8th February: Siem Reap, Cambodia
It was our first morning in Siem Reap and we weren’t too sure how we wanted to go about getting to the sites of Angkor. I was still feeling exhausted and none of the options appealed but, at the same time, we had to get out and see the sight. How often do you get the chance to be in a place like this?! After having breakfast and chatting with bike hire and tuktuk people, we went to chill for a bit. In the meantime, we bought our 3 day passes for the historical area. These were an eye-watering £50 each! I think only our 3-day pass to Zhangjiajie comes anywhere close to that on this trip.
After umming and ahhing, we deciding to take the tuktuk (strictly a reur’mok, which is any trailer pulled by a motorbike in Cambodia) to see the major sites and get a feel for the place. Na Rong, the driver we’d spoken with earlier, came back to pick us up and we were off! First stop, Angkor Wat itself.
I’ve got to be honest; Angkor Wat didn’t hit me in quite the way I expected. I think the combination of exhaustion, the intense mid-day heat, and the harsh light took the emotional edge away from our first sight of what is undoubtedly an incredible historical place. Perhaps having had a few days exploring Sukhothai at our own pace in a much more chilled (and cheap) environment made this tourist centre a bit overbearing too. Still, we explored the vast area of just this one temple complex. Originally built as a Hindu temple under King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, it was gradually converted to a Buddhist place of worship. The scale combined with the intricate bas-relief details are mind-blowing, and climbing the layers finally up into the central tower (representative of the peak of sacred mythical Mount Meru) felt as if being at the spiritual centre of a civilisation.
As we crossed back over the vast rectangular moat around the Wat, Na Rong messaged me that he had to leave for family reasons but had made sure that his friend Pear was there to pick us up and carry on as planned for the same price. We were very lucky as Pear shared lots of information with us throughout the day. The next site was in the vast Angkor Thom complex, which was King Jayavarman VII’s early 13th century capital. We entered through the spectacular south gate across another moat and stopped at Bayon Temple. This temple has giant smiling faces on all sides of the many, many towers throughout its design. We were both immediately drawn to this extraordinary structure, set today amongst trees on all sides.
Next on our tour through the inner sites of the Angkor complex was Ta Keo, built under the rule of King Jayavarman V. This was special due to its height. We climbed the incredibly steep stairs to the top, finding ourselves level with the tree canopy. To be so high in the 11th century must’ve felt as if you were on top of the world. Climbing down in the strong sun, it certainly felt like a long descent as my thighs began to burn!
By now we were running out of daylight and had time for one more major temple. This was Ta Phrom, another site built under Jayavarman VII. Today, it is commonly referred to as the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple, as it is one of the sites featured in the Lara Croft series. It’s definitely more detailed in person than I remember the renderings from the game 20 years ago! We liked the way that the temple had been partially reconstructed but also left to nature. Sprong trees grew from the top of the walls and piles of stones, whilst funnel web spiders lived in the walls and bats hung from the ceiling.
On the way back to town, Pear stopped for us on the edge of the Angkor Wat moat from where we had a spectacular view of the red sunset across the water. He explained that he lived nearby and didn’t have ‘permission’ to take people directly from the hotels in Siem Reap, so we took his number and agreed to call him when we wanted a longer tour. It must be hard trying to break into such a cartel.
Back in town, dinner was a delicious pineapple curry which was like a cross between a spicy-sour tom yum and a mild coconut curry; and a deep aniseed flavoured red curry. Of course, we had mango and watermelon juices too! We’ll miss those!
