Yes, I am in
Siem Reap now! The gateway to Angkor Wat! Upon arriving at the
Siem Reap airport, we engage a taxi driver to bring us to the town area.
As mentioned in travel guides, they will always try to sell you a "hotel". Indeed, he recommends us to stay in the Golden Temple Villa. After much "discussion" with my friend, we decided to take a look. This guesthouse seems
ok (US$18/night with aircon and satellite TV). In addition, the taxi driver also try to persuade us to engage his service for the Angkor Wat trip. And we agreed to engage him for 2 days at US$20/day.
After the free breakfast (
errr, only the coffee and banana are free) at the guesthouse, we head for Angkor Wat. Cambodia is expensive as everything is in
USD. Entrance fee to Angkor Wat will cost US$20 per day or US$40 for 3 days. We opt for the latter as we will be staying in
Siem Reap for 2 days.
Around 8.30 am, we head for
Angkor Wat - a Khmer temple complex built in the early 12
th century. The Angkor region is designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. This is supposed to be a
magnificent temple complex. But maybe it is extremely bright and hot this morning, I do not feel much for this temple until I enter the interior.
The temple's interior is named
Preah Poan or the "Thousand Buddhas". In an elaborate network of hallways richly decorated with patterns and sculptures, one will tend to wonder how
magnificent this temple once used to be? Perhaps in the cool of the shades, I also begin to marvel at the
gargantuan efforts and resources required to build such a monument.
Other than the heat, the other thing I dislike about Angkor Wat is the loads of tourists swarming the Angkor Wat. If they were not here, I think I can really enjoy the tranquility of this temple in the heat of the day. That is why the travel guidebooks always recommend one to visit Angkor Wat really really early in the morning.
Next comes the surprise of Angkor Wat! On photos or even in documentaries, I will expect
Angkor Wat just to be a huge temple complex. But I will never expect myself to climb up a 4 to 5 storeys high height to reach the top of the temple at the center of the complex!!! Do note that at the base of this climb, the local authority has put up a "Climb at Your Own Risk" sign! Luckily, I am not acrophobic but I think I climb up really really slowly.
If climbing up is challenging, then climbing down would be daunting! They have provided a railing at the side but I feel that this railing make the descend more petrifying as the railing is not tightly anchored.
Next, we set off for the last and most enduring capital city of the ancient Khmer empire, Angkor Thom. In order to enter Angkor Thom, you have to make use of the entrance gates. This is the South Gate (see the picture on the left). Take note of the face-towers at center as well as naga-carrying giant figures at both sides of the road. This is the typical Bayon style.
To tell you the truth, I have only heard of Angkor Wat before I came to Cambodia. And personally I prefer the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom to Angkor Wat.
Bayon temple, located at the southeast of Angkor Thom, has a very different style compared to Angkor Wat. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the massive stone face-towers.
An interesting thing that I have noticed is the fluency of the langauges spoken by the tour guides. My friend likes to follow them as we can get free information. From our taxi driver, we get to know that there are tons of Koreans in Angkor Wat/Thom.
