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