Most people have heard of Angkot Wat, the amazing series of temples at Siem Reap in the north of Cambodia. Only recently opened to the public and massive in scale, Angkor Wat was once the capital city of the Khmer empire. Long abandoned it now lies ruined and restorations funded by many international organisations is seeing it slowly brought back to the splendour of its past.
Getting There
We took the bus from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia. A reasonably good experience, the bus took around 12 hours and we were fed twice and given a bottle of water. It stopped a couple of times for us to stretch our legs and go to the bathroom.
The only sticking point was that the bus let on a visa tout from a company with an official looking badge who proceeded to tell everyone that they needed to get a visa before reaching the Cambodian border. This is not true, you can get a visa as you cross the border. People shouted to tell others that what he was saying is not true but still, unfortunately, a few people did still fall foul of this scam.
You can also fly direct to Siem Reap International Airport, Cambodia. There are flights from lots of airports, including Bangkok, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Getting Around Siem Reap
The town centre is actually quite small – you can walk from one end to the other in less than 3o minutes. Of course there are still plenty of tuk tuk drivers wanting to make your journey shorter (and your pocket just a little lighter). As long as you’re not wanting to get somewhere through the hottest part of the day, 11am – 2pm, then I would advise you just walk, you never know what you might find on the way.
Things to do in Siem Reap
I can’t help but start with the biggest reason everyone goes to Siem Reap – Angkor Wat. It’s the only reason that Siem Reap is on anyone’s map, the town itself gets 100% of its income from the tourism industry.
Angkor Wat
It’s impressive, really. A capital city from over 800 years ago left to ruin in a Cambodian jungle. Dozens of temples, walls, moats and other buildings. Entrance fee is $20 for one day or $40 for three days.
I enjoyed our day there, and our driver, Panha, was excellent (by the way here is his website and he’s also on TripAdvisor). Although due to Angkor Wat regulations, he couldn’t join us in the temples themselves, he told us before and after about the temples and the history of the city.
At the end of the day I think we had seen enough temples for quite a while. Although each was different they were starting to look the same to our tired eyes.
I think maybe spending a longer time there rather than trying to cram it all into one day might allow you to appreciate the dozens of buildings more.
Koh Ker and Beng Mealea
The day after we visited Angkor Wat I asked Panya to bring us to the ancient temples of Koh Ker and Beng Mealea. I know I just said we were seen enough temples but Koh Ker captivated me as soon as I saw the photo on trip advisor. Here we are in South East Asia and I see a temple that looks like it should be in South America, I had to see this this!
It’s just as impressive as it looks, you can stand on the top and look around at the countryside, breathtaking. The temple is so much higher than the tree tops that you can quite literally see for miles. I think Koh Ker is my favourite temple in Cambodia. Just don’t stray away from the marked paths, the land-mine signs are no joke, the Khmer Rouge booby trapped this place back in the 1970s.
Beng Mealea has all the scale of Angkor Wat but none of the restoration. It’s a crumbling, broken ruin of a temple, but it has character – seeing the trees taking back their claim over the rock. It was once the scene for an Indian Jones movie and you can see why from the pictures, very impressive.
Fish with Soy
Sorry, Soy, I couldn’t resist that little joke. Actually we went net fishing with a guy called Soy. A great experience if you’ve never fished before. He talked us through the process slowly and demonstrated with obvious great skill. We must have caught 30 small fish, most of which we returned to the water before cooking the rest for lunch.
It was much easier than I expected, but harder than I had hoped, to throw the net accurately and efficiently. Next time I see a fisherman throw a net to catch fish I’ll think more about how much they’ve practiced that skill.
Where next?
I’ve heard tell of a place where bamboo carriages, powered by lawn mower engines, rattle along a bent and twisted railway at dizzying speeds. That place is called Battambang and it’s only a 6 hour bus journey away…
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