We spent days 104 through 109 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We passed our trip’s halfway point on day 106. This is our shortest stay in any country (I am not counting the 8 hour layover in Berlin as a stay). Our main objective was seeing Angkor Wat and the neighboring temple ruins. Right away, I must say it was HOT!!! In a few days (from when I am typing this post) we will be in Nepal, so I may regret complaining of the heat. By 11am I was looking for any excuse to be inside — good thing the kids needed to do their school work each day. Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple complex in the 12th century. It later converted to a Buddist temple. Angkor is not the only temple in this area. It is in the best shape (mostly from being continually used and having a 100 meter wide moat to protect it from the jungle). Most of the others –Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm — are mostly ruins.
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- Cambodia does not have a train system like the rest of Southeast Asia. We boarded a bus in Ho Chi Minn City (approximately where Vietnam is written on the map) and traveled for 12 hours through the capital city of Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.
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- Sunrise at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
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- Sunrise at Angkor Wat is listed in all the travel guides as the number one thing to do. Here are Anna and I with the thousand other people who came to see it.
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- Tuk-Tuk driver in Cambodia
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- Naga providing shade for the meditating Buddha.
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- Bridge leading to the south gate of Angkor Thom.
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- Race to the top.
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- Stategy session on how to go about the exploration. This was a fun place to the kids — climbing was allowed in most everywhere.
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- Profile pics in Bayon.
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- Temple in the woods.
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- Ta Prohm — portions of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider were filmed here.
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- The jungle creeping back over Ta Prohm.
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- Picnic breakfast on the second morning of temple exploration. That is the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat. On our first day, we saw sunrise inside the moat and left to see the other ruin sites. This second morning, we slept in until about 6 am and stayed at Angkor Wat all morning.
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- Monk selfie
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- These two were troopers. I only heard, “Do we have to go to another one? They all look the same?” a few times.
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- Two early mornings and hot temperatures have these two napping in the tuk tuk.
–KLaff