Around Angkor
Here it was. Siem Reap. Angkor Wat. Finally. While our three-ish days in Phnom Penh had been excellent this was why I had come to Cambodia. Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t regret going to Phnom Penh. We saw some incredible places there, the history was not to be missed, and I went to my first cat café. But Angkor Wat had been on my bucket list for quite a while and I was excited to see such a historically significant spot.
After arriving and getting to the hotel it was about time for dinner so we meandered down the street and across the river to the street food area. We checked everything out and got some food and fruit shakes. We almost never plan anything in advance so after we ate we hit up a bar for a quick drink and to decide what our plan was for at least the next day. Obviously we decided to go to Angkor Wat.
Day 1
We got a driver and picked a loop of the Angkor Archeological Park at the hotel so the next day after breakfast we were in the tuktuk and off to Angkor Wat. The first stop was the ticket office for Angkor Wat, which is actually before Angkor Wat proper. So if you’re going to Angkor Wat make sure you don’t drive past the ticket office. You can buy a one day ticket for $37, a 3 day ticket for $62, or a whole week for $72. We were planning to go twice so we got the 3 day ticket. After getting to the park we bought audio guides and headed in. The audio guide costs $7 and you need to either leave your passport or a different ID and $50 which you obviously get back when you return the audio guide. You don’t need the audio guide but if you get one it takes you through a bunch of stops while explaining a ton of the history and what you’re seeing as you walk through. I think it was 100% worth the seven bucks. We probably spent most of the morning into the early afternoon at Angkor Wat and after working our way through we returned our audio guides and had some lunch. Predictably the lunch, being right outside of Angkor Wat, was a little expensive. After lunch we returned our audio guides, which were only for Angkor Wat and tuktukked to Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom. There were lots of stone faces carved there which were super cool. Bayon Temple was also one of the bigger areas after Angkor Wat. We continued to Ta Keo, which had a couple of levels that you could go up, before moving on to Ta Prohm. A little more obviously aged, Ta Prohm had trees growing out of some of the ruins, where were awesome to see. The last main area we went to on day 1 was Banteay Kdei. Time hasn’t been too kind to Banteay Kdei and a lot of buildings there were being help up by support beams. Hopefully so that they can restore them, at least enough to no longer need the beams. Although kind of sad to see a place like that starting to fall apart it was a little cool to see something stand in such stark contrast to the more well preserved areas. On our way back to the tuktuk from Banteay Kdei we stopped quickly at Sras Srang. It’s really only some stairs leading to a platform looking out over a pond so we weren’t there long but it was still quite pretty. After a tiring day walking around Angkor we were planning to relax a little that evening. So after swinging by the hotel we made our way Koulen Restaurant for the buffet dinner and dance show. The large dinner was appreciated since we hadn’t had too much for lunch because it was kind of expensive and the dance show was great dinner entertainment. I couldn’t tell you how traditional it truly was but I enjoyed it nonetheless. After the dance show and dinner we wound down our night with a drink at Siem Reap Brewpub. It was definitely a cool spot for all you beer drinkers out there. We didn’t try it but they did serve food as well if you prefer your beer with something to eat.
Day 2
The next day we got up a little earlier to maximize our time at the Angkor Archeological Park. The plan was to do the larger loop but we realized that we had missed a couple areas right near Bayon Temple the day before so we asked our driver if we could go there first. He was very accommodating. So after passing Angkor Wat we stopped near Bayon Temple to see the Terrace of the Elephants, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, and the Terrace of the Leper King. The Terrace of the Elephants is so named because it contains a number of statues and carvings of Elephants. Baphuon, behind the Terrace of the Elephants, is a single structure that you can climb, viewing the surrounding area from a second and third level. Phimeanakas was inaccessible and could only be viewed from outside. It contained a bunch of headless statues. While they could have been built that way it looked like the heads had been removed. Looted I assume. The last stope that we had missed was the Terrace of the Leper King, where Max informed me that the Leper King statue was a replica. The original is in the National Museum in Phnom Penh. That’s why you read the little guide they give you because I wouldn’t have known if Max hadn’t read it. After catching up on stuff we missed we went to our next stop, Preah Khan, which had an impressive balustrade on the piece of road leading to the main area. Preah Khan had some impressive buildings and carvings, but also some areas that were full of rubble. Like Ta Prohm is also had some trees growing out of old structures which looked cool every time we saw them. It was already lunch time by then and our tuktuk driver brought us to a restaurant. It was really expensive though so we decided to skip lunch and just have some shakes to cool down a little before heading to Neak Poan. Neak Poan was very different from what we had seen up to that point. It was a small temple built in a little pond surrounded by other little ponds. Because it’s in the pond you can’t get close but you can walk around the ponds getting different angles of the temple. After Neak Poan we went on to Ta Som, which wasn’t too large, but if memory serves in order to get there we had to walk down a path in the woods. It also had the second most impressive of all the trees growing out of things that we saw, after Preah Khan. I was in a pretty bad mood after Ta Som because my camera decided to format itself and I lost all my footage from the trip. We proceeded to East Mebon while I was angry and were greeted with some impressive little towers at the top, which improved my mood a little. After East Mebon we decided to take a detour to go see Banteay Srey, which was 37 kilometers north of where we were. It was a pretty long ride but definitely worth it. Banteay Srey seemed a little more spread out than a lot of what we had seen and some of the carvings there were in excellent condition. It was getting late when we got back to the main area but we had just enough time to swing by East Mebon to catch the sunset. Dinner at Tevy’s wrapped up the day.
Day 3
For our third day we decided to stay in Siem Reap. After grabbing a replacement battery for the camera and checking out Preah Ang Chek and Preah Ang Chrom Shrine we made our way to the Angkor National Museum. A $12 ticket and $5 audio guide later we were making our way through the museum learning all about Angkor and the surrounding area. In retrospect it would have made much more sense to go to the museum first to learn a bunch and then going to Angkor Wat to see all the stuff we learned about but such is life. After the museum we went to Bugs Cafe, which was a bug based restaurant we had walked by earlier in the trip. I had tried grasshopper tacos in New York once and loved them so I was pretty excited by the opportunity to try some more. The food was all prepared very well and everything was delicious. For the less adventurous people there was plenty of food with the bugs sort of hidden, for example spring rolls with ants in them. If nobody told you and you weren’t paying attention you might never know you were eating bugs. That wrapped up the trip. We had one more day when we traveled back to Phnom Penh but we took it pretty easy, just getting some burgers at Cousin’s Burger and Coffee and admiring the National Museum in Phnom Penh from the outside.
Siem Reap and Angkor Wat were everything I hoped that they would be. After Phnom Penh they were the perfect end cap to the trip. Plus I learned to go to the museum first.
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