Angkor Trip - Day 1 at Angkor

After a good night sleep at our guesthouse, we were quite fresh and ready to visit the temples at Angkor. The question was: which one to visit? There are so many temples around Angkor and we only had 3 days. Fortunately, there was a guide book provided in our guesthouse explaining each temple briefly as well as ranking them by interest (1-3 stars, 3 being the highest). So we went to Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Phrom and we spent a little time in Angkor Wat for sunset, all of which are ranked with 3 stars.

The temples were beautiful. The carving, the color of the stones, the statues, the multiple doors, the windows, the surrounding trees, the atmosphere...I can keep going on and on...There was something mystical about the temples. I could feel it when I was walking inside. It's incredible how people in the past could build them without machines and technologies. And it's even more incredible to see how the whole Angkor city was full of them everywhere.

It was the first day... so we were very excited with taking photos of the temples. We have so many photos of them, especially Angkor Thom, the first one we visited and the famous Angkor Wat.

We were having breakfast and discussing which temples to visit on the first day.

This is Siam Reap's version of tuk tuk - our transportation in Angkor.

The gate of Angkor Thom - click photo to enlarge. This is one of the largest Khmer cities with 9 sq km in area. These face-towers are the causeways of the city gates.

The many features of Bayon, another temple with a lot of face-towers. There are also many carvings on the walls which was said to tell history of Khmer's daily life. Click photo to enlarge.

Ta Phrom, a temple where roots of figs and silk-cotton trees are spreading and covering many of its ruins. It has many hidden corners where you feel mystical ambience. Click photo to enlarge.

Angkor Trip - The Road Trip to Siem Reap

And so there we were, getting into our taxis. Hmmm...let me think about how to describe the road trip to Siem Reap. It was a very very long and uneven dirt road. It was bumpy most of the time and I felt sick for the first hour or two in the car.

The driver was very familiar with the road and he skillfully tried to avoid every single hole he saw on the road by turning the car right and left, right and left and sometimes up and down, up and down and at the same time, still maintained his speed. Just imagine yourself in it and being moved right, left, up and down randomly and continuously for about 5 hours. I think you would feel sick too. Then surprisingly at the second hour, I kind of got used to the whole thing and didn't feel sick anymore. But we were all so bored...It was a long journey....

Apart from the bumpy journey, the trip was quite smooth for me. But it was not the case for my friends in the other taxi. They got into a traffic jam which was caused by a collapsed bridge and so there was a line of cars trying to get through (see photos below). And it was amazing how the cars got through the bridge. You have to see it with your own eyes to believe it.

But in the end, we reached Siem Reap at about 7pm. We checked into our guesthouse, put our bags there and then went to a restaurant nearby to have dinner. Ahhh...finally...no more bumpy road...

Travel Tips:

Tales of Asia - Cambodia. The one and only notes we used for our overland journey. It's updated frequently and very thoroughly written so set aside time to read it before your journey.

This was the road we were seeing for about 5 hours. It was uneven and very dusty too. Some parts of the road had been developed and the time to reach Siem Reap from the border is now about 3.5 hours.

Traffic jam due to collapse of a bridge - cars were waiting to get through

Before a car could get through, the bridge was checked and tested

"Ok, it's safe to come through now", said this guy as he was directing a car. Steady...steady...and go...

And that was how it's done!

Making a stop at the driver's house

Playing jenga at the restaurant where we were having dinner. We were so glad to finally reach Siem Reap.

Angkor Trip - To The Border of Thailand and Cambodia

On the third day, we had to get up very early about 5am in the morning to catch a 6am bus to Aranyaprathet. One of my friends woke us up at sometime around 4am thinking it was 5am and when he realised it he went back to sleep. But I had trouble sleeping after that and so I got ready and waited at the lobby. It was actually quite a funny story at at that time. Now I don't remember what was funny about it but I remember cursing him for waking me up too early.

It was still very dark and quiet. When everyone was ready to go, we went to look for taxis which then brought us to Morchit, one of Bangkok’s bus terminal. Once I was on the bus, I went to sleep right away. The trip to Aranyaprathet took about 5 hours. I don’t have any photos of us in the bus. We were all mostly sleeping throughout the journey. I don’t remember much of the bus trip to be honest. Once we reached Aranyaprathet, we took tuk tuk (this is public transportation known in Thailand and Cambodia) to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, which is not far from the bus stop. The border was quiet. There were not many people around. I wasn’t feeling safe there and wanted to quickly go through the immigration process to enter Cambodia. We had all of our bags tightly with us as we knew the area was not safe. And there were kids, I think 2 or 3 boys of 8 or 9 years old following us around and managed to snatch 2 plastic bags of bottled water and snacks. They snatched them from my friend’s hand so hard until the plastic bags were torn and all the things inside dropped. We just went on and walked towards the immigration office and let the boys took everything.

At the immigration, they charged us 1000 Baht per person (US$25 at the time) for a visa although we had notes telling us to insist on paying US$20. We thought there was no point haggling for $5. Not everyone had to pay for a visa though. One of us, who’s holding a Malaysian passport, didn’t have to pay a penny.

A few steps later, we were in Poipet, Cambodia. Then a shuttle bus brought us to the transport depot, where we had to wait for 2 taxis to bring us to Siem Reap. We waited there for quite sometime and there were a few people before us waiting for taxis as well. I remember feeling a bit daunting. Everything was a bit hazy. I was not sure if we’re doing things right and wondering if the people there could be trusted. I felt better after we got into our taxi...or so I thought...

At the border - we were holding all of our bags very tightly

Waiting for taxis to bring us to Siam Reap

Angkor Trip - The Grand Palace Bangkok

The next morning, after we had breakfast at our hostel, we were then off to The Grand Palace. We walked there as it’s within a walking distance from Khao San road. The Grand Palace is a must see for people visiting Bangkok. It’s just simply beautiful! I was amazed with the elegant architecture and the detail of each wall, ceiling, roof and statue. Basically everything attached to it, everything in it and everything around it, is designed for the pleasure of the eye. They’re just amazing. I couldn’t take photos enough.

Travel Tips:

1. Official site of The Grand Palace. It opens everyday from 8.30am to 16.30pm. Tickets are sold until 15.30pm. Ticket costs 250 Baht.

2. The Grand Palace is Thailand’s most sacred site and therefore strict dress code applies. There is a booth at the front gate that provides clothes to cover you up if you turn up without proper clothing (a deposit is required). At the website above, select ‘13. Helpful Information’ at the drop down bar for more information on this.

Phra Sri Rattana chedi

Buddha statue at Phra Mondop

Taking a break - palace complex in the background

One of demons cast in metal is guarding stairways into Phra Mondop

Close up - the intricate detail of one of the walls

Angkor Trip - and so the trip began at Bangkok...

We arrived Bangkok in the evening and the first thing we did after arriving at the Airport was to look for a bus that could take us to Khao San Road. Khao San Road is basically THE place to look for cheap accommodations for budget tourists like us and we had to get one that night, as we didn’t make any bookings for the 2 nights there. I was a little panicky myself when I found that out. I didn’t want to sleep on the street especially in a place I knew nothing about. I guess the reason why we did that because we were sure we would get rooms easily. And so we looked at several places and finally found one room available for the girls at one hostel and another room for the guys at another hostel. It’s not ideal but it was the best we could do. I don’t know if this is normal practice in Khao San road but apparently you can ask to look at the rooms first before you decide.

Khao San road was very happening that night. It was 31 October and people were celebrating Halloween. The streets were lit up, the bars and pubs offered deals to passers by, people were out and about wearing fancy Halloween costumes and there were many street performances too. And another good thing about Khao San road is the abundance of street carts lining up and selling street food. We had pad thai (Thai fried noodles), pancakes...I remember having banana and chocolate pancake, and I don’t remember what else we had that night but I do remember we stuffed ourselves with a lot of yummy but unhealthy food...not that I'm complaining :-). Then we spent the night walking and enjoying the atmosphere before eventually went back to the hostel and rested.

Travel tips:

1. The bus ride from Airport to Khao San (Route A2) takes about 60-90 minutes depending on traffic, as Bangkok can get very congested at times. The cost is about 100-150 Thai Baht per person.

2. I can’t give you much tips on accommodations in Khao San road as we didn't make any bookings in advance. We walked in and paid cash. We paid around 600-900 Thai Baht per person per night (this was 3 years ago). The good thing about walking in is you can have a look at the room before hand so you know exactly what you're paying for. There is a site that you may find useful (Travelfish.org) but I haven’t used it myself so I can’t say much on it either. If you have used it, please let me know if it’s a good site.

Waiting for the bus at the airport

This is the lounge of one of the hostels we visited while checking for room availability. Unfortunately there was no room available in this nice little hostel.

Yummy street pad thai cooked for you on the spot

Posing with a guy in fancy costume

The lively atmosphere in Khao San road. This was around 1 am in the morning.

Angkor Trip - The Highlights

I thought I start with my trip to Angkor Wat, a famous temple at Angkor, Cambodia. The trip took about 2 weeks. We started with a few days in Bangkok, Thailand, and then we took the overland route from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet in Thailand, then to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, and then the Cambodian side from Poipet to Siem Reap. We spent 4 days looking at many temples at Angkor using the 3 days pass. And then we're back on the road again to Bangkok and ended our trip shopping in Bangkok for another few days. I think we spent about an overall 3-4 days on the road.

The overland route is probably the most talked about route for its overpriced visas and taxis, and the very terrible and awful roads. Not to forget the scams everywhere! To me, the roads were so terrible that it's actually the most unforgettable part of the trip :-). I don't think I will use this route the next time I visit Angkor though. Once is enough. Having said that, this route shows you the side of Cambodia that you will not see if you were flying straight to Siem Reap. So it really depends on what you're looking for.

The next few blogs will be about this trip in details. Also, please note that the photos presented here were not all taken by me. At the end of the trip, we merged all of our photos and so each of us has all photos of the trip.

It was 7 of us on this trip. 

When we started off at Bangkok we met with 2 friends who were visiting Bangkok as well.

The 7 of us at Ta Phrom, a temple made famous by Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Rider

The magnificent view of Angkor Wat. It was a bit cloudy when this photo was taken.

The second layer of Angkor Wat.

There are many temples at Angkor. This is Banteay Srey - famous for its beautiful carving on every sides of its temple.