Choose another map, showing:

• Thailand
• South East Asia
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Siem Reap

Angkor Wat

Siem Reap is nice, lots of funky cafes and bars to encourage us to spend our cash in. First up we went to the Laundry, a French run bar that was recommended to us. The first drink was free, which is a good start. We agree with Som, our driver, to be our guide around Angkor for the next 3 days. This is probably the best way to do things, as there is so much to see. To do it all in one day would be overload. A pass for one day is 20 dollars, and 40 for three, so we thought it was worth it.
Working on the slowly slowly principal we went from 8am to 10am on the first day. Visiting Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei and Ta Prohm, which is the one that has been left to the jungle. It is all very impressive, particularly Ta Prohm. Som got a surprise when we said that was us finished for the day, and we where just going to kick around town for the rest of the day. That night we went to The Dead Fish Tower Restaurant, suggested to us by Amy and Jack, very nice place but the crocs are a little worrying!! They don’t seem to feed them much and rely on the tourists to feed them instead. That is feed them fish and not tourists themselves.
Next day we got up before sunrise and hit the sights. We chose to do things in reverse and visited Phnom Bakheng (where people normally go for sunset), this way we avoided the crowds and had the place to ourselves. The rest of the morning we spent in Angkor Thom, which is fantastic and by far the best part of Angkor. We visited Bayon, (the one with all the faces), again with no other tourists it was great. You really get a feel for the size of Angkor from here with the Royal Palace, The Elephant Terrace and The Terrace of the Leper King. Hopefully the photos do them justice, we don’t have the words.
We headed back to town and had lunch at the Butterfly garden, which is very chilled, to avoid the midday heat and returned in the afternoon. Then we headed out the furthest temples, Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som and Ta Keo. Ta Som is the one with the tree growing through its eastern gate which looks cool. Ta Keo they never added any sculptures too as the king died before it was completed. We arrived back into town in the dark and had planned to go for dinner at the Chao Praya, which shows traditional Cambodian dance. As we were running late we went straight there, although we were working Som hard today, he didn’t seem to mind as taking us there included his dinner. It was good food, so we can understand the smile on his face. We went back to the Laundry that night but were so knackered stayed for our first free beer and then headed of to bed, there is a potential scam right there.
We had a bit of a lie in on our last day, and then headed out to visit Angkor Wat. It wasn’t as impressive as some of the sights we had seen over the previous two days and was a bit of a let down. We think the best idea is to visit it first on a three day pass and Angkor Thom last, that way you build up to the best sights. Still we do it a disservice by not mentioning that is has the best preserved sculptures on the outer walls, which are magnificent in themselves.
So the trip has been a bit of a whirlwind tour, after Angkor Wat we headed straight to the airport and straight into a whirlwind in the truer sense of the word. More on this next time.

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Angkor Wat":