Back in Sept 2016 my husband and I were wondering.. Year-end holidays approaching.. Where to next? I had once told him that I wanted to see the the three major civilizations or the reigns across the world – Angkor city, Egypt and Machu Pichu. That’s when we decided, let’s start from the East!
With that started the planning of a 10day trip across Cambodia and Vietnam. The entire trip did not need much planning and we also wanted to take things as they come. Starting with Flight bookings – Bangalore- Siem Reap- Hanoi-Bangalore – Done! Hotel bookings in the respective cities and applied for E-Visa for Vietnam; USD was the currency in Cambodia and yes, stock up on some food! We were all set!
We landed in Siem Reap and within 10mins of deplaning, we were greeted by a very warm immigration officer #rarefind and had gotten our Visa on Arrival through an extremely smooth and structured process – Impressive! We headed straight to our Hotel – Siddharta – a quaint boutique hotel situated in the city with a very welcoming staff. Siem Reap is built for tourists given its biggest tourist attraction and this is seen in every aspect – comfort and ease for a tourist is the top most priority. We enquired at the hotel reception on how to get to Angkor for the next day, and, they promptly handed us a very well thought through itinerary for 3 days! #ImpressedAgain!
The next day, we started off towards discovering this ancient city of Angkor. We tied up with a Tuk-tuk driver outside the hotel and he agreed to be our ride for our stay in Siem Reap. To visit the Angkor city one needs a pass – duration of which you can decide – 1 day, 3 day, 7 day etc. After picking up our passes we set off on one of the 2 routes recommended – the Greater route and the Smaller route. The first stop was the Temple of Bayon – one with close to 177 faces. Surrounded by beautiful landscapes this temple is an architectural marvel. We spent some time wandering around and admiring this huge complex before heading out to the next exciting stop – Ta Phrom. This temple rose to fame since the Tomb Raider movie was shot here. This is characterized by a huge banyan tree whose roots run well within the Temple walls. It looks like the tree grew right out of the temple!
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| Ta Phrom |
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| Bayon Temple |
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| Angkor Complex |
1 hour and a zillion photos later we headed to the next temple on our route – Baphoun. A temple which has withstood the multiple war and being carefully reconstructed, this Buddhist temple is really a treat to the eyes. Near it was the Terraces of the Leper king where the King used to have an audience from the common man to listen to their grievances; With that our long day was coming to an end, but we were more excited for day 2!
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| Terrace of Leper King |
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| Temples of Angkor complex |
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| Temples of Angkor complex |
The main attraction in Siem Reap is the Angkor Wat temple – one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in the world. Thousands of photographers from across the world throng to Angkor city to get some amazing shots of the beautiful sunrise against the backdrop of the temple. And ofcourse – we were there too. Our day started at 4am, to reach the spot around 5am to set up camp – better get there early, there were already tri-pods set up awaiting patiently for the sunrise. We found ourselves a good spot at the banks of the lake and waited.. sipping a hot cup of tea.. At 6:10am the Sun rose majestically against a clear blue sky casting a shadow on the domes of the temple; the shutterbugs were clicking away trying to capture every moment of this beautiful spectacle – indeed one of the best sunrises we had seen.
Once nature had completed the show, we headed to explore the interior of this massive complex – it does take a while! Angkor Wat was initially built as a Lord Vishnu temple but slowly over the years it transformed into a Buddhist temple during the reign of the Khmer kings. The temple houses carvings from both Hindu mythology and Buddhist teachings and it leaves one completely awestruck by the sheer size of it. We then spent the rest of the day visiting a few of the smaller temples of Banteay Prei, Preah Khan and a few others.
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| Sunrise |
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| Temples at Angkor Complex |
When I travel, I also try to get a glimpse into the culture and livelihood of the people. We started that by going to one of the Apsara dance shows – a South East Asian version of what we know as Hindu mythology. One of the main sources of income for the people of Siem Reap is also small scale industries – handicrafts, lacquer products, textile weaving, silkworm farming and weaving and making cosmetic products.
We stepped into a few of them to get a glimpse – we started with a place called Senteurs D Angkor – a shop and a factory which makes some amazing cosmetic products from handmade soaps to moisturizers, all packaged in very cute banana leaf baskets, all made by women there. I just couldn’t resist loading my shopping basket with small souvenirs. We then headed to a silk worm farm where they reared silk worm and had weavers who weaved cloth from the threads.
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| A lady weaving baskets |
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| Wood carving in progress |
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| Weaving in progress |
We next went to Cambolac – Art for the People – this is a lacquer factory making paintings, photo frames, candles etc out of lacquer. This is run by a set of people who are deaf and dumb and they even provide an explanation of the process through sign language.
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| Cambolac candle holder |
Our last stop for the day was a Landmine Factory. Cambodia has a very dark war-ridden history. During the war times a number of landmines were places in the country, many discovered and diffused, some still being discovered and diffused. the factory is quite an eye-opener into the the difficult history of this country. A visit here left us thankful for everything that we have – the freedom, the space, the comfort and everything else.
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| At the land mine factory |
With that our adventure across Siem Reap came to an end.. looking forward to enjoying the charm of Hanoi!
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Curious Boho 