Siem Reap

After a smooth trip from Changi Airport, Jasper and I touched down at Siem Reap. It was a much simpler airport compared to the grand scale of Singapore's. Giving off a much provincial vibe with its wooden exterior. We quickly made our way inside, I felt the excitement in me growing by the second as this was one of my dream destinations. The security check for Covid was surprisingly rigid, the immigration process however was quite smooth. Jasper decided to exchange some money right at the airport which was a good call to save some time. I had been in touch with Daniel, from Daniel & Han Villa Boutique. We got an amazing deal here with a private room and twin beds. The place also came with a swimming pool to boot. Daniel had prepared a tuktuk transport to his place so when we got out of the airport, a tuktuk driver was holding a sign with my name on it. After making our pleasantries, we got on a pretty luxe tuktuk, reminiscent of a limo. It was honestly one of the most high-class and badass tuktuk's I've ever seen with its slick black design and an elongated body just like a horse carriage. The ride gave us a chance to see what Siem Reap was like because aside from Angkor Wat, I honestly didn't know much about this place. It was very provincial indeed, its outskirts was quite similar to Vang Vieng but the city center was much more bustling. We got to our hotel all fine and dandy, got checked in and left our things and got what we needed for the day. Now, we were ready to visit Angkor Park but not before getting our tickets and e-bikes. Our tuktuk driver took us to the ticket office which was literally empty. We went straight to the cashier to get our 3-day ticket while the tuktuk driver tried to convince us to take less days so we can go with him to other places and rent a tuktuk to ride around the park which I could understand but we were not having it. There was also another tour guide who was asking if we needed a guide but we wanted to experience it at our own pace which is why we opted to do a self-tour with e-bikes. Prior to coming, I was also in-touch with a guy that handled the Bayon E-bikes Rental shop and we had our reservations ready so we asked our tuktuk to drop us there and we would be using the bike to head to Angkor Park from there on out. After getting our e-bikes, I was surprised to see that it literally like a scooter! I was expecting it to be similar to what I rode in Hokkaido which was like a battery-assisted bike but a lot of the work still had to come from my own peddaling but this one had those pedals just for show and it pretty much ran on a small engine of some sort. Exciting! At least with this, we won't get tired and this was pretty much a life saver though I was a bit nervous at going at it straight away but hey, it's why we're here. Our guy gave us the full run-down on how to use the bikes and the recharging systems, he had a charging station inside Angkor Park as well and we could change our batteries anytime on our way home. We got on the bikes, I put on my tunes, and cranked that handlebar to the max and we were off!

The experience from riding this e-bike versus the tuktuk was not comparable at all. The exhilartion I was feeling coupled with small amounts of adrenaline as I cruised along the roads was absolutely euphoric. I felt on top of the world and I wasn't even in Angkor Park yet. The bike came with a phone holder, and since I pretty much did all the research for the routes, I navigated for us with Jasper trailing behind. The bike rides around Siem Reap was easily one of the top core memories that really made Cambodia special, without it the experience would be totally different. Time flew by as the ride was enjoyable all throughout, though it did take some getting used too especially navigating through the traffic but it wasn't that much different from riding a bike except this one was going at more than 30km/h. We stopped by at the checkpoint which finally meant we were officially in Angkor Park grounds. I stopped playing my tunes so I could be fully immersed in the ancient sacred grounds. As we approached the southern gate, Tonle Om, we were greeted by dozens of statues lined up across from each other in parallel leading up to the gate. I suppose this was the gate to enter the kingdom. There were some other dudes that Jasper took a photo of as they posed with their scooters. Just a couple of meters from Tonle Om, unbeknownst to us at that time, stood Bayon Temple. Just approaching this absolute unit of a temple already took my breath away. What was this grand fortress looking structure? The area it was covering must have been a couple of hectares wide, and even from a far we could see these grey pillars towering above us. It's magnetic pull was so strong, we immediately got side-tracked the moment we laid our eyes on this temple. I invited Jasper with a "Hey, I think we should check it out." So we parked our bikes pretty much anywhere as there was nobody else in the area and lo and behold even this temple was still empty! I couldn't believe it at all, it seemed like the rumours were true in that Angkor Park was simply devoid of tourists. We were in for a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Both of us were already saying amongst ourselves at just how epic this temple was, there were a lot of preserved statues and carvings all around us and as we got in the actual temple grounds, the whole place was just magnificent. Then, we saw the faces, they were carved on the main towers. It dawned on me that this was indeed Bayon, one of the main temples in Angkor Park and while we did try to explore and climb up some steps here and there, we saw the sign that the whole temple would be taking 2 hours so we decided to come back here on another day before our whole itinerary gets turned upside down.

We headed to the two gates near Bayon, which were the Victory and Khmoch Gates. Khmoch Gate was also known as the Gate of the Dead and it had a face on it as well. The near other gate we had to take the wild route and went full dirt-bike mode which was actually really difficult to maneuver in the grainy and rocky terrain. It was a good thing I didn't crash or hurt myself so early in the trip. From there we went to twin temples each on the opposing side of the road. Thommanon and Chao Say Tevoda, both were not on the same scale of Bayon of course but they were built different and we were able to climb on top of them like bonafide explorers. There were rooms inside the temples that were much cooler and I just found myself jumping around or sitting down wherever I pleased. I was also really excited to be able to test out a lot of the photography techniques that I have learned though not of the shots seemed to resonate with me yet. We tried to go to this other temple called Spean Thma but the roads were under construction and we were going around in circles so we decided to go to Ta Keo next which was another main temple. Seeing the temple and the amount of steps going upwards wasn't really the most exciting thing but it was still a beautiful one. It had several layers and it was of an orange hue, though most temples seem to have similar architecture, much of the temples around the park were built several hundred years from each other and under different ruling parties so in reality each one was extremely unique. Some were under Buddhism, Hinduism and some were a little bit of both mixed in. We stopped by a lone vendor's stall in Ta Keo because I had left my swimming gear in the Philippines, I opted to buy one here to use at our swimming pool. The lady offered me 4 dollars for the green shorts but seeing her having no customers made me give her a counter offer of 5 instead and she was somehow super delighted about it, she gave me and Jasper a fresh cold bottle of water which was an amazing treat. Truly, a simple act of kindness always sparks another. From there, we made a brief stop at Ta Nei which was adjacent to the main temple of the day Ta Prohm.

After Ta Prohm, we passed by Srah Srang which was a very tranquil area, the water still and unmoving. Jasper said it was man-made. We stopped by Banteay Kdei and Prasat Kravan on the way back to town. Both temples were pretty good too, smaller in scale and can't hold a candle to Ta Prohm but we managed to do our itinerary just perfectly. We stopped by to recharge our batteries and were finally able to take a dip at the pool which was pretty much paradise after a long day of temple hopping. The day wasn't over yet though, we were going to go to Phare Circus. We got on our bikes and rode a couple of meters to the circus where we were warmly welcomed and got our tickets. We had dinner here as well and were able to try a lot of Cambodian cuisine. I was so hungry I ordered both the orange-sauce chicken and noodles, and still had room to eat some of Jasper's desert. Soon, the Big Top opened and we were able to get in line just in time to have a pick at the seats. The circus was nothing short of spectacular, the acrobatics, music and tricks got the crowd going wild and even though I was already a bit sleepy, I was still really able to enjoy the vibes.Read more