Indochina Adventure Angkor Archeological Park (Siem Reap)

I enjoyed our bus trip to Siem Reap, I like the view of the countryside. It is a vast area of flat land and rice fields! I won't wonder if Cambodia doesn't go through rice shortages! I haven't seen any mountains and most houses are on stilts because of the flooding on rainy seasons. Six hours had passed and we finally arrived in Siem Reap, it was raining and we were cordially greeted by the hotel's "tuk tuk" driver who will take us to our accommodation. The hotel is cozy, the interior decorations obviously tells that I am in Khmer's ancient kingdom.

Sunrise!

The next day, we woke up very early for our Angkor Wat tour. We hired a private "tuk tuk" driver who will pick us at the hotel  at 4:30 AM. It was still dark but there were already a number of tourists on the road aboard a "tuk tuk" and other private vehicles going to the direction of  Angkor Wat!  Our driver took us to the ticketing center, it is open from 4:30AM until 5:30PM everyday. Our effort to wake up very early in the morning was rewarded with a glorious view of sunrise and the Angkor Wat temple!

Angkor Wat Temple

The Angkor Park is the largest archeological site that I've seen so far! Within the park are magnificent structures which dates back from the 9th to 15th century, and what's amazing is that most of these enormous structures are still undamaged even though some parts have already fallen apart! There are temples which survives to this date, they are being restored  through the funding of  UNESCO for being a World Heritage Site. One of them is the famous Angkor Wat temple, which is the largest and well maintained among the other temples. It is on the main entrance so it should not be missed! Angkor Wat is tremendous and is the perfect place to view the sunrise!

South  Gate of Angkor Thom

The walled city of Angkor Thom was the ancient capital of the Khmer empire. The South Gate is the usual and the most well preserved entrance of tourists to its perimeter. The stone figures on both sides of the gate holding a giant snake represents an ancient  Hindu story, which is quite remarkable to be depicted in an outstanding work of art.

Smiling faces of Bayon Temple

Upon entering the South Gate, a temple with towers that has smiling faces was exposed to our view. It's the Bayon  Temple. What was on my mind?  Who are they? Those four faced towers were so intriguing that I was left staring at them all the while we were there. I felt a little scared at times, as I walked closely to them thinking that they might suddenly open their eyes and yawn. Oh my God I didn't stay long in there!

Bayon Temple

The Bayon Temple is known for its composed human faces sculpted on its towers, I am not sure if they represent a God or a King, there are numerous stone faces that can be seen on any side of the temple. There are also scattered boulders on the ground which I think were some parts of the building that needs to be preserved for the restoration.

Baphuon

Within the walls of Angkor Thom are several magnificent structures which has undergone restoration which brings us back closer from what they looked during its heyday. The Baphuon is a pyramid like temple, it has an elevated walkway leading  to the entrance gate and pool on its other side, a great reclining Buddha image was constructed on the other side but it was never completed.

Preah Khan

As  we moved out of Angkor Thom we have come upon more temples, some under restoration and some are just waiting to be brought back at least on a stable condition. One of the picturesque is the Preah Khan which was built within the jungle. It is surrounded by old ancient banyan trees which roots has already overgrown. The corridors of Preah Khan is a perfect subject for photography especially when there's no people around, but I wasn't so lucky, but it's still beautiful.

Corridors of Preah  Khan

Moving on to the heart of the park , we stopped by Ta Phrom, which once became the location site of the film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", which the Khmers has always been proud of. The famous giant banyan trees has already gained in control of the temple, as if it has a soul and is saving the temple from collapsing.

Ta Phrom

I cannot remember how many more temples we have been or passed by and for me they are all astonishing. As an ardent lover of ancient architecture, I was caught speechless, there were so many questions that lingered in my mind as we walked out of the park. How did they build massive edifices with elaborate and intricate designs on its walls, roofs, doors, posts with perfection during the ancient times? Who made them? What technology did they use? Well, I may not know but all I can say is I am truly impressed with everything that I saw and I would like to be there again.

Bantay Kdei

I would like to share some important things just in case you plan to go to Angkor Archeological Park.

The Angkor Pass can only be bought in the ticket center, tickets bought from hotels, tour companies and other parties are invalid. The entrance fee for a 1-day pass is US$37, while US$62 is for a 3-day pass, and US$72 for a-day pass. But I think a day is enough to visit most of the temples.There is a dress code in the park, since you are visiting temples which Khmer's consider it as their holy place, please refrain from wearing revealing clothes.

We hired a private tuk tuk driver who toured us around the park. The usual tour they do is the small tour and big tour but we're just so lucky that driver took us to almost all of  the beautiful temples for $20 from each of us and $5 for the tip, maybe it was the off-peak season and there were less tourists at the time so it's a goood deal. If you're interested to hire tuk tuk you can contact Mr. Sovann in WhatsApp app at telephone # 85593863051. He can speak English.

We stayed at Suon Angkor Boutique Hotel, it's a clean hotel, they  have a pool and food is delicious. By the way, breakfast is included with the accommodation and pick up at the airport and bus terminal is free.

So there,  thank you for reading!

Indochina Adventure in Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

I wanted to skip Phnom Penh and instead go directly to Siem Reap in Cambodia but the bus in Saigon leaves early in the morning and we can't manage to catch up. I have no choice but to go to Phnom Penh since we were already booked in a hostel. I thought there's not much to see there but it was fun in Phnom  Penh! Travel time from Saigon to Phnom Penh is approximately 6-7 hours, we brought packed meals so we won't buy food on stopovers. We arrived in Phnom Penh at around 8 PM, took a "tuk-tuk" and checked in the hostel. Ate dinner and slept.

KEEP THIS CARD, DON'T LOSE IT!

Our stay in Phnom Penh was just short, because we will leave for Siem Reap on that same day, so we started our walking tour early in the morning by the Tonle Sap river. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, it is the largest and well populated city in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Royal Palace and the business districts are mostly found in the city. I have no idea where and what interesting places they have, I checked my Google maps and yes! Again, we only chose the places we like to see so as to save time.

Chasing pigeons

We planned to go to the Royal Palace  but there was a construction going on so we just left it out. Across the Royal Palace is the riverside park which was really inviting! There were hundreds of birds flying around and alighting on the ground to peck feeds, they are nice to look at especially when they fly in unison!

ZUMBA

I think the riverside park is often flocked by locals and tourists, because it is a perfect place for recreation. I really can't help but run after those birds, oh by the way, the flags of ASEAN countries are all flapping by the riverside which synchronized with the flying birds! And they're nice to look at!

YOGA

I've seen the locals busy with their activities by the riverside, some are doing Zumba,  some are practicing Yoga and Tai chi, the others were jogging, and it is a good thing to know that Cambodians are health conscious. To continue with our walking tour, we planned to eat breakfast before going to the first temple but we can't find the restaurant we saw in the map, so we visited the first temple which is the "Wat Phnom". Wat means hill and Phnom is temple, so it's a hill temple, the home of the Bronze Buddha  found in Tonle Sap River a long time ago by a wealthy widow named "Penh", and later the city was named after her, "Phnom Penh".

This is the main entrance to Wat Phnom where two "Nagas" are found. In Buddhism, "Naga" is the seven headed serpent which is mostly found in temples and their body is carved as balustrades. They are legendary creatures in the Hindu and Buddhist mythology, which is believed to be guardian statues. Naga has a significance in the mythology in most Southeast Asian cultures, in the Philippines our version of Naga is the "Bakunawa". It is interesting to learn about the Asian mythology, maybe I could read books and write about it. To continue, there is a park upstairs aside from the temple, the place is peaceful. We went around the hill temple and went down on the other side and found a giant clock! By the way, Wat Phnom is open from 7AM-6PM daily. Entrance fee is  US$1 and free for Cambodians. Ticket booth is near the giant staircase.

Can you tell me the time?

We haven't eaten breakfast and we haven't found the restaurant listed on our itinerary and then somewhere along the way, we found an eatery full of people, the smell of grilled pork hypnotized us and brought us in.

Draining and drying the pork and fish...ready for grilling!

The waiter was talking to us in Khmer because he thought we are Cambodians and by chance, the guy who shared the table with us knows English. He smiled and translated to the waiter what we wanted! So we ordered the aromatic grilled pork and that flavorful soup, the food was so delicious and cheap! I cannot forget them, too bad I wasn't able to ask about the name of the place.

YUM YUM

We continued with our city tour heading towards the Ounalom Pagoda, but...do you know that on our way we passed by the restaurant that we are looking for? And oh my....it was so full of  people! Okay the name of the restaurant is "126 The Noodle House Factory", it is a breakfast restaurant and opens at 5AM. Try their pork buns, so full of stuffing! Okay now, so much for food!

The Ounalom Pagoda is one of the oldest monasteries in Phnom Penh, it is a home to Buddhist monks and keeps several life-sized Buddhas. The pagoda is just across Tonle Sap River, it is open to public for free from 6AM-6PM. There is a dress code in all temples, wearing of short pants or short skirts and revealing tops are not allowed, so please abide.

Just a short distance from our hotel is the National Museum of Cambodia. It is open daily from 8AM to 5PM, entrance fee is US$10 and  US$5 for audio guide which is optional. We didn't hire a guide and instead took the audio guide. There are hundreds of Khmer artifacts found in the museum, mostly sculptures in bronze and ceramics. The audio guide helped us a lot in understanding each collection. If you are interested in ancient history then this is the place to be, but if you're not you'll just get  bored, by the way, photography is not allowed, so think before you pay.

So time is running out,  we have to tidy up and pack things for our trip to Siem Reap. I would like to mention that we stayed at  RS II Guesthouse which is just okay, it has a restaurant at the ground floor, and located near the tourist spots, restaurants and riverside, it has a good location. The hotel booked our trip to Siem Reap so we don't have to to the terminal and buy ticket, a service vehicle picked us up in the hotel and took us to the (Giant Ibis) bus terminal. Travel time from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is approximately 6-7 hours, it is long trip but you won't get bored because the view of the countryside is interesting. Bring food in the bus, so you'll enjoy the view.

THANK YOU FOR READING!