On Wednesday morning I left Phnom Penh and headed to Siem Riep. It was a relatively long bus journey and with the bus station in Siem Riep a little way out of town I didn't end up arriving to my hostel until late afternoon. Siem Riep is traditionally the gateway to visit the nearby temples of Angkor, although it's become a bit of a destination in its own right in recent years housing a lively nightlife scene, and an array of food and shopping options. It's certainly a place well equipped for tourists!
The following day I just had a relaxing day, mainly so I could get idea of which temples I wanted to see during my time in Siem Riep. I believe there are over 4000 buildings and temples associated with the Angkor era you can visit spread over a massive area so it's nigh on impossible to see everything, so you need to have a vague idea of where you want to go beforehand. I pretty much spent the day down the pub street which had by far the cheapest beer I've found in Asia so far. I headed back to the hostel later that afternoon which had an on site pool and bar, being a former luxury villa which they've just converted into a hostel.
I was going to go and explore the temples on Friday, although I accidentally had a little too much to drink the previous day so I wasn't really feeling that. I therefore had another relaxing day, mainly by the pool at the hostel. I did go and sort my ticket out though as I was planning to go and watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat the following morning. It was proper official with them printing a ticket with my face printed on it, with security on the complex apparently very strong. It wasn't cheap though, let's just say I could have bought 74 pints with what they charged me! I had the option to watch the sunset as they don't check tickets after 5pm, although I thought I'd save my energy for the following day.
Saturday morning I was up bright and early to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, arriving at the vehicle ticket checkpoint just outside Siem Riep for when they opened the gates at 5am. I was one of the first through, although as I still had a good 5km to cycle coaches and minibuses bombed past me so when I reached the ticket checkpoint to get into Angkor Wat itself there was a massive queue to get in. In the end I missed the best part of the sunrise at the temple itself which was frustrating. It was incredibly busy with literally everyone wanting to see the same thing. I decided after sunrise to return to Angkor Wat later in the day to explore properly when it was a little less busy.
The first complex I explored was Angkor Thom, the largest group of temples I planned to explore that day. Surrounded by a square moat 12km all the way round with 8m high walls, the complex was centred around the temple of Bayon. This temple housed these mysterious structures with these faces on and there were several fascinating passageways you could explore. There were several smaller temples surrounding Bayon which I explored, and I found some of the sculptures and carvings particularly interesting including this area called the Terrace of the Elephants. Another temple I particularly liked was Baphoun where I was able to climb up this incredibly steep staircase to the top of it. I was glad I explored Angkor Thom first whilst it was quieter because by the time I left a few hours later a lot of the tour groups were there.
From Angkor Thom I headed out further afield towards Ta Prohm, stopping at a few of the lesser visited smaller temples en route. Ta Prohm was one of my favourite temples of the day as it had been largely untouched by archaeologists. Many of the walls and structures were almost swallowed up by the jungle, with entire roots and trees growing throughout the temple. Nearby Ta Prohm was the temple of Banteay Kdei, which like Ta Prohm has never been restored. It starting raining when I got here, although large parts of the temple was inside with lots of little small rooms you could explore.
Once the rain calmed down a bit I headed to Pre Rup and East Mebon, two temples often called the twin temples. I cycled there via this large lake called Sras Srang. The temples were both pretty similar almost resembling pyramids, both of which you were able to climb. I then headed to Ta Som, another temple which had some more particularly interesting carvings. The next temple was Neak Pean which was accessed by a bridge over to this island. The temple itself was only small basically being this small chapel on a pond, but the surrounding lake which it lay on was very surreal with all these island looking things dotted all over it.
After lunch I headed to Preah Khan which was a bit like Ta Prohm except there had been extensive restoration projects taken out on Preah Khan. The temple itself was massive with all these small little rooms leading to these courtyards and other fascinating areas. It was the kind of place you could get lost because everything was very symmetrical so if you lost your bearings you could easily forget which entrance you arrived from! I then headed to Phnom Bakheng, which was this temple on top of a hill. There were extensive restoration works going on there though but it was more the views I wanted to see though which were stunning.
I then finally made it back Angkor Wat, and luckily managed to explore the complex before the rain set in again. I was even able to climb to the top of the temple. The temple itself seemed to be the place where most people were praying and giving their offerings. I headed back to Siem Riep after a good look round, as I was a little templed out for the day! I definitely made the most of the day though, being out for over 12 hours in the end. Come evening I headed down to the pub street again to watch the play off final and champions league final, and I didn't get back until daylight so it was a very long day!
I spent my last couple of days in Siem Riep just relaxing. I would have loved to explored some of the temples further afield although everything was just so far flung from each other and realistically cycling wasn't an option to make it worthwhile. I was quite happy just chilling by the pool though, and I did have a good look round some of the more modern temples including the Royal Residence in Siem Riep itself. I also explored some of the many night markets which were very tourist orientated, making the most of selling things like spiders, scorpions, and frogs to the tourists!
No comments:
Post a Comment