The Temples of Angkor

We visited the Temples of Angkor (Angkor Wat as it's commonly referred to) for three consecutive days beginning the 4^th of September, 2011 . I/we could write pages and pages about these temples and the area but for the time being I’ll just summarize our visit and hopefully can go into details about specific experiences later on down the line.

We purchased a three day pass at a cost of $40 USD per pass. Prior to entering any temple or shrine there will be someone checking your ticket. When purchasing a ticket your photo is taken and printed on the pass and the person checking the tickets will verify the ticket is yours.

Getting Around the Temples 

We were extremely lucky to find a wonderful Tuk-Tuk driver named Sam to help us with our visit. Sam designed a three day itinerary for us, drove us everywhere and provided insight to all the temples and surrounding areas including a look at current Cambodian culture. All of this at a very-very reasonable cost to us, and more than worth it as a good driver will dramatically improve your trip to the temples. If you’re coming to Siem Reap, Pamela and I highly recommend contacting Sam who can help you with everything!  You can find Sam on Facebook, email or telephone (+855) 012 27 58 51

Pamela, Sam and I in front of his Tuk-Tuk

Our Favorite Temples
We visited so many temples that there is no way we can write (or you’d want to read) about all of them so we’ll just focus on our favorite three and then about Angkor Wat as it’s the most famous. Click on the bold temple names to see all the pics from that particular temple.

1. The Temple of Bayon
54 gothic towers decorated with 216 large faces and a surrounding 1.2 km BAS-Relief of over 11,000 carved figures  is what makes Bayon our favorite. The temple itself, built by Jayavarman VII, lies at the center of the ancient capital city of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom may have supported a surrounding population of close to one million people and was the center of the ancient  Khmer empire.

Two of the 54 columns of Bayon

A little smooch

2. Ta Prohm
With its jungle atmosphere, Ta Prohm reminded us of a temple right out of an Indiana Jones movie and was supposedly used in one of the Tomb Raider movies. Walking through the temple you quickly learn to appreciate the awe-inspiring power of the jungle and how mother nature can quickly swallow manmade work with gigantic trees, flourishing root systems and erosion.

Hiding out in Ta Prohm

The trees grow right out of the temple at Ta Prohm

3.  Banteay Srei
Last but definitely not least, Banteay Srei is a small temple so intrinsically decorated that it is said the temple must have been built by a woman as no man could build something so beautiful. In fact, Banteay Srei means “Citadel of the Women”, and is considered the finest examples of carvings on earth. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the many-many detailed carvings through-out the small temple. Thankfully Sam took us to the temple at a time when it wasn’t so crowded so we could explore as much as we’d like.

Enjoying the temples

Just one of the many thousands of carvings throughout Banteay Srei

Angkor Wat – The Big One!
Angkor Wat is the most famous and largest of all the temples but it wasn’t one of our favorites. We found it too crowded for our liking and the current restoration project makes the temple not too easy on the eyes.

Angkor Wat is said to be the largest religious structure in the world. To give you an idea of the size, the moat alone is as wide as two football fields, the carved wall surrounding the temple is over two miles long and the top spire is as high as Notre Dame Cathedral. Although the entire temple is immense in size, the actual shrine at the center of Angkor Wat is relatively small being about the size of a small living/lounge room.

In front of Angkor Wat

Looking out over one of the libraries in Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is still a worshipping temple

All the Temples We Visited
Sam designed us a really good three day itinerary for visiting the temples. The amount of temples you can visit really depends on how much time you spend at each temple. The list below are all the temples we visited in order, their names are hyperlinks to the corresponding photo album.

Day 1 – 9:30am to 6:30pm
Angkor Thom - Bayon
Angkor Thom - Baphuon
Angkor Thom - The Royal Enclosure
Ta Prohm
Angkor Wat

Day 2 – 8:00am to 7:00pm
Pre Rup
Kbal Spean
Banteay Srei
Bantey Samre

Day 3- 8:00am to 4:00pm
Preah Kahn
Neak Poan
Ta Som
Eastern Mebon
Banteay Kdei

As you can see the Temples of Angkor are a huge place with much to be seen and way too much to write about. We would highly recommend everyone pay a visit to Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor once in your life. You won't regret it.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave