Cambodia Holiday – Siem Reap

We arranged for a Moto Tuk-Tuk to take us for a ‘day-tour’ (well a half-day tour due to our tight timelines) of Siem Reap and the surrounding places. We managed to haggle the price to USD $12 (from USD $15) so that wasn’t too bad at all.

Visiting Angkor:
We first were taken to the Ticket Office and Main Entrance to Angkor. They sold tickets are 1-day (USD $20), 3-day (USD $40), or 7-day (USD $60) passes. The 3-day pass is valid for any 3 days within a week, while the 7-day pass is valid for any 7 days within a month. We took our place in the queue and then paid the USD $20 one-day pass fee. The Ticket Office here was quite sophisticated, with web-cams used to take a photo of the visitor which is then printed on each ticket. I guess this is to avoid any visitors trying to pass on their passes to others, e.g. buying a 7-day pass and passing this around to maximise the usage. Nice approach, and this ensures that the maximum revenue is obtained that can then be fed directly (hopefully) to the up-keep of this amazing sight at Angkor Wat.

Looking Across Towards Angkor Wat:
We firstly drove up to the Angkor Wat, it was a pleasant drive, as we looked over the lake towards the amazing and well-known views of this fine historic site.

Walking Towards Angkor Wat:
Once we arrived, we started working towards the first buildings of Angkor Wat, the outer ring…it sure was warm out there…luckily we had plenty of bottled water and ergh…our bananas as energy food…then again…

Cheeky Monkey:
As we entered the Angkor Wat, a monkey was ‘standing guard’ and posing for the visitors. I took a couple of pictures, and then attempted to walk past to continue on with the visit. Forgetting that I had a carrier bag with me with our bananas (a fresh bunch and a packet of dried bananas), I suddenly saw the monkey run towards me and grab at the carrier bag, ripping it open. It must have smelt them. It had such a look of vengance, so we had to throw a couple of bananas the monkeys way, to allow us to try to save the rest.

Whilst the monkey busily peeled (yes it peels the banana just like us!), and scorfing it quite merrily, we had to quickly peel and eat some ourselves. Of the 10 or so bananas, we managed to eat 5 of them between ourselves, but we lost the rest to the cheeky monkey – it started to jump at us, and we decided to give in, as we didn’t want the monkey to attack, scratch of bite us in the process (it might have started to throw the banana skins back at us, if we weren’t careful)!  Now I know why people shouldn’t feed the monkey’s – but it wasn’t our fault – honest ‘guv!

I cannot believe that we were mugged by a monkey! How embarrassing!

Angkor Wat:

We continued walking, having lost our bananas, and visited the main part of the Angkor Wat complex…very intricate designs and definitely a relaxing walk indeed!

Angkor Thom:
We went on to visit the Angkor Thom. On the way we noticed some elephant riding, which was a bit different…not sure they fit in here, but alas a Tourist experience, I guess.

The Tuk-Tuk guide dropped us off in front the Bayon, and we made our way to the other side of the site to meet-up with the driver again at the Restaurant Stall 27. The complex was quite spaced out, so we knew that we had a bit of walking to do. We walked around the Bayon, which turned to be quite an amazing place, and which ultimately is the one where everyone remembers.

We walked by and took some distance-shots of the Baphuon.

On the opposite side, we noticed some additional towers in the backdrop, which were part of the Suor Prasat Towers.

We walked on a bit towards the Elephant Terrace, which actually was an interesting part of the site, and then towards the Preah Palilay Temple as we moved towards the end of the Angkor Thom site.

We then met-up with the guide (the end of the tour), at his Cousin’s restaurant, stall 27. We were already started to think about where to eat lunch, and agreed that we would actually take advantage of this opportunity and eat here. Hopefully, this will meant that they will serve us well, since we had already hired the Tuk-Tuk from the same family. We found that Cambodian’s were genuinely very honest, friendly and helpful people, so we knew it wouldn’t be an issue. The lunch was actually very pleasant. The two dishes were USD $4 each – so that wasn’t too bad, it was on par with the other stalls in the vicinity, so it seemed to be the going rate.

We re-joined the Tuk-Tuk and continued on the tour to the next Temple site 🙂

The driver made a stop-over at Ta Keo to enable us to visit and take a quick photo opportunity. We went on to Chau ay Tevoda Temple where we we walked around this place. It was just south of Thomamanon.

After this, we went on to visit Thomamanon itself.   It took ages to find the perfect photo shot, as silly tourists (that weren’t that considerate) kept drifting in and out of the photo. I do find it frustrating that other people aren’t considerate when it is clearly obvious people (I wasn’t alone) wanted to take a clean ‘no-human’ photo 🙂

We re-joined the Tuk-Tuk and were taken to another temple on the way to Ta Phohm.

We then arrived at Ta Prohm – and only one word describes this place – wow! It is truly an intriguing place with the trees naturally growing inbetween the Temple grounds, which gives it its infamous wonders!

All in all we went and saw quite a bit, all of what we wanted to see, on a very speedy, but productive, visit.

Return Journey to Phnom Pehn:
The Tuk Tuk then took us on the 5km journey back to Siem Reap.

We eventually arrived to catch our 14:30 return coach, which would arrive in Phnom Pehn at 18:30 (if all things went well and that we don’t experience another slow puncture)… just in time for dinner! Oh yummy!!!

We finally arrived around 18:45 and went back to the street restaurant where we previously had dinner. We had another couple of dishes, had a nice stroll around the place, whilst we were still pretty fresh and relaxed. We visited the Lucky Market shopping mall, just to compare prices and see what was on offer. This Mall seemed to be the central point of everyone to meet up, as it had a Cinema Complex, and a Supermarket and a Department store on site. I even noticed that a box of 24 (325ml) bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra was $28.70 (that’s around £18) – that’s not bad at all! (The box was also slightly damaged, so I guess I could have purchased it and get a further discount – haha!) But as I was going to Singapore, I played safe, as it probably would have got confiscated or something by customs!

We went back to the Khmer City Hotel to stay another night, our last night in Cambodia, ready for the return flight on Wednesday morning to Singapore. Pleasant dreams, and a relaxing holiday!

Thank You Cambodia:
Thanks Cambodia to what was a very busy, but productive holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and would certainly come back at some point to see the development which no doubt will continue to occur. It’s a great place, friendly, helpful and honest people and we were made to feel very safe and welcomed to this amazing and changed Country!