Phumĭ Koŭk Dong (2)

Our final day was dedicated to uncovering the grandeur of Angkor Thom. Riding our trusted e-scooters, we explored the ancient Khmer city and its magnificent temples. The sense of freedom and adventure that the e-scooters provided was the perfect way to cap off our Siem Reap journey. So what is Angkor Thom you ask? We’ll it is easy to get confused, we were as well. Angkor Thom means “ great city” and was the long last capital of Angkor, and is the name for the entire area encompassing many temples, including Angkor Wat. There is an interesting documentary on National georphraohic that uses laser technology to “see” where streets used to be when there is now only jungle. Angkor Thom is famous for its 5 gates, while all other temples in the area only have 4. It feels quite majestic to drive through them with our tiny scooter. It is a huge area so of course we were not able to see everything, and on top of that we went in the afternoon so we could sleep a bit longer. The trade off being that it was really really hot, we thought “ oh it can’t be much worse than what we’ve experienced”. Jungle humidity with burning sun is just something else.

At the center of Angkor Tom stands Bayon, and you can drive all around it, a bit like the Arc de triomphe roundabout. But of course only filled with tuk tuks and scooters. It is also known as the “ face temple” which you can only appreciate from closer up. From a distance it just looks like a ruin with towers. It also features some exquisitely carved bad reliefs, which to be honest, we appreciated but didn’t read up on. At some point you’ve had you fill it temples. Unfortunately the highest level was closed for reconstruction. Most other must sees are in walking distance such as the terrace of the elephants, terrace of the leper king and Baphuon.

There was a narrow twisty walkway by the terrace of the elephants, which was very cool as you were “ stared at” by a hundred carved faces.A surprising favourite was not an official temple. From the Phimeanakas you can take a 10 min trail to walk to Baphuon. We were all alone and stumbled upon an impressive ruin that was swallowed up by nature, similar to the Tomb Raider Temple. We were completely alone with only jungle sounds audible around us. There is just something ancient and powerful about trees climbing crumbling ruins to stand tall under the sun again. Makes you feel very small in the face of time.

Our last temple climb was a steep one. There was no gym at our hotel but Baphuon was our workout of the day, similar to a 15 min stair master. They definetely didn’t have escalators back then so they must have been very fit to climb up those steps multiple times per day, and you don’t want to trip or look down. Now we made it up the stairs only to discover that, we had only just reached the first platform of the “ Temple Mount “ . Up we went. Sweating and out of breath we enjoyed the great view,, and a well deserved sip of water under Charly’s very essential umbrella/ parasol. We were then to discover that “ what goes up, must come down”, arguably the scarier way, as your shoes only really fit sideways on the narrow steps and it’s a long hard way down.

On our way back we saw a lot of monkeys in the road. Very cool to see them playing so close and uncaring about traffic.

Siem Reap and its temples left a profound impact on us. The combination of history, culture, and the convenience of e-scooters made this trip a truly unforgettable experience. In our opinion it should be on everyone’s “ See once in your life” bucket list, preferably at the end of off season and early in the morning. It makes sense why the Khmer people are so proud of it that it farces the Cambodia. Flag,🇰🇭Baca lagi