Day 4 Angkor Thom, Siem Reap
With a three day entry pass ($40pp) to the temples of Angkor, you have the time to take it at your own pace. There are so many temples, even if you raced around for three days, you may still not have time to see them all! So we've decided to start each day visiting one of the big three temples, and then take in 2-3 smaller ones split either side of lunch. That means we've finished by around 3pm, and not overly tired.
Today's headliner was Angkor Thom, second only to Angkor Wat in terms of grandeur and impact, but by far the largest temple complex of them all. For a visit here, it pays to have your driver pick you up at the other end from where you start or you will find yourself having to retrace your footsteps a long way back! We started at the mighty twelth century Bayon temple, which has some thirty odd towers each with a massive face of Lokesvara staring down at you. From the Bayon, you can reach the 11th century Baphoun from the rear, and scale the impressive heights of it's pyramid shape.
After the Baphoun you're best with a site map to navigate round, as their are temples, gate houses, pools and terraces spread all over. Like most visitors we eventually finished at the huge Terrace of the Elephants. From above its an imposing but fairly ordinary walkway, viewed from below though, and you're face to face with over three hundred elephants beautifully worked into the stone. It takes at least four hours to take in Angkor Thom, and more if you really wanted to explore deeper.
The tuk tuk drivers and tour guides know Angkor well and will gladly take you to a well earned lunch at a roadside restaurant. They are generally on the more expensive side for Siem Reap, and not much to look at, but you can still have a tasty noodle or rice dish for under $5. We weren't sure of the protocol, but ended up inviting Piseth our driver to sit and eat with us, which he was happy to do. It's a great way to learn more about Cambodian culture and the local area.
After lunch we stopped at Chau Say Tevoda and Thomannon temples, on either side of the road. These two temples are a stark contrast to Angkor Thom in both scale and classic detail. The restoration projects on the smaller temples in the jungle have centred on making them safe, rather than restore to full former glory. What you get is a series of shady doorways, towers and alleways that seemingly lead nowhere but into the undergrowth. They're really quite enchanting and more fun to explore as you clamber over collapsed walls and dead end corridors. One thing is for certain, no two temples are alike so there's plenty to keep you interested.
After another stop at a smaller temple we decided that it was time to call it a day out in Angkor. We headed back to the guest house for a shower and an hours rest. At my insistence we took another massage at frangipani spa, which was heavenly again, before heading out for dinner. Presumably because it was the weekend, we had to wait a little while for a table at Kymer Kitchen, and eventually shared one with a couple of university staff from New Zealand, who were hosting thirty students on a trip through South East Asia. Meeting like minded, friendly explorers and getting to share a few stories, and tips is definitely one of the highlights of visiting countries such as Cambodia - it seems that the adventurous definitely make for more interesting conversation!
A few years back I wrote one of my more popular blogs on a condition called aerosinusitis, (click here) or plane brain as it was referred to in this article in the Daily Mail. The fact that my blog article was viewed some two and a half thousand times made me realise I wasn't alone.
