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.