A few months back, I made a trip to Cambodia to update my Thai visa and to visit Siem Reap, where the world-famous Angkor Wat temple is located. In fact, Angkor Wat itself is just one of many ancient Khmer and Buddhist temples in the area of Angkor.
I flew from Bangkok into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh (pronounced "P-nom pen"). I stayed just one night and was on a bus up to Siem Reap the following morning; about a 6 hour trip. Cambodia shares borders with Thailand so the scenery and landscape have very little variations.
Arriving at the Siem Reap bus station, I (and every other foreigner) was bombarded with tuk-tuk drivers asking where you're going and telling you how cheap they can get you there.
This was my tuk-tuk driver, who drove me around for the entirety of the following day as well. And for just $15!!!
Cambodia's currency system (if you'd call it that) is quite unique. They have their Cambodia Riel (4,000 to 1 US dollar), but then they'll accept -- and sometimes even insist on -- US dollars. The story behind this is that in '93 a UN peacekeeping operation injected a very large quantity of US dollars in the economy, which the Cambodians in turn preferred over the Riel. And it has been this way ever since. As a tourist, you've got to know your conversion and be relatively good at math because you'll pay for things in USD but get back the change in Riel. Pretty wild!
Up early the next morning, I headed first to Angkor Wat. I would see up to 5 very different temples over the course of what turned out to be a 10-hour outing! Oh and was I crispy! KFT style: Kentucky Fried Tyler!
Here's a video of the morning drive to the ancient city of Angkor (which coincidentally enough means "city" in Khmer).
The main Angkor Wat temple in the back.
Much of Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area have deteriorated considerably. I noticed many restoration projects methodically working to bring the fallen pieces once again together.
Angkor Wat is actually an ancient Hindu temple originally built in dedication to Vishnu under the 12th century Khmer empire. After my all-day visit I spent the evening reading up on Angkor Wat's intriguing beginnings and how it, and other temples in the area, became Buddhist.
Here is a map showing Angkor Wat's layout:
Angkor Wat has the largest bas-reliefs in the world. They stretch the full length of the interior walls of the main temple, some 1000 square meters in total. Very impressive.
After passing through the main entrance, I walked around a few libraries and a monastery within the walls and then through the center temple of Angkor Wat.
The main temple was awesome. And people were furnished the opportunity to climb to the top of the very center spire and look out at everything. Spectacular!
You may be saying, "Gosh, those steps are awfully steep!" Well, you are correct -- and these are the steps built for the tourists! The actual steps don't have handrails.
The original steps weren't built to be easy. The Khmer believed that these steps represented the path to the heavens. The incline and inherent difficulty in these steps was a constant reminder that one's journey was not an easy one.
More shots from around Angkor Wat.
Here is the map to the complete ancient city of Angkor. Angkor Wat is only one of many temples.
I can go on endlessly with the names, experiences, etc from each other temple I saw. I'll spare the details, but will definitely provide some of the fantastic photo opportunities I had.
This is Bayon, famous for its four-faced Buddha towers.
Next up was Baphuon, where I had the pleasure of chatting with a few Buddhist monks.
The next temple I unfortunately do not remember the name of. But it was beautiful!
The last two major temples I visited were Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei, respectively. These temples may look familiar to Tomb Raider fans as they were used as the backdrop to one of the franchise's movies.
These temples were true testaments of the power of nature.
My experience overall in Siem Reap and the ancient city of Angkor was fantastic. If you are ever making a trip to any part of Southeast Asia, you simply cannot pass up the opportunity to visit this inspirational and beautiful place.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.
...and for those that don't know, I will be coming back to the good ole U.S. of A for the Christmas and New Years holiday in December! I leave Bangkok on the 22nd and will spend just under two weeks in California before heading back on the 3rd of Jan. So drop me a line by email, a comment or on Facebook because I'd love to see as many friends and family as possible!!
