Expedition through Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Before we left on this world trip, I had a very short list of places I really wanted to see. Angkor Wat in Cambodia was at the top of the list. From the 4000 Islands in Laos, we booked travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia where Angkor Wat is located. Even though it was only 225km (140 miles), the trip took 13 hours! We took a ferry off Don Det, a minibus to the Laos border, walked across the border, took big bus to the next town in Cambodia, another minibus to Siem Reap, in between there was lots of waiting, and many dirt roads. Luckily we have become used to the travel taking much longer then the travel agents promise. There are always a few fellow travelers that are angry at the conditions of busses and the various delays. But thinking about it, I don’t know what they expect when living on $30USD per day!

Angkor Wat is a ancient complex consisting of dozens of temples built between the 9th and 12th centuries. There used to be a large city as well but all that remains are the temples and walls that were built from stone. The area was abandoned suddenly and the jungle quickly took hold. It wasn’t until relatively recently that a French explorer stumbled upon a temple hidden in the jungle. Some of the temples have been painstakingly restored while others are still not more then a pile of rubble.

The day after we arrived in Siem Reap we looked into the best way to visit as well as the best temples to see. We started walking around to find a place to rent mountain bikes but could only find ratty looking road bikes. After searching for a little while, we ended up hiring a Tuk-Tuk (with driver) for only $30USD. After a some miscommunication with our driver (confusion wether we had tickets or not including some extra driving to get the tickets), we were ready to explore the temples.

There are two main routes through the complex. A big loop to the far temples and a smaller inner loop to the more well known temples. We had our driver take us on the outer loop in the reverse direction from most of the tourists. This really paid off because most of the temples we saw had hardly any other tourists. I was amazed by the scale and intricacies of each temple. The variety of design and building materials was staggering. Temples ranged from “stone mountains” in huge manmade lakes to expansive single layer stone labyrinths. We were so blown away by the scale that we decided to turn our visit into a treasure hunt:

Busy sunset at Phnom Bakheng – 9th century

We had read that sunset from the top of Phnom Bakheng was fantastic. Since we had a driver all day, we had him take us there. I was not impressed and I advise against it. Phnom Bakheng is at the top of a hill and packed with hundreds of other tourists all there for the same reason. The sunsets are not that spectacular because the horizon is very obscured. We noticed that Cambodians burn all their trash and overgrown vegetation which seems to leave a thick smog. Also, being such a dry and hot climate results in a lower visibility. The sun vanishes about 20 minutes earlier than it would with a clear horizon.

We bought a three day ticket for Angkor Wat to enable us to visit at a leisurely pace. While going to dinner the first night we finally found a place renting mountain bikes. Now we didn’t have to pay a driver anymore and we could really go off the beaten path.

The next morning we hopped on our surprisingly nice bikes to take on the small inner loop. Biking through Angkor Wat park was fun because we could weave in and out of all the tourist traffic then turn onto dirt paths to hidden temples. Along one of the trails in the middle of the woods there were remnants of a stone wall that was still untouched. We found several temple ruins where we were the only tourists! After a full day exploring, we decided to keep the bikes so we could view sunrise at the main Angkor Wat temple the next morning.

That same afternoon we had to switch hotels because the first one we stayed at filled up before we extended our stay. But it worked out to our advantage! The hotel we moved to, Blossoming Romduol Lodge, was much better and even had a free “fish spa”. A fish spa is a pond with hundreds of cleaner fish that nibble away all the dead skin on your feet. After getting used to the tickle, it feels quite good!

Sunrise was much better than sunset. Because we had bikes, we woke at 4:00 am to arrive earlier than most of the other tourist and picked a good viewpoint. After sunrise, we went in to the main temple while the hordes of tourists ate breakfast. We didn’t have much else on our list to see this day so we took our time exploring the nooks and crannies of the major temples. Sara got yelled at once by a tour guide for walking along a wall while we were trying to take a cool photo, but they really didn’t seem to care too much as long as you stayed out of marked areas. Enjoy the photos we captures at each temple we explored: