Exploring the Angkor temples

We had a long and exciting day in the different temples of Angkor. We bought an audio guide which helped to put together a great full-day itinerary which went to a number of small temples first and finished with Angkor Wat.

We loved to get to the different less famous sites and in the beginning took an opportunity to climb a very tall temple in restoration to look over the area. Unfortunately, the forest is quite thick and we only saw the tips of Angkor Wat’s towers - not sure why so many people recommend it as a sunset viewpoint.

A first highlight was the area of Angkor Thom with vast terraces lined with elephant reliefs and high towers to climb. As with the Inca in Peru, it’s incredible again how the Khmers managed to build these complexes - but we will hopefully find out more in tonight’s BBC documentary session on YouTube.

One other temple was noted as one of our favorites as nature had partly claimed it back and it was overgrown with trees - some of them really huge. No wonder that the movie “Tomb Raider” was shot here at Angkor Wat...

After eating a traditional bamboo rice cake (Anna), we finished the bike ride with the main attraction of Angkor - the Angkor Wat = temple of Angkor. It is majestic because a large moat and a plain preempts the premises and, thus, it can be seen already from far away. We climbed the tower and had stunning views over the various temples that are part of Angkor Wat!

Tomorrow we will rest a bit and move to another hotel for 3 more nights in Siem Reap to explore more of the temples before going to Indonesia.

PS: we also have my wallet back - even with the 1 dollar in it :-) probably that was the reason as nobody steals a wallet for 1 dollar :-)Read more