10 Jan: Travelling to Siem Reap
This morning we left Bangkok and headed by plane to Siem Reap; a
1 hour flight. A taxi service picked us up
from the airport and drove
us to our hotel, the
Lotus Lodge which is on
the outskirts of the
town, down a gravel
road. It's the nicest
hotel we've had to date
!
We've
got two
adjacent rooms and
as
the hotel is small,
secure
and child
friendly we
have decided
to
let
the
kids
sleep
together
in
one
room;
they were
thrilled
about the
idea of
gaining
their
independence, but
a
little
hesitant when
bedtime
came
around !
We
made
good
use of
the
swimming
pool
in
the
afternoon, did
the
girls
school
work
and
then
headed
into Siem
Reap
for
a quick
walk
around and
dinner.
The
streets
are
similar
to
those
in
Bangkok, but a
bit
quieter and colonial
in
style,
full
of
tuk-tuks,
market
stalls and street
vendors selling
rice,
noodle
dishes and
fruit.
We
negotiated a
tuk-tuk for the
next
three days to take
us
around the
temples.
Fingers
crossed it'll
will
turn
up
as
planned
tomorrow
morning
at 8:00
am
!
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| Swimming in
the pool at Lotus
Lodge |
Dinner on the streets
in Siem Reap |
11 Jan: First day in Angkor
The tuk-tuk (a motorbike with a trailer) arrived
on time and took
us to the oldest part of
Angkor, the Roluos
dating
from
the
9th
century,
so
that we
could visit the
temples in
chronological
order, saving Angkor Wat, the best, to
last.
The
temples are
beautiful,
in a
splendid
jungle
setting
and
spaced
out
by
several
kilometres. They
have many
architectural
similarities
but also
many
differences, giving each temple a
character
of its
own. They
remind
us a bit of the Maya
pyramids and
temples in
Yucatan,
Mexico.
There are
lovely carved
sculptures
of gods,
elephants, lions
and
snakes
(with 7
heads)
adorning
the
temples, as
well
as
inscriptions.
Next
we
visited a few of
the
temples
to the
north east of
Angkor Thom. The 5
basin
fountain
temple
of Neak
Pean
particularly held
our
attention as
it's
very
different from
the
others which are
often
surrounded
by a
moat
of
water. We
also
enjoyed the
temple
complex of
Pre
Rup, with its
many
tower,
at
the end
of the afternoon.
Everybody enjoyed the day. The girls had fun running
around the temple complexes, climbing us the
temple steps, on the
elephant statues and
around the ruins and of
course riding in the
tuk-tuk !
We returned into town in the evening for a typical Kmer dinner
(local Cambodian food, tasty but no hot
spices), nicely presented in
banana leaves,
before
retiring for the night
to dream of Kmer
temples...
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 |
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| Tuk-tuk from
temple to temple |
South Gate of
Angkor Thom |
Pre Rup |
12 Jan: Second day in Angkor
Today we visited four temples in the morning, including the
romantic temple of Ta Phron.
Trees took over the Ta Phron temple when
it was abandoned and
have grown in and around
the ancient
temple
stonework, holding up
certain
walls and slowly
knocking
down
others.
Archaeologists have
deliberately left
these
trees of
several
hundred
years in-situ,
which gives the
complex
a magical
charm.
We
then headed 20
kms
north
of
Siem
Reap
to
an
isolated but
extremely
beautiful
temple,
Banteay
Srei. The
journey
took us
nearly
an
hour
in the
tuk-tuk,
passing C
ambodian
villages
of
stilled
wooden
houses.
Banteay Srei
is surprisingly
compact, but
stunning with its
intricate carvings, covering nearly the
whole complex. It
was
well worth the trip
as
it's the most
beautifully
decorated
temple
that
we've
seen
to
date.
We're now
waiting in
anticipation
to
see
Angkor Wat
and
Thom
tomorrow !
We returned in the early afternoon back to the hotel to give the
girls a chance to rest a bit and take
advantage of the pool and
sunshine.
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 |
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| Trees entwined
with
Ta
Phron
|
Ta Phron |
Banteay
Srei |
13 Jan: Third day in Angkor
Our third and final day visiting he temples in Angkor and we have
saved
the
best
to last
!
Today our
programme
is
Angkor Wat
and
Angkor
Thom. Angkor Wat
is
just
spectacular. This
pyramid
temple
with four
enclosures was
built in the 12th century,
is
surrounded
by a
massive moat,
covers
over 1
square
kilometre and
soars
skywards,
reaching
55
m above ground
level. It is
magnificently
decorated
with
bas-relief
sculptures
which
cover
most walls
and
columns
- just the
shear
amount
of
work
that went into
building
it is
mind-boggling
!
Then after lunch in a street vendors café overlooking Bayon (the
main temple in Angkor Thom), we visited the
ancient town of Angkor
Thom founded in the
12th
century and
covering
nine square
kilometres.
The most important
and
impressive
structure
in the town is
the
Bayon
temple;
its
large
faces adorn
majestically
the
towers and
its
narrow
corriders are
enchanting.
We dined in a restaurant in Siem Reap "The Temple" which
has a very enjoyable Kmer dance show in
the evening. Gaelle
was in awe of t
he
dancers in their
beautiful costumes !
Siem Reap and Angkor have been a great experience. The people are
really friendly and you feel secure. The
local
money is
hardly used;
the US dollar is the
preferred
currency which inevitably inflates
the
prices. Don't hesitate to negotiate dishes
for half
price in the
street cafes around the
temples !
Plus the price of laundry was much
more
expensive than Thailand ( 1$ a T-shirt
and 0.75$
for a pair of
socks !), so Jenny was
back to
hand washing...!
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| Angkor temple
from inside the 2nd enclosure
|
Dancing with
the celestial dansers |
Lunch
overlooking Bayon Temple |
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| Faces in Bayon
Temple |
A B
uddha in Bayon
Temple |
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