Day 26: Angkor Wat and the water world of Tonle Sap

Today I saw the sun rise over Angkor Wat.  I had been working towards this moment for 2 days.  It was tough getting up so early. Mr Lai picked me up at my hotel at 5am. It was very dark out and it had been raining most of the night. By the time we arrived at Angkor Wat, the rain had stopped and the clouds were beginning to part. I walked through the west gate into the complex and could begin to see a massive shadow rising up through the darkness–the peaks of the temple towers ascending to the sky. I found a little spot by one of the pools and waited.  It didn’t take long for nature to do its thing, and the first sun rays to light up the sky with lavenders and pinks.

First rays of morning behind Angkor Wat

The sun continues to rise

Once the sun rose higher in the sky, I made my way into the temple.  Some basic information on Angkor Wat: This is the largest religious building in the world.  Built in the 12th century by Khmer King Suryavarman II, this temple-mountain was first a Hindu temple and then later a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat has become a symbol of Cambodia and even appears on the Cambodian national flag.  I’ll leave off there–you can look up the rest.

View of inner gallery

View of a tower

Steep steps up to one of the towers

Upper Level

I didn’t walk up the towers at Angkor Wat.  Apparently it was the “Buddha’s day” today and the upper level of the towers was closed off to visitors.  Well, almost.  A guard said that if I gave him $5 USD he’d let me up.  I had had enough steep steps on this trip and decided I didn’t need to break any rules for a better view.

This meant I had more time to spend looking at the carvings on the walls. Angkor Wat has some splendid high relief carvings along all the gallery walls.

Carvings at Angkor Wat

Relief carvings

I walked all over the interior of the temple, and then decided to walk toward the moat around the complex for a different view.

View of Angkor Wat moat, along the eastern side of the island

Structure at the eastern side of the Angkor Wat complex

I walked around the complex some more and then headed back to the east side of the island to meet Mr Lai.

View of Angkor Wat from the West

View of Angkor Wat from the North, with the Naga (seven-headed snake statue)

I spent about two and a half hours walking around the complex and taking it in this morning.  At 8am I went to find Mr Lai, who promptly returned me to my hotel where I took a long nap.

Angkor Wat

In the afternoon, Mr Lai picked me up at 3pm to take me to Tonle Sap Lake.  He drove me to a river near the lake and then we took a boat to see a floating village on the lake. Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia.  It is an unusual ecosystem for two reasons: first its flow changes direction twice a year, and second the water level of the lake changes dramatically between the dry and rainy seasons.  It’s the dry season right now, so the water level is incredibly low.  Our boat, as well as other tourist boats, proceeded in a very tight single file through the middle of the river in order to get to the lake.  Any deviation from the middle and the boats would get stuck–that’s how low the water level is at this stage.

Dock where the tourist boats leave to go to the lake

I think the floating village I visited is called Chong Kneas, although I’m not positive.  It was a quick tour.  The boat took us past a community market, a school, a church, and we docked at souvenir market/restaurant/crocodile farm so we could take photos from the second and third levels where there was a better view of the village.

As the name states, the floating village is, well, exactly that.  All the houses are either on boats or floating docks of some sort.  I believe the villagers move around the lake depending on the season.  They have restaurants and markets and schools and hospitals and police stations and everything…except it’s all on the lake.  It’s interesting to see.  I’m not sure it was worth the $25 ticket for the hour long boat ride.  Maybe in the rainy season it’s more interesting and there is also the option to visit the flooded forest (which isn’t flooded right now, obviously).

House boats in the floating village

Community Market

To the right of the market you’ll notice a fan of tree branches coming out of the water.  These are the anchors that the villagers build and use for each of the floating structures. This one is the anchor for the community market.

Floating School

Floating Church

Floating Villager Homes

Floating Village Houses

The floating village was interesting; a true water world in its own right.

Scam Alert: I head read numerous reviews on Trip Advisor and other sites about scams on Tonle Sap Lake.  The guys driving the tour boats will dock at the community market and guilt the passengers into buying expensive bags of rice for the children at the school.  According to these sources, this is a scam to squeeze money out of tourists.  My boat driver suggested stopping at the community market, to which I promptly said no.  It bothered me that at the one stop we did make (the souvenir/restaurant/crocodile farm — literally, it was all three of those things) the boat driver was also pushing me to buy souvenirs for which I had no need.  It wasn’t a great experience.  Seeing the floating village was alright but certainly not a highlight of this trip by any means.

Overall this has been a fairly pleasant though exhausting few days here in Siem Reap.  I think I tried to do a little too much in terms of temple visits.  There was one temple I wanted to see, which I missed (Kbal Spean) because it was quite a bit far.  Otherwise I saw everything I set out to see, and I think I’m all set on visiting temples for awhile (well, until I get back to Bangkok next week).

I’d like to make a few restaurant recommendations here in Siem Reap.  I met a couple of well-heeled travelers over lunch a few days ago, who gave me some terrific dinner recommendations.  I went to all three that they listed for me: Viroth, Square 24, and Nest.  They were terrific.  Very trendy and cool ambiance and decor, with great food.  I splurged tonight at Nest and had a $30 meal–the most expensive meal I’ve had on this trip by far, but that was because I opted to have the Western dishes on the menu which are pricier (I really needed a night off from curry, rice, and stir fry).

Tomorrow I fly back to Bangkok, where I round off my trip with a few days on the beach.  In the end I’ve decided to go to Koh Samui (instead of Phuket).

Day 25: Angkor Thom and others

It was another long day visiting temples and Khmer cities. We started again at 7:30am and went to Angkor Thom, one of the largest of all Khmer cities.  This complex was founded by Jayavarman VII in the 12th century and probably remained the capital city until the 17th century.  We entered through the South Gate, which I had passed through already yesterday.

South Gate, Angkor Thom

Mr Lai dropped me off at the west side of the Bayon group in Angkor Thom.  He showed me a map and told me that I should walk and visit numerous other temples and structures around Bayon and meet him about a kilometer north of there by the Terrace of the Leper King.  I probably walked around for a good two hours or more.

I started out at the Bayon.  This was the State Temple of Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors, built between the late 12th to late 13 centuries. It is an enigmatic and dramatic structure, with several face-towers appearing on the mountainous peaks. You’ve probably seen these face-towers before, since they photograph so beautifully.

View of Bayon with its many peaks

Face Towers at Bayon

Face Towers at Bayon

Face Towers Bayon

Profiles: There are three in this photo. Can you see them all?

Wall Relief at Bayon

View from the north of Bayon

One of the best parts of Bayon is walking through the streets below the top terrace, where you can get lost easily but also you can easily get beautiful views of the face towers.  It was quite nice.

After visiting Bayon, I walked a little north-west to Bapuon.  Built in the middle 11th century, Bapuon was the state temple during the reign of Udayadityavarman II.  It is a temple-mountain, with remarkably steep steps.  These were so steep that they have added some little precarious ladder-steps to help tourists climb to the top.  I must say I was rather terrified going up and down these because they were so steep.

Bapuon

View of Bapuon

View from the top of the temple-mountain Bapuon

From Baphuon, I walked north to the next group of ruins, called Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace. This structure was built in the late 10th to early 11th centuries, with other parts built during the 12th and 13th centuries.  This structure also had steep steps to get to the top, but luckily less terrifying than Bapuon.

Phimeanakas

The Royal Palace remains weren’t as interesting to me so I didn’t photograph them (mostly there was just a large pond that was dried up).

Next I continued my journey walking north to Preah Palilay, a small Budhist sanctuary from the 13th or 14th century nearby to the Royal Palace.

Preah Palilay

I walked south along the road so that I could see Phimeanakas and Baphuon again from afar and I also wanted to see the Elephant Terrace, which is  just east of those two sites. The Elephant Terrace was the foundation for the royal reception pavilions in this place.  They date from the 12th century with late 13th century additions. The terrace is known for the many elephant carvings long its walls, which is how it derived its name.

Elephant Terrace

Elephant carvings along the Elephant Terrace

Detail of an elephant carving at the Elephant Terrace

Just north of the Elephant Terrace, along the road, is the Terrace of the Leper King. This terrace was built in the Bayon style during the reign of Jayavaman VII (so 12th century) but the name “Terrace of the Leper King” is derived from a 15-century sculpture discovered at the site.  The terrace is lined with beautiful statues and carvings.

View of the terrace of the Leper King

High Relef Carvings and statues along the Terrace of the Leper King

I met my driver in the parking lot next to the Terrace of the Leper King and then he drove me about a half hour north to the next site on our visit: Banteay Srei.

Banteay Srei was built in the 10th century and is about 30 km north of Angkor, and though it is a small temple, the carved surfaces of the buildings are remarkable.

View of Banteay Srei

Carved lintel at Banteay Srei

Carvings, Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei

After Banteay Srei we came back toward the main park and stopped at a site called Banteay Samre, built during the 12th century. Located a few kilometers east of East Mebon, which I visited yesterday, Banteay Samre doesn’t receive that many tourists, which made it quite a pleasant place to visit.

Banteay Samre

Banteay Samre

This temple appears to be quite well restored considering how isolated it is.

At this point it was well past noon, so Mr Lai took me to a little lunch spot in Angkor park so I could eat quickly before our next stop.  After lunch, we went to Ta Phrom, the real Tomb Raider temple (part of the first Lara Croft movie was filmed here).  Built in the late 12th to early 13th centuries, Ta Phrom was one of the major temples and monasteries during the reign of Jayavarman VII.  From what I’ve read, it appears that the decision to leave this site in its current state, with trees and vegetation growing amid the ruins, was intentional. It’s no wonder this site has such a romantic and fantastical feel to it.  Though many visitors do go to this site, it still feels very remote.  It’s difficult to capture the beauty of the strangler figs and other trees growing around the ruins.

Ta Phrom

Ta Phrom ruins

Ta Phrom ruins

View of Ta Phrom West Entrance

I was back at the hotel before 3pm.  Even though it was only mid-afternoon, it felt like a long day.  Tomorrow is another one.  I start at 5am, with sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Off to bed!

Day 24: Visiting the Smaller Temples at Angkor

I started my tour early today, at 7:30am.  My taxi driver, Mr. Lai, drove us north from Siem Reap and stopped at the ticket office so I could by my ticket. You can buy  one day ($20), three day ($40), and seven day tickets ($60) for Angkor Wat park (I got the 3 day ticket). Despite the crowd of folks at the ticket office, I was in and out of there within a few minutes.

The tour I’m doing builds up to Angkor Wat on the last day, so today being my first day, I saw a number of smaller temples. To get to the first temple, Mr. Lai drove us around the periphery of Angkor Wat and through the South Gate and North Gates of Angkor Thom (another huge temple complex here). We stopped to take a few photos at the Gates. We’ll be coming back tomorrow, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots now.

North Gate of Angkor Thom

The first temple I visited was Preah Khan. Mr Lai dropped me off at the East Gate of Preah Khan and I walked through the temple and met him at the West Gate where we continued onwards. Preah Khan was built in the 12th century under the reign of King Jayavarman VII and is located to the northeast of Angkor Thom and just west of the Jayatataka baray, with which it was associated (a “baray” I learned is an artificial body of water, and a common element in Khmer architecture). One of King Jayavarman’s largest temples, Preah Khan is thought to have been a city as well as a Buddhist university. The site is largely unrestored so there are many trees growing among the ruins.  It was the largest group of ruins I visited today.

Moat around Preah Khan

Preah Khan East Gate

Carved designs on the stone

Around the Preah Khan Ruins. There was a monk visiting the ruins.

Ruins at Preah Khan

Trees and vegetation growing around the ruins

Crossing the moat outside the West Gate

Next we went to Neak Pean to the east of Preah Khan.  Neak Pean is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple.  Similar to Preah Khan, Neak Pean was built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, in the late 12th century. The temple was originally designed for medicinal purposes and might have acted as  a type of hospital.  It is thought that the pools and waters at Neak Pean may represent Anavatapta, a mythical lake in the Himalayas where the waters are thought to cure illness.

This was a small series of ruins.  To get to the artificial island you cross over this swamp/marsh on a wooden bridge.  At the island, in the center of the pools you see the temple.

Wooden bridge/plank to get to Neak Pean

Neak Pean temple

Horse statue on the left coming out of the water

In this last photo you’ll notice there are some people in the water.  They work for the Angkor Wat park and were clearing out foliage and vegetation from the water.

Next we visited Ta Som, which is east of Neak Pean. Ta Som is a small temple that feels quite remote. It’s also overgrown with trees and vegetation, and features a few face-towers.  It’s a very charming miniature temple, built in the late 12th century under the reign of Jayavarman VII, and then was later enlarged by Indravarman II in the 13th century.

Face Towers at Ta Som. I’ll see more of these tomorrow

Ta Som ruins

Overgrown tree on the ruins with face tower

After visiting Ta Som, we made our way south east to East Mebon, in the East Baray.   East Mebon was built in the middle of the 10th century under the reign of Rajendravarman. East Mebon is located within the massive East Baray, which was built about half a century before the temple as the water source for the city here.

Main Temple at East Mebon

Guardian Elephant at East Mebon on the south east corner

East Mebon

We continued a little further south of the East Baray to Pre Rup. This temple was also built in the middle of the 10th century during the reign of Rajendravarman.  This temple looks a lot like East Mebon, but apparently Pre Rup is a “temple-mountain” (the structure is meant to look symbolically like a mountain) whereas East Mebon is not.  You can tell the difference when hiking up to the top.  Pre Rup is crazy steep and has a lot of steps to go up, whereas East Mebon has a series of terraces but really isn’t that high up.

Pre Rup

View from the top of Pre Rup

After Pre Rup, we went quite a ways south east to see a group of temples called the Roluos Group, which consists of three sites: Bakong, Preah Ko, and Lolei.  These temples were the oldest that we visited today, dating from the 9th century. We first visited Bakong, the first significant temple-mountain built in the area.  It  was constructed in the late 9th century during the reign of Indravarman I.

Bakong pyramid

One of my favorite aspects of the temples I saw today were all the gorgeous high relief carvings and sculptures like these.

High relief carvings at Bakong

Next we stopped a short ways away at Preah Ko, a 9th century temple with 6 towers featuring some very beautiful carvings on the doorway lintels.

Preah Ko

Detail of lintel carving at Preah Ko

Another detail of lintel carving at Preah Ko

Carved writing on a wall at Preah Ko

The last temple of the Roluos group is Lolei, a tiny 9th century temple formerly on an island and now undergoing some heavy restoration.

Lolei

It was 1pm by the time we finished visiting all these sites–almost 6 hours of touring.  It was pretty exhausting, but luckily it was lunch time. Mr. Lai dropped me off at Pub Street in town and I had a little lunch in the area.  After a bit of post-lunch shopping and wandering through the boutiques and galleries near Pub Street, I made my way back to the hotel to relax for an hour before Mr. Lai picked me up to go to a smaller temple called Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset.  We headed up at 4:30pm since this temple in particular gets pretty filled up with tourists for the sunset.

Phnom Bakheng is a 9th century temple on top of a hill about 1.5 kilometers away from Angkor Wat.  The reason for its popularity among tourists is that it provides a nice vantage point for the sunset over the West Baray, as well as a view of Angkor Wat.

View of Angkor Wat through the trees from Phnom Bakheng

A little closer view of Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakheng

Carvings on a doorway on Phnom Bakheng main temple

Sunset over the West Baray

Sunset through the towers of Phnom Bakheng

Once night fell, Mr. Lai picked me up and I went to dinner at a lovely local restaurant called Viroth.

Tomorrow I continue my touring early, once again, so off to bed for me!

Day 23: Transit to Siem Reap

I made it to Siem Reap today. I took the 11:30am flight out of Phnom Penh. As with the past two days, my new friend and taxi driver Sva picked me up and drove me to the airport.

In case you find yourself in Phnom Penh and you’re looking for a good, reliable driver, I would recommend Sva. Here’s his number: 017 56 31 87 (or add 855 and remove the 0 if dialing from abroad).  He drives around a number of expats, including some Americans working at the US Embassy.  His English is very good.  He takes classes for one hour every day 6 days a week.  He’s knowledgeable, polite, and very reliable.  I spent most of my time outside my hotel room with him, and he really made a difference in my experience in Phnom Penh.

Now that I’m out of the capital, I’d like to share a few additional notes about Phnom Penh.  It was one of the cities I was least looking forward to visiting.  I had read that it was dangerous, that there are a lot of purse snatchers, that there is a huge drug/gun problem, that the tuk tuk drivers and taxis try and scam you left and right, and all sorts of other things.  As I mentioned previously, walking around the area near my hotel I never felt unsafe but I did feel very uneasy.  Even walking the one block to the Black Bambu last night for dinner put me a little on edge. Part of this was because the city isn’t pedestrian-friendly (as I’ve mentioned before), but in part the city also has that grittiness that I’ve only encountered in Bangkok up until now.  From what I’ve read, there is indeed a big drug problem in the city and there are guns everywhere.  None of this affected me where I was staying in the expat neighborhood, but it certainly did make me overly cautious in this city compared to others.  To me, Cambodia seems to have the greatest disparity between the rich and poor.  I’m not sure if this is actually true, but certainly it’s the sense that I had.  In Phnom Penh there are clearly expat neighborhoods where the security for the wealthy is intense–there are big compounds with villas and lots of security guards with big guns in front.  I didn’t see this in Vientiane or even in Bangkok. Also, coming back from dinner my first night in my tuk tuk, we passed a massive police raid on one of the streets, which my tuk tuk driver said was probably drug related.  This is apparently normal in Phnom Penh. I’m glad I went and saw the capital city in the end, but I’m also glad I was only there for 2 nights.

Siem Reap feels very different.  The town really caters to the tourist set, so everything feels a little fake and staged.  There’s even a street by the Old Market called “Pub Street” lined with cafes and pubs and restaurants.  US dollars are the currency used here exclusively.  It’s definitely not real Cambodia, but it’s safe and pedestrian-tolerant.  There are also a lot more tourists here than I saw in Phnom Penh, and I feel totally fine walking around on my own.

Notes on Cambodian Riel (KHR):  For Cambodia, don’t bother changing any money into Cambodian Riel.  It’s a waste of the exchange rate.  Everyone takes US dollars here.  It’s surprising.  Laos was kind of like that–you could pay in Lao Kip, Thai Baht, and USD–but here every price is quoted to foreigners directly in USD, and no other currency.  Most people seem surprised that I even have Cambodian Riel, which really only happened by accident.  When I arrived at the airport in Phnom Penh two days ago, I decided to change my remaining Lao Kip into Cambodian Riel and figured I would change some USD as well to hold me over until I got to Siem Reap (I didn’t want to hunt around Phnom Penh for an ATM and I figured that I needed local currency as one does).  That was a waste.  Every single thing I have paid for has been quoted to me in USD, and then I have to be the idiot calculating the exchange rate (it’s 1 USD to 4,000 KHR so it’s easy enough to figure out) so I can use up these Riels.  Also, the largest denomination of KHR that the exchange desk gave me at the airport was 10,000 KHR. This amounts to around $2.50 USD.  Notes of 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000 do exist, but for some reason, I was only given 10,000 and 5,000 KHR notes. So when I exchanged $200 USD at the airport, I received an enormous stack of bills in return. A brick of bills.  I could have easily “made it rain” in that airport.  It was ridiculous.  I can’t understand why they didn’t give me larger denominations. It was strange.  Anyways, I hate being culturally insensitive, but if you’ve got USD in your pocket, then you’re better off just using that in Cambodia and not bothering with the local currency.

Moving along…

I’ll admit I didn’t do much today.  I’m a bit anxious that I have 3 full days ahead of me visiting Angkor Wat and other temple ruins in the area, so I wanted to chill out.  Also, the heat here is crazy intense, which means that I’ll start my touring at the wee hours of the morning to avoid some of the heat.  My car picks me up at 7:30am tomorrow morning for my first temple visit.

I am staying at a hotel called the Golden Temple Hotel.  You get a lot of bang for your buck here.  I had a free transfer from the airport with a driver and a staff person to take me to the hotel.  I was given tea and lots of goodies on arrival.  I also have vouchers for 1 free meal in the hotel restaurant as well as a free hour long massage.  I also get a free “picnic basket” during my stay–I’m not sure what that means, but I think they’ll give me a basket with food to take on one of my tours.  So when I see the sunrise over Angkor Wat in a couple of days, I will have my little picnic basket with me so I can have breakfast after at or near the temple. There are happy hour specials at the pool and free snacks.  It’s not bad at all, and I see why It’s so highly rated on Trip Advisor. The decor can only be characterized as “Lara Croft meets Indiana Jones” which I don’t mind because, well, as a fan of both I can get on board with that despite the slight cheesiness.  The staff is very willing, and I feel that I’ll be well looked after here.

Upon arrival I figured out my touring schedule.  I’m here for 3 full days and 4 nights, so I’ll do the 3 day temple tour starting tomorrow.  Today I decided to do my usual thing and walk around, but then it started pouring.  It’s not the rainy season yet, but the forecast is very cloudy and humid.  The rain helps break the heat, but the humidity is pretty brutal as well. After the down pour I went out for a late lunch to the Pub Street and had a burger (I was craving a burger!) at the Red Piano bar, which I heard was a nice spot.  It’s across the street from the Old Market, so after my lunch I rolled through the shops in the alleyways and the market stalls.  There’s not a whole lot to do in Siem Reap from what I understand, and I’m really here to see the temples, so I headed back to the hotel to spend the afternoon by the pool in a little hammock.

It’s pouring again, so I decided to get some room service and hang around here.  Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day!

I didn’t take many photos today walking around Siem Reap town, but for what it’s worth…

Water Wheel in the Siem Reap River with swimmers nearby

Foot bridge crossing the Siem Reap River