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Trip: Cambodia – Siem Reap – Angkor Wat

The 2nd day was our “we visit all the temples” day. We got up very early – at 4.30 am to be in time to watch the sunrise at the Angkor Wat temple. Our guide for that day was already waiting in the taxi in front of our guesthouse and we headed towards the temples. Before you enter the temples you need to pass a checkpoint where you must purchase a ticket. A one day ticket doesn’t require a picture and costs 20 US$. 3 days are 40 US$ + picture. It was really busy that morning since the sunrise at Angkor Wat is a must in a tourist program.

Sunrise Angkor Wat: [+++]
We entered Angkor Wat through the main entrance and headed towards the libraries. Then we stopped in front of the small lake to the left side of the temple complex – the perfect spot for taking photos! The sunrise was nice with a beautiful red-orange color, but, to be honest, nothing special. If I went there again I would rather sleep another 2 hours to be really fit for the exhausting day.

Angkor Thom – Bayon – Phimeanakas – terrace of the elephants [+++++]:
Our first stop on our “4 temples tour” was Angkor Thom. This area was established in the late twelve century by king Jayavarman VII and was the most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. It covers an area of about 9 sq.km with the Bayon temple located in the city centre. After having our early breakfast at one of the nearby tents (we can recomend the banana pancakes ), we went to explore the Bayon temple. This temple’s most distinctive feature is the many smiling faces on every tower. Our guide explained us that there are more than 200 smiling faces built into the towers of Bayon. Bayon is really exceptional with all those misterious faces everywhere and this should be one of your main temples to visit. Because this was our “first” temple we ran in all directions to explore the temple ourselves. I think, at one point our guide was a little irritated because of this . But once he reminded us that we pay him to explain the template we stayed with him and he had a lot of interesting stories to tell and spots where we could take pictures. After almost an hour at Bayon we went on the explore Phimeanakas-the Royal Palace, the terrace of the elephants, the terrace of the leper king and tep pranam. Everything really lovely and worth seeing. Did I already mention that after this tour it was around 9 am and it felt like it was 35 degrees with 100% humidity

Preah Khan:[++++]
Second stop was the Preah Khan temple which is located northeast of Angkor Thom. Preah Khan is one of the temples that is largely unrestored with lots of trees and vegetation growing among the ruins. There were not many tourists in this area and sometimes you could really feel and hear that you are in the jungle. We tried to imagine how it felt to stumble over the temples in the middle of the jungle in 1860. This temple is not one of the main tourist attractions, but to get a feeling of how all this looked before many people came to restore it, it is perfect.

Ta Prohm:[+++++]
Our third stop was the famous Ta Prohm or Angelina Jolie temple as they name it now, after the movie Tomb Raider was shot there some years ago. This is, after Angkor Wat itself and Bayon, the most famous temple: firstly, because of the movie (you can recognise the locations while visiting) and secondly, because of the very distinctive look of the roots of the trees that often cover all the whole roof of the buildings. Our guide mentioned that in 10 years there won’t be any of these trees anymore. It is currently restored and rebuilt since the (silk cotton) trees are destroying everything and it becomes very unsafe to visit the temple. Be prepared that there are many tourists. It is very hard to get pictures without a Korean or a Japanese guy walking into your picture.

Angkor Wat:[+++++]
Our fourth stop was Angkor Wat again. This time we used the smaller entrance to the right of the main gate. Our guide explained that the main gate was only for the king. The smaller 2 gates close to the main gate was for everybody and the large gate at the far end of the naga gateway (as it is called) was for the elephants. Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century for the king Suryavarman II. This is the largets and best preserved temple in the whole area. It was first Hindu and then Buddhist and has become a symbol of Cambodia, even appearing on the national flag. Angkor Wat simply impresses with its huge and massive appearance. It is sooo big and an unimaginable amount of stones was used to build it. We went up to the top and adored the incredible view over the jungle and the other temples in the sunlight. This view from the top of this massive building will be something that will stay in your mind forever. I have to mention that you have to climb up the very small and steep stairs and that if you are afraid of height it could happen that you stay the night up there (Sorry Ms. P.)

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng:[+++]
Our last stop was at the Phnom Bakheng temple on top of a small mountain. Again very steep to climb up, but once your are up it offers a fantastic view. At that point, I guess, it was some when around 6 pm. You hardly recognise the temple anymore as a temple, but just as piled up stones that once you climbed up, are offering a better view. We watched the sunset at around 6.30 pm with many, many other tourists. It was not bad, but again something that is nice to do; but definitely not a must! They offer elephant rides up the hill for 15 US$ and down the hill for 10 US$ per person. We decided to walk up and down the short distance.

By that time we were really exhausted and just wanted to go home to take a shower and lay down for a while. At 9pm we left our guesthouse again to visit the Red Piano Bar at the Bar Street. The Red Piano Bar [+++] is famous because Angelina Jolie was there for dinner during the time they shot the movie Tomb Raider.

All in all a perfect day!!!