Angkor Wat - Cambodia

**All photos can be clicked for larger size**

Given that we have about a month off for traveling before we return to teaching in September we decided to take a short trip to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is actually the name of a specific temple ruin, but is used to refer to the multitude of temple ruins of the ancient Khmer empire in the Siem Reap province of northwestern Cambodia. The temples were built by various Khmer kings between 790 and 1327 c.e. and are most commonly recognized from the movie Tomb Raider which featured the temple Ta Prhom. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the largest religious monument in the world.

Map of the Angkor UNESCO park

We caught a bus out of HCMC at 7am on Wednesday morning, which involved a 6:15am cab ride downtown, and some wandering around the bus depot to find the correct bus. The bus ride itself was fine, it took about 5 hours to get to Phnom Penh, the capital, with about an hour at immigration, and then we waited at the bus station in Phnom Penh for an hour before getting on another bus to Siem Reap. The bus to Siem Reap took another 6 hours, and we got in around 8pm. The bus rides were uneventful except for the One Direction and Celine Dion sing alongs. Apparently the Vietnamese and Cambodians like Karaoke and Chris decided to serenade me with his *cough* wonderful voice *couch*.

We stayed at a little budget hotel called the Naga Angkor hotel. Its perks include AC, wifi, and American food. In fact, in Cambodia, US currency is widely accepted, and in Siem Reap you can get just about any food you could ever want. Siem Reap is a tourist town frequented by visitors from all around the world, and as such has comforts from many countries.

On Thursday morning we got up, had an American breakfast in the hotel cafe, and took off for the temples.  We rented a tuk tuk for three days of sightseeing for $65. A tuk tuk is a like a rickshaw, but with a motorbike at the front instead of a person. On the first day we did the "small tour" comprised of Angkor Wat, the Bayon at Angkor Thom, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang, and sunset at Bakheng. Our sunset was interrupted by a thunderstorm, so we called it quits ahead of time and went home. We had dinner at the hotel again, poutine for Chris and green curry for Kim, and went to bed.

Tuk Tuk

Top: the front entrance, or gopura, of Angkor Wat. Bottom: the front entrance of the wall surrounding Angkor Wat.

Left: The central tower of Angkor Wat. Center: the bridge over the moat surrounding Angkor Wat. Right: An apsara engraved on a wall of Angkor Wat

Two sides of a crown of a tower at Angkor Wat

One of the more than two hundred faces on the towers of the Bayon at Angkor Thom. The Bayon was the state and religious temple of the city located at Angkor Thom.

The many steps at Ta Keo

A tree grows over the temple walls at Ta Prohm, a temple made famous by the movie Tomb Raider, and has been intentionally left unrestored. 

Carvings on the many columns at Banteay Kdei

On Friday morning we were up early, 4:15 to be exact, to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat, along with about 1,000 of our closest friends. After sunrise we headed off to Banteay Srei, and then returned back to central Angkor for the big circuit. The big circuit includes Preah Khan, the East Mebon, Ta Som, and Pre Rup. We finished around lunch time and grabbed lunch at an Italian place and then took a nice nap. Kim was feeling a bit under the weather that evening so Chris ventured out on his own to a beer hall for dinner.

This is what they call the "money shot"

Top left: the exceptionally intricate, and well preserved Banteay Srei. Top Right: the elephants guarding the East Mebon. Bottom left: the serene, and unusual, Jayatataka. Bottom right: the guard of Preah Khan.

Saturday we took it pretty easy and didn't see any temples.  We had planned to hang out by the pool, but intermittent thunderstorms kept us away. Instead we hung out in our hotel room and watched movies because there really isn't anything to do in Siem Reap. Much like other tourist towns built around a single major attraction, the non-temple options included diversions like mini golf or a miniature replica of the temples. We did however have an excellent breakfast at a cafe, and then dinner at an indian place.

Sunday was more temples.  We took a trip out to the Roluos group, which is south of the main temple complex, and is the oldest set of temples.  It took about 20 minutes to get out there and another 2 hours to see all three temples in the complex. We were back for lunch at another cafe, this one a non-profit which supports local NGOs. We did some wandering around in the afternoon and found some excellent gelato, and then were back in the hotel room until dinner at a wine bar. The wine bar was a little overpriced, and didn't have a great selection, but did have a very good honeycomb ice cream.

Left: Lions guard the entrance to a temple. Right: Apsaras carved into sandstone. 

Left: we couldn't resist a little yoga! Center: The top of a temple viewed through one of its entrances. Right: the long approach of a temple. 

Monday morning was up early again for another 12+ hour bus ride back to Vietnam. This time without the sing alongs.

Overall the experience was good. We really loved the temples, and it was really cool to see the development of religion and architecture over several centuries. Siem Reap is fine for a tourist town. You can get any kind of food you like, and all the western amenities (hot water!), but it consists mostly of bars and hotels, and there were certainly a lot of young backpackers doing a lot of drinking - which is not really our scene.

Thanks for following along. If you have a question feel free to comment or drop us a line!

-Kim and Chris

P.S. We would like to note that all of our touristing activities are funded out of our own pockets, and not from any of the fundraising we did. Fundraised money is used only for costs related directly to our mission work (Vietnamese visas, vaccinations, flights to Vietnam and flights home at the end of our trip, etc.)