Day 1033 – Siem Reap, Cambodia

Day 1033 – 5th April 2008 +6:00 GMT

A very early morning up at 5am and straight into a taxi which we had hired for the day with the driver for just $25 and off we headed to Angkor Wat. Now Angkor is one if the seven modern wonders of the world and is about 10 km South of Siem Reap, It was built between the 9th and 13th Century and had a population of over a million when London had just 50,000. It is a collection of over 850 buildings and was the capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire. We arrived at Angkor and bought our day pass for $20, we had to get a photo taken which is printed on the ticket. We then headed to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise over the most famous of the temples. We walked over the moat and through the first building and sat and waited for the sun to rise.


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Angkor Wat At 5am


Sun Rising Over Angkor Wat


Me At Angkor Wat


Angkor Wat


Flowers in Angkor Wat Moat

We than took a walk around the Temple buildings and then jumped back into the taxi and visited Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is a walled area made up of several buildings the main being Bayon, also within the walls are Preah Palilay, Phineanakas, Terrace Of The Leper King, Terrace Of Elephants, Baphuon and Beng Thom.


Bayon



Bayon



Bayon



Bayon



Bayon


Baphuon



Phineanakas


Wall Of Angkor Thom



Terrace Of Elephants


Ruins In Angkor Thom

We walked around each of the buildings and then sat down and had a drink. We then got back in the taxi went to Chau Say Tevoda and then onto Thommanon.


Victory Gate


Chau Say Tevoda


Thommanon


Thommanon

Next was Ta Keo and then we had a walk through Ta Prohm, the archaeologist team was working on Ta Prohm as it has many trees growing out of the ancient Temple.


Ta Keo




Ta Keo


Ta Prohm


Ta Prohm



Ta Prohm


Ta Prohm



Ta Prohm

We then drove to Bat Chum which is another temple to walk through and lastly we visited Banteay Samre.


Bat Chum


Bat Chum


Banteay Samre

It was now about 10:30am and it was so hot we decided to go back to the hotel to swim, eat and sleep.


Jill In The Jungle Pool


We got up and headed back to Angkor Wat at 4pm to have another look around with better light, we walked around the entire grounds


Angkor Wat


Angkor Wat


Angkor Wat


Angkor Wat


Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Then we got the taxi to Phnom Bakheng which is at the top of a hill, you can get an elephant to take you to the top or you can walk. We walked to the top and as with all the other temples you had lots of very very steep steps to climb to get to the top of the temple. Here we sat and waited for the sun to set.

Elephants At Phnom Bakheng

Phnom Bakheng

Unfortunately it was too cloudy and the sun disappeared from site long before it was due to set, so we walked back down and got the taxi to drop us of in the centre of Siem Reap. We had a walk around the shops and then stopped for an Indian and some beer before getting a tuk tuk back to the hotel for the night.