to get out to the temples farther from town, and enough time to relax at the pool so we did not experience Temple overload. We packed up and headed out of the hotel at 6:30 AM for the 6.5 hr journey to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia!
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Vinay Meena
non-member comment
Lovely Pictures
We see you really enjoyed your trip to Siem Reap and visits to various Angkorian Temples and the WEDDING! The Photographs you people manage to take are just fantastic and we realy enjoyed watching them - Vinay Meena