Angkor Wat is the most well known of the temples in this area, but are over 1,000 more wats (temples) spread out over the area. Siem Reap is a small city close by the temples and the base for exploring the temples of Angkor. We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which took about 3 hours and was pretty painless. We then arranged for a driver and a guide to accompany us to the temples for two full days.
Our first stop was Ta Phrom temple, which is well known and very popular because giant trees have been allowed to grow all over the ruins.
Ta Phrom is also well known to many people as the "Tomb Raider Temple" because it was used in the Tomb Raider movie that stars Angelina Jolie. We were about the only tourists there who hadn't seen the movie, so we were more than happy to skip the long line to take a picture right in front of this spot that is featured in the movie.
The detail in the temple walls was incredible.
From Ta Phrom we moved on to Ta Keo Temple, which involved climbing up multiple sets of very steep stairs.
The views of the area and the temple itself were worth every step!
Leaving Ta Keo Temple we stopped at another cool tree that had grown on top of ruins. The boys found a cool frog that blended in with the ground.
We stopped briefly at another small temple, one whose name I, unfortunately, can not remember.
After a lunch stop, we went on to Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious complex. This temple alone covers 162.6 hectares/402 acres, and it was originally built as a temple to the Hindu god Vishnu. We approached the temple from the back, which gave us a chance to build up to a view of the famous front facade.
Our guide, Sok, had so much interesting information to share with us about the kings who had the temples built, the temples' architecture, and the stories behind the carvings. We've learned that having a live guide at historical sites is far better than any trying to tour with any book or online information. It's a travel expense that more than pays for itself by greatly increasing our understanding and enjoyment of what we're seeing. Not only was Sok very knowledgeable, he did a great job engaging and including the boys, too.
This picture is neat because it (kind of) captures an interesting architectural feature, which is that these passageways were constructed perfectly straight and in diminishing sizes. It creates an effect that looks like what you see when you have two mirrors facing each other.
After walking through quite a bit of Angkor Wat, we left through the front entrance, which is the most well known view of the structure.
While leaving Angkor Wat, we realized there were monkeys on our (moving) car! We stopped and Sok gave one monkey a bit to drink, which the boys loved.
That night, we found a fantastic Belgian restaurant just a few minutes from our hotel. It was absolutely nothing like the fake Belgian restaurant we found in Russia. We ate Flemish stew, Liege meatballs, real Belgian fries, and even speculoos ice cream.....and Bob and I drank La Chouffe, one of our favorite Belgian beers. And the boys got to read Flemish comic books--everyone was happy!
One of the most popular and well known temples of all, Bayon, is located inside Angkor Thom.
Before going into the temple ruins, the boys and Sok fed the nearby monkeys. This made me really nervous, because the monkeys can be quite aggressive, but everyone walked away without bites or scratches.
The carvings in the stones were different from other temples and were so detailed!
After Bayon, we went to Baphoun, also in the Angkor Thom complex. Baphoun has trees growing in it, just like at Ta Phrom.
After these temples, we went back to the hotel for a swim and a rest before heading out again to try to catch sunset from the top of Phnom Backheng. We climbed up the hill to the temple, then climbed to the top of the temple itself and waited about an hour. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see much of the sunset, but the view from the top was still beautiful in its own right.
We have learned to carry the boys' notebooks for times like these.....this is Colin drawing and writing what came to his mind while waiting at the top of Phnom Backheng.
Even with the failed sunset attempt, our second full day of exploring temples was a success. We headed back to the hotel and said goodbye to Sok.
We planned nothing for the next day, which was a good chance to sleep in, swim, and explore Siem Reap a bit. It was perfect after two very hot, full days of exploring temple ruins. The next day, our driver picked us up again and we headed to Kampong Phluk, a village built entirely on stilts near the Tonlé Sap lake.
For about six months out of the year, Kampong Phluk is accessible only by boat because the village is completely flooded (hence the stilts). Emmett was excited to get to drive our boat, and our friendly boat driver seemed pretty happy about it, too.
As we got closer to the village, we hit what is essentially the suburbs.....this is a police station for the village.
And this is a school.
There was a lot of activity going on when we reached the village. We saw adults and children collecting fish out of large nets, dogs and chickens moving around in pens underneath the houses, and lots of people coming and going in boats.
These kids were coming home from school at midday. In Cambodia, children only go to school for a half day (7-11 AM or 1-5 PM).
We stopped at a small dock and transferred to an even smaller boat. Local women row tourists through the mangrove trees here to earn money, and the trees were really beautiful.
After transferring back to our original boat, we motored out into Tonlé Sap lake. There wasn't a lot to see there, really, but Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and we couldn't see the other side.
On the way back to Siem Reap from Kampong Phluk we stopped at a crocodile farm, which was equal parts fascinating and nightmarish.
Our final stop on this day was Banteay Srei, a temple about 35 KM outside Siem Reap.
We could not have ended our temple exploration at a better site. While not a very large temple, Banteay Srei was so ornate!
We started watching the election results in our hotel room and eventually moved to a café in Siem Reap because we needed to eat and, frankly, drink something. As the election was called for Trump, the café started playing "It's a Mad, Mad World" and the Brits around us consoled us shocked and appalled Americans, saying "We know how you feel" (the Brexit vote being their own recent, unexpected political upheaval). The unfortunate election results were a disappointing end to what was an otherwise wonderful time in Siem Reap. But just as the temples of Angkor Wat have stood long after the fall of the Khmer Empire, I'm confident that America will endure long after the presidency of Donald Trump. Let's just hope the country doesn't look like ruins afterwards.
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