Siem Reap – We almost missed the Temples ! – February 2023
When we decided to go to Cambodia, our travel schedule wasn’t working to allow us to get back up to Siem Reap after spending time on the Islands (https://saltylips.co.uk/2023/05/8-days-in-cambodia-paradise-koh-rong-sanloem/ ). However there wasn’t one person we spoke to that thought it was a good idea to miss Siem Reap and therefore the Temples.
We therefore made a diversion on our way back to spend a few days at the magical Sala Lodges ( https://saltylips.co.uk/2023/08/an-oasis-in-the-middle-of-the-siem-reap-madness-sala-lodges-february-2023/ ), having chilled at the hotel, we headed off to spend a day site seeing the amazing temples of Angkor Wat, and we were not disappointed.
We organized a tuk tuk tour with a guide directly with the hotel, the cost for the 3 of us for the entire day was less than $100. We were picked up by our guide, and our tuk tuk driver, and taken off.
First stop was at the ticket office which is in the center of the city (not at the temples!) be careful as this is the only place where you can buy tickets for the temples, there are no ticket offices at the actual temples. The cost for 1 day is $37 for an adult.
Once we had our tickets, off we went. We hadn’t realized that there are many different temples in the area, so we had decided we would do as many as Frankie who wasn’t two at the time would allow us with the heat.
Dress code is important, Matt was allowed to wear long(ish) shorts that covered the knee, but Amy had to wear long trousers and long sleeve top, both of which were purchased in pub street the night before for about $2 each.
Our first stop was the magnificent Angkor Wat, we arrived mid morning, and the temperature was perfect. As Asia had just started coming out of Covid, we were fortunate to attend at a time when there were minimal tourists, which made walking around this UNESCO world heritage site an absolute treat. Our guide was well informed and was a (slightly annoying) enthusiastic photographer, so we had lots of pictures of the three of us!
One of the highlights is climbing up to the top of the tower, at the top of the very steep (70 degrees apparently) staircase you get a 360 degree view of the grounds and the temple. As well as one of the very few Buddha statues that still has its head (all the rest were removed during the civil war, and during the time Pol Pot held power).
After a walk around the grounds, a stop pit stop at the local seller for a very cold soft drink, we were off to our second temple. This time we went to Angkor Thom, this is considerable smaller but, in some ways, more spectacular, the stone work on the temple is amazing with faces carved in to the stones. One tip here don’t feed the monkeys we saw one lady had her belongings taken, after offering the monkey water (who does that ???)
Another perk of organsing a tour, you get taken to a local restaurant for lunch, where the guides goes off (I assume for a free meal) and we get an hour in the air conditioning with an amazing khmer lunch.
During lunch we decided we had one last temple in us. So off to the iconic Nokor Thom, this like many of the other temples was only recently found buried in the jungle. Here you park about a 10 minute walk from the temple, and there is a walk through the jungle to the site. Upon arrival you are not disappointed, the trees have essentially grown within the temple, and therefore there is a magical feel to it. If you think it looks familiar then you are probably right, as this was one of the main filming sites for the Lara Croft Tom Raider franchise.
After a long and hot day, we headed back to Sala Lodges for some relaxation by the pool.
