Trail genre: City/Family trail
Trail point starts from: Siem Reap City Center (Hotel)
Trail point ends at: Siem Reap City Center (Hotel)
Total trail nights: 3
Total trail distance: 149 kms
Road trip to Angkor Temples
According to Wikipedia, "Angkor Wat is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Located in Siem Reap, means the 'Defeat of Siam' —today’s Thailand —and refers to a centuries-old bloodbath. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only...Arggghh !!! Forget about all these technical symphonies dancing around history books.
Let's face the fact, built in as early as 9th century, these are some of the greatest architectures in human...
... history and often forgotten by the western scholars. Angkor temples are memoirs that enriched with religious sacrifices, epitomes of the high classical style of Khmer architectures, countless of unexplained mysteries behind the bas-relief and tonnes of unknown secrets on how these pieces of soils and rocks were put together unmechanically.
As with my usual self, I always travel with little or no research nor preparation ahead of where I go. This was one of the cheapest travels I ever spent on. I won a free ticket from Air Asia for its aggressive promotion against other competitors. But this in no way I'm implying one will spend less. Traveling in Cambodia, at least in Siem Reap, means you are visiting a very touristy place. On the positive side, you are pretty much assured of feeling yourself not far away from home, as you find no difference between the price you pay at home vs the price in Siem Reap for the same thing you buy. Or possibly you pay even more in Siem Reap.
Angkor Temples, situated within the radius of 30kms around Siem Reap city, one of the major cities in Cambodia, are consist of many clusters of temples (around 800 documented sites) built in different eras ranging from as early as 9th century to 12th century (ie during the start of Roman's imperialism simultaneously in Europe).
As a result of the dark history of power seize and the legacy of decades of conflict, Cambodia has been burdened with poverty threat as well as unexploded munitions threat - thought to number in the millions.
For a cheaper means of moving around in Siem Reap, it's advisable to hire a tuk-tuk. I don’t have a clue on how much I spent on this, but it's absolutely NEGOTIABLE !
Yeah, one more thing. Entry pass (Angkor Pass) is required. Find a way to economize your purchase. The pass is available in one day, three days, seven days…etc. Ranging from US$20 to US$60 respectively.
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Day 1 : 25 Feb 2006
Hotel (Siem Reap City center) -> Lolei -> Preah Ko -> Bakong -> Phnom Krom -> Hotel (City Center)
We arrived on 25 Feb 2006. Immediately after leaving our luggage behind in the hotel, we headed our journey to
Lolei. This is about 15kms from Siem Reap city. Along the journey, there wasn’t much eye-catching scenery. As an "Entree", Lolei is a very small, and not particularly impressive. We spent less than 10 mins for some quick photographing. Our next destination, Preah Ko. For a road distance of 10 mins, we arrived at one of the earliest temple in Angkor. It is believed that this temple marked the beginning of Khmer civilization which later lasted for 500 years. This temple is believed to lay its foundation in late 9th century (About 900 years before George Washington, first US President took office)
From "Entree", we moved on to "Soup of the day", the Bakong.
According to some researches, Bakong is the first real pyramid shaped temple built in Cambodia to take the form of "temple mountain". Of all in the Rolous Group (Lolei + Preah Ko + Bakong), this is one of the most impressive temple. Completed in around 880AD, it's a much aged architecture than Angkor Wat. The location of this temple is way out of tourist trail, therefore, one can expect less human crowd in this temple. Hilarious enough,
we were approached by a young girl consistently touting us to buy her handicraft, when we pressed for lower price, she refused on the reason Bakong was not touristy enough to afford for price bargain (Volume vs Price. Price elasticity ?). We were truly amazed by her knowledge application in economy theory at her age. At this point, it's noticeably that the Cambodians are generally poor but they work really seriously hard. While one should start to notice as well about the continuous annoyances from undying touting by local young Cambodians. This went on and continued until the end of our Siem Reap trip.
With Bakong, that completed our Rolous Group tour. We traveled for the next 25kms or so southwestward through the Siem Reap City center to Phnom Krom. Along the way, we passed a village and had an opportunity to witness the simple way of village lives. They depend on wells as sources of their daily water needs. No electricity. Houses sitting on long legs, implying cyclical flood happens in some time of every year.
Phnom Krom is sitting on top of a small hill. No entrance fees required but we needed to pay the price of exhaustive climb to reach the top.
The top is overlooking a horizon of stunning green paddy fields and Tonle Sap river. We were lucky enough to catch sunset in time. We met up with my friend and his partner there which we had planned beforehand. We later separated again to head on with our own plans afterwards. On our journey back to hotel, the day was turning dark and we were tired and were silent by ourselves throughout the journey. We witnessed the villagers started to enjoy their simple dinners sitting around the light of candles. Some kids were still running about, chasing each other, playing, probably waiting for their mums' dinner bells, or probably waiting for the return of their fathers from work.
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Day 2 : 26 Feb 2006
Hotel (Siem Reap City Center) -> Angkor Wat -> Angkor Thom -> Ta Prohm -> Hotel -> Phnom Bakheng -> Hotel
From "Soup of the day" to "Main course". We were awoken by early morning call, a really early morning call. We planned to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is the main highlight of the whole visit.
It is so magnificent to the extend where Angkor Wat is used as a symbol in Cambodia's national flag. Built in around 1115 to 1145AD, it was initially constructed as Hindu temple dedicated to God Vishnu, but later consecrated to a Theravada Buddhist monument some time around the 16th century. The building is so huge (800 x 1025 meters) that one can spend a full day just to understand the stories from the bas-relief inscribed on the wall. The statues, the apsara, the carvings, the making of the temple are all so inspiring.
It's advisable to keep yourself handy with a Lonely Planet book on "Cambodia". The book is worthy of the investment as it explains every single detail behind Angkor Wat. One point well worthy of mention too, at early hour upon arriving at the temple, we were shocked to see the vast number of visitors and photographers finding sunrise spots in the darkness. Therefore, it's again advisable to do research on where to setup your tripod beforehand. Wandering around aimlessly may end you up in landmine disaster!
We spent about 3 hours until the sun got off the bed. Next, we proceeded to Angkor Thom. Just another 5 mins of ride on tuk-tuk,
we were awed again by another magnificent stone structure standing in front of us. Angkor Thom (means "Great City")
is a capital city of ancient Khmer regime ruled under King Jayavarman VII in around late 12th century. Angkor Thom measuring around 360 acres or 9sq kms is surrounded by a gigantic moat. There are five entrances strategically positioned at each cardinal directions, ie North, South, East and West. While the fifth connecting eastwards from the Angkor Thom Palace.
Our driver, dropped us at South gate where we walked the causeway on foot before entering into Angkor Thom. The causeway leading to an archway where one can see some statues on top of the arch welcoming visitors with smiling faces for the past untiring 820 years. Along the causeway, there are some 54 stones of Devas or Asuras on each side of the causeway. My feeling? I was too speechlessly amazed and stunned by the magnificent scale of the architectures human can ever imagine. I don’t speak any architectural lingo nor can I speak of any historical tunes... the stones, the stones were just simply too well used !
We toured around the Angkor City on foot. Some of the highlights within Angkor Thom are Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Elephant Terrace one must not miss. We spent about 3 hours before headed on to Ta Prohm.
With less than 10 mins of riding distance, we were at another eye-opener historical structure, Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm gained its fame for being used as part of the scenes in Tom Raider movie. Before entering the temple, we saw some
limbless landmine victims busking by performing with some kinds of local musical instruments at the side of pathway leading to the temple. Again, I was deeply moved again for their spirits to work hard for money instead of begging for it. Cambodians are the hardworking lots that earn livings through sweat and tears. Ta Prohm is a major ruin that has been greatly defaced and deformed by time. However, it was the decision of the restorers of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient to leave the structure as was, other than some works carried out to clear the compound and pathway to make it visitor-friendly. As a result, some giant trees roots were still seen clinging on walls tightly. My theory is that the trees used the wall to support themselves during their early stages of growth until they are standing tall as are today. (Believe in my wisdom?) Some sources noted that about 79,000 workers were deployed to build this temple during the reign of Jayavarman VII. Can anyone imagine that the number could well be a total population size of many cities put together at that time?
We retired to our hotel for a short rest before we continued to explore Phom Bakheng later for its sunset.
Phnom Bakheng is believed to be the first city at Angkor. Geographically Phnom Bakheng sits in between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.
Remember about the Rolours Group I mentioned earlier? Phnom Bakheng was the capital city migrated from Rolous
Group. Constructed on a hill, Phnom Bakheng offers spectacular sunset viewpoints. It was a killing steep ascend where I felt I had so much carbon dioxide in my lungs, so much more than the amount of oxygen intake I ever had for my last one year. At that point, I really couldn’t imagine how those pieces of rocks, standstones were brought up to the hill. However, don’t get freaked out, as the climb should take a below average person, like me around 30mins to reach the top. If you are a serious photographer, again picking a strategic spot should pose you a great challenge. Be there early, or you need to photoshop dramatically to remove human heads in the foreground of your sunset pictures. From archeologically point of view, hmmm hmmm... this temple resembles the design of Bakong which was built some 2 decades earlier. Sadly, this temple was abandoned in year 928AD (probably they later realized the climb was too strenuous after many years of climbing. Here goes my wisdom again)
We woke up and found ourselves so sick. We were too ill and seeing signs of protest from our body. Commonly
known as "Stone Fatigue", a disease happening in 21st century on people that seeing too much of stones in a short period of time. It struck us badly and we decided to go for a city tour instead. Around the city, we noticed that Siem Reap was a city
with abundant number of young people working in the economy. Not many offices nor skycrappers we noticed, or probably none at all. Most jobs were labor related. We were first very confused, where had the money gone to when most things sold to foreigners were unusually pricey. Understood from a city folk later, some corruption practices were mainly responsible for the economy inefficiency. How sad ! At dinner, we thought of adventuring ourselves to try the local roadside food. But we were later frightened by an experience where a native speaking stallkeeper lured us to taste some sort of cooked cambodian vege she handpicked it with her bare hands. We ended up in restaurants for every meal thereafter.
Now, the "Dessert". Kbal Spean is about 30ish kms from the Siem Reap city. It's about one and a quarter hour of ride
on the bumpy and dusty road. Another 30 mins of climb to follow before one starts to see the astonishing carvings on the wall and on the riverbed (Lingas). Many trip advices on internet discourage one to visit if time is really a factor. I
personally find the encounter truly amazing. Not for the architecture, but for the idea on how the carvings used to fertilize the water before it flows into East Barray (some 30kms away at foothill...remember in ancient distance) and irrigate the rice fields in Cambodia. Many archaeologists vestige KBal Spean date back to 11th to 13th century. This was when Mongol and Ottoman were in their empire building glories on the other part of the world while Cambodians were enjoying superior quality rice in peace.
5kms from KBal Spean, we headed on to Banteay Srei (aka Citadel of Women). The visit to the Angkor Temples will
not be complete without Banteay Srei. Consecrated in around 967AD, it's believed that Banteay Srei is the only major temple not built my monarch. One will certainly be able to appreciate the difference in carvings between Banteay Srei with any other Angkor Temples. The carvings are so fine, so detailed, so delicate, so accurate... Many advocate that Banteay Srei was the handworks of women. This temple is popular with tourists and some call it as "jewel of Khmer art".
With Banteay Srei, that completed our trail journey in Angkor Temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Some information written above may have some compromises in accuracy as changes may have taken place since my visit and my account of detail is based on my photo record (come on ! 2 years ago...I can't remember exactly every detail now).
I personally recommend Angkor Trail to anyone who has strong enthusiasm or interest in history study, architectural design, archeology or even photography to pay at least a visit in the lifetime.
Human with modern civilization today has not demonstrated any comparable creations with what they did (including Teotihuacan, Great wall of China, Chichen Itza etc etc) yet. What we are doing today are mostly WITHIN what the technology is capable of. Perhaps Phoenix exploration to Mars is qualified to compare...
Thanks for reading my trail. Hope you've enjoyed it. Cheers !
Distance traveled :
Day 1 : approx 51.5 kms
Day 2 : approx 31 kms
Day 3 : approx 6 kms
Day 4 : approx 60 kms
Total : approx 148.5 kms
Trail known as: The Angkor Trail
