This text is about our visit of Angkor and Siam Reap between Febuary 29 and March 3 and includes a lot (!) of pictures.
The complex of Angkor is not only the famous towers of Angkor Wat. While it is the best-known sight, there are many other temples to explore. The gateway to the temples is the city of Siam Reap. Here we were joined by my parents who will travel with us for the next month.
To visit Angkor there is a choice between three types of tickets: One-day, three-day or seven-day tickets. We had decided beforehand to get the tree-day ticket but due to the Corona epidemic the ticket policy was changed and the one-day ticket was valid for two consecutive days. This was the first time we were directly affected by Corona, luckily in a positive way. Let’s hope it remains this way. During our following visit to the temples, we felt that it was much less crowded than we had expected. Talking to the tuk-tuk drivers and vendors confirmed this. Apparently, it’s mostly the Chinese tourists how stay away, but there is also less tourists from other parts of the world. One of our drivers told us, that for him, it’s not so much that he is missing the Chinese tourists as they usually travel with an organized tour and are not the most popular nation due to their sheer number. But is really hurts his business that the number of tourists from Europe and America decrease.
The first day of our Angkor tour started very early. We did not want to miss the sun rising behind Ankor Wat, which meant getting up at 4 am to enter the temple site at 5 am where only a handful of people were waiting. We were pretty much the first to enter. It was so dark that it was hard to figure out where a good spot may be to see the sun rising, with the temple and its reflection in one of the ponds in the front. While we waited, more people arrived but it was not the crowd we had expected. The bright red sky behind Angkor Wat was very impressive but due to the hazy sky the sun was only visible long after it had ‘officially’ risen.
From Angkor Wat we started what is known as the ‘Short Circuit’. We had hired a tuk-tuk and driver for the four of us which was not only the cheapest but also a comfortable option during the day’s heat. From Angkor Wat we entered Angkor Thom, the capital of the Khmer empire for 250 years, though the South Gate. The gates themselves are impressive with a large bridge, lined with statues of humans and demons, leading to the gate itself with large faces looking to all four sides. Inside the city walls the Bayon temple is probably the most impressive. It’s not the largest complex but filled with so many smaller structures and details. There is so much to discover and wandering around feels quite mysterious. Just next to Bayon is the Royal Palace with another temple, the Phimeanakas. This one can be climbed to the very top. The stairs are steep but once you reach the top it’s worth it.
Along the small circuit we saw the Elephant terraces with sculptures of elephants and mahouts hunting and the temples of Ta Keo, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei. Especially the temple of Ta Prohm is fun to explore as the restauration work has been kept to a minimum. This temple was also the place where parts of ‘Tomb raider’ was filmed making it one of the more popular temples. There are many ‘white figs’ growing over the temple walls, with the literal translation from German as ‘suffocating fig’ being much more fitting.
The second day of our Ankor tour we did the ‘Grand Circuit’ leading us to a few lesser known temples. We started later and wanted to finish with the sunset. First is the temple of Pre Rup that can be climbed. To me the most impressive was the East Mebon, which was built as an island in a large artificial lake (7.5 x 1.8 km and 4 m deep!). The lake is dry now but that’s very impressive. Another temple, the Neak Pean, was built on an island. This lake has been flooded recently and is reached though a 200 m long bridge. The temple itself consists of four, crosswise arrange water basins.
In the late afternoon we returned to Angkor Wat to see it in a whole different light. Also, we wanted to climb onto one of the towers which was closed the day before. It was really nice to return to Angkor Wat after having seen all the other temples. For one it’s a nice symmetry to start and finish with the most important temple and it allows for a whole new view and appreciation of the whole structure. Angkor Wat is in excellent shape and the whole structure itself is so large and generously designed. Only though our second visit I completely understood why it is considered the most important an impressive.
For sunset we climbed up onto Phom Bakheng. Since our, up to then so reliable, tuk-tuk driver did not show up we arrived a little late. But since there is not a lot of visitors it was no problem to access the temple, even though there are only 300 people allowed at a time. After having returned to our place with another driver, our first driver showed up and from what we understood, he had some technical problems with his vehicle.
We also learned a bit more about Cambodian wedding culture. They are celebrated in tents set-up on the street and can last three to four days. To me the main goal appeared to be to play excessively loud music to let everyone knows that they are celebrating for days. How do we know? Directly in front of our apartment there was a loud wedding celebrations that day. Due to the windows being what they are in Cambodia the music was unbearable loud (and very much not to our taste) but we were relieved when they quieted down at 11 pm. Only to restart at 6 am just as loud. Since we did not expect it to stop until the late evening we decided to move to another hotel. That turned out to be a good decision because our previous assessment proved to be true.
In the afternoon we took a trip to visit the floating village of Chong Khneas on the Tonle sap lake. It’s not the only village on the Tonle Sap, but all the others were no longer ‚floating‘ due to the dry season and the low water gauge. While it is interesting and a pretty view to see the floating houses and the people moving between them only on boats it is quite the rip-off. They charge a price of 28 US$ per person (!!), which I only realized after arriving at the pier, and they tried to drop us off a crocodile farm. Where I was very uncomfortable, not because of the crocodiles per se but because of how they were treated. Only after some complaining our boat took us to the actual village and we found a nice spot to see the sunset. The next day we took off to Battambang!
