Exlporing the world know Angkor Wat

Day 1: Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm
We booked the ‘Angkor Wat Sunrise Tour.’ The first day of our tour we woke up at 03.55AM. Which was a blast. . . ! After picking up the rest of our tour group, we drove to the ticket office and bought our 3 day pass. We reached Angkor Wat shortly after, but unfortunately we couldn’t see the sunrise as it was cloudy. But he got over it once we walked through the majestic temple. There were a lot of other people in the temple as well, but we still thought it was lovely and enjoyed learning from our tour guide who was very passionate about Angkor National Park. Angkor Wat itself was built by a King named Suryavarman II in the 12th century. It began as a temple built by the Khmer Empire for the Hindu god Vishnu, and eventually turned to a Buddhist temple at the end of the 12th century.
After visiting Angkor Wat we drove to Ta Prohm, known by another name, ‘Tomb Raider temple,’ because the first movie was filmed there. King Jayavarman VII founded Ta Prohm, and it was built as a university and Buddhist monastery. It was built in the late 12th century and 13th century, and Ta Prohm is one of the temple sites that is still close to being in its original form. While this temple was harder to navigate with smaller walkways and hundreds of people we still found the architecture breathtaking. The trees were overtaking the temple and it was amazing, we couldn’t stop taking photos.
The last temple we visited was Bayon temple. The stone sculptures of the faces kept us looking skywards! King Jayavarman VII founded Bayon temple, and it sits in the centre of Angkor Thom. The Angkor Thom complex was established at the end of the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. The four faces on many stone sculptures symbolize a merge of religions, as Hindu and Buddhist beliefs encapsulated Bayon through different periods of time.

Day 2: Pre Rup, Banteay Srei, East Mebon, Ta Som, Preah Khan, Neak Pean
The second day, we left at a normal time! At 08:00AM we headed to six more temples, five of them being close together, and the last, the most spectacular Banteay Srei was about a 45 min drive away. Banteay Srei was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, and was commissioned in the 10th century. Masterful carvings with elaborate stories were on display for all to see. The temple, built with red sandstone is impressive up close as it was far away. Another temple we enjoyed was Neak Pean; more for the walk along the small wooden planks surrounded by water to reach the temple. While it was a small temple, the area was beautiful. The lush forest reflected off the water and it made for a stunning landscape.

Day 3: Baphuon, Chrung Palace, Bakheng
The last day involved renting two bicycles from our home-stay, and touring some of the temples we missed out on. The bike ride through town was fun in the morning, even though we made a wrong turn or two. Deciding to skip Angkor Wat a second time, we visited the Angkor Thom complex. We saw the temples of Baphuon, Chrung Palace and Bakheng. Being able to visit the temples without a guide was a nice break, and we went at our own pace, discovering small areas around the complex that we could sit and marvel at. One of our favourite sculptures in each temple, were the Cambodian women wearing Aspara crowns. No matter where we went, there was beautiful sculptures abound. Biking through the park and watching the monkeys was fantastic, even when they tried to snatch Justin’s smoothie from his moving bike! The bike ride back was harder, and longer, and hotter. But we made it!もっと詳しく