Cambodia - Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor Wat

January 14, 2007 by zankbennett.

This is like Cairo.  No words come to mind to properly describe this place.

Getting here:
-Wake-up call: 4 am.
-Taxi to bus 5 am.  (I took 3 1/2 minutes to get ready!  What was the lady at the reception thinking at 4 am?!!!
-bus takes 3 hours to get to border.  The usual bus for tourists takes 6 hours.  I got lucky with an inside tip.
-got off bus and eventually found the line to leave Thailand
-wait in line to get visa for Cambodia.

The Cambodian visa is an elusive creature; the visa guys try to overcharge everyone.  The police are in on it too.  Throughout this trip, a quick mention of police gets things moving along quickly in the right direction.  That’s largely because the appearance of a country to tourists as a whole is usually quite important.  This is not the case in Cambodia.  Come.  Go.  They just couldn’t care much less.  Eventually with the third request to an officer I got my visa and was off on the back of an open truck.  250 meters later, got passport stamped.  100 meters later took a bus to the taxi/bus station…or dirt lot, really that’s what it was.  The bus takes 6 hours + and would leave in 2 1/2 hours.  The taxi was $5 more, but left right away.
So, I piled in with three friends I made in line and we were off.  This 162 km dirt road cannot be described.  Instead, some facts:

-vehicle of choice is a Toyota Carola sedan.  Jacked up about 5 inches.
-we had 2 flats.
-pot holes?  It’s not like that.  It’s so much worse.  A pot hole would be a smooth part in comparison to what we were driving over.  At times I thought the car would disappear.

Entrance to Cambodia.  Visa station just out of picture to right.

Typically overloaded truck.

Main temple of Angkor Wat in BG.

View from Angkor Wat temple back to entrance gate.

Hanging 10 off the top of Angkor Wat.

Looking outside window in Angkor Wat perimeter structure.

In Banyon Temple.  I believe there are over 200 of the faces seen in BG.  My favorite of the 15+ I visited in three days.

Another temple.  The roots of some of these ingrown trees were breathtaking.  There were 50 people standing in awe just outside the frame of this pic.

Another temple.  My favorite travel pic in quite some time.

One of the statues built into a temple.

Another temple.  More of the intricate stone work.

Workers climbing up a crane tower.  Why?  I had no idea.

Another temple.  The view directly up from the center out the top of the tower.  This is one of the more “organized” openings.  Some looked ready to collapse at any moment.

A boy searches for something in the mud pit.  They did this all over Cambodia.  Just what the harvest from these man-made pits I don’t know.

A girl sits high up on a temple and reads as the sun sets.  I rested at many of these temples in a similar way.  This picture really captures the mood of many of us at this point in the day when legs are tired and escape from the many sales pitches is so very welcome.

That same temple from the ground level.  Sun is setting.  Dusk made the temples so much more special.  It would be quite something to visit each one at this time of day, a task that would certainly require more than a month here.

Another temple.  My antics.  The view from here was worth it.

Mtn biking was a great way to see the temples.  Even on a BEAST like this one

“Hey Mistah!”  Ten postkahd, one dollah!”  EVERYWHERE you go….

The last sign of a great day…

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