Cambodia: Short Getaway to Siam Reap Part 8 (Sunset at Angkor Wat and Road 60)

Day 3 in Siam Reap

After rushing down from The River of a Thousand Lingas, we reached Angkor Wat just on time for sunset. Tour guide knew that it would be jammed at the main entrance and hence he brought us to the other entrance, which is located at the back of Angkor Wat. Surprisingly, the view here is as nice as main entrance. There's a lake right before the entrance and there are some buildings at the back too.

With the building at the back of Angkor Wat. I guessed it is some sort of temple, too? 

Angkor Wat with the Sunset

Me with the sunset. ^_^

About 10 minutes walk, we reached the walkway that we walked on the first day. 

There are really a lot of people waiting for sunset view.

One of my favourite photos at Angkor Wat. 

Ignore my sweaty look. Love the reflection of Angkor Wat.

The Reflection

"Who.... is that girl I see....." Time for a song.. XD

Another photo before leaving Angkor Wat. 

They close at 6pm and we were chased out. XD

Look at my cute photoboom! =D

Oh! Not to forget, there will be a lot of children trying to sell souvenirs to you. 

It is a bit hard to reject kids and the price that they offered are quite reasonable. So, this is me busy buying souvenir from the cute kid. 

To me, sunset at Angkor Wat is something not to be missed if you happened to visit Siam Reap, Cambodia. It is much nicer than sunrise because you can see the reflection of Angkor Wat clearly. I enjoyed my visit here. =D

And hence this ends our temple tour. Before getting back to our villa, we requested the tour guide to bring us to the local night market -- Road 60, trying our luck to find some nice local food and tarantula. We got some barbeque chicken and fish as dinner at the market. The night market is huge but dark. Here, you can see how Cambodian people hang out. They have a really simple life. Sitting by the roadside and enjoy their dinner could be their night out. Not like us, cafe hopping, nice restaurant, etc..... Something to reflect on.

Cambodia: Short Getaway to Siam Reap Part 7 (Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Banteay Srei, The River of a Thousand Lingas)

Day 3 in Siam Reap

Day 3 of the trip. We have more temples to explore today! And, all of us had our elephant temple pants on! Feel so tourist. Haha.. I was quite excited because we went to Banteay Srei -- the pink temple! =D Will be separating Day 3 into 2 parts because there are too many photos to share. 

First stop: Preah Khan

Preah Khan is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built in the 12th century for King Jayavarman VII to honor his father. It is located northeast of Angkor Thom and just west of the Jayatataka baray. The temple is flat in design, with a basic plan of successive rectangular galleries around a Buddhist sanctuary complicated by Hindu satellite temples and numerous later additions. Preah Khan has been left largely unrestored, with numerous trees and other vegetation growing about the ruins. (information from Wikipedia -- click here to read more on Preah Khan)

At the entrance.

The 4th enclosure wall -- bears 5 m garudas holding nagas. Buddha images in the niches above were destroyed in the anti-Buddhist reaction of Jayavarman VIII.

With carved lintel as background

Stupa with direct sunlight

Looks like a natural candlelight. =)

Next Stop: Neak Pean Temple

After visiting the first temple, I've been sweating a lot. And then, we were being brought to the second temple -- Neak Pean Temple. 

The walkway towards the temple doesn't have nice scenery beside.

 I never thought the temple would be so nice.

Neak Pean ("The entwined serpents") at Angkor, Cambodia is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. It is the "Mebon" of the Preah Khan baray. Neak Pean was originally designed for medical purposes (the ancients believed that going into these pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease; it is one of the many hospitals that Jayavarman VII built. It is based on the ancient Hindu belief of balance. Four connected pools represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. Each is connected to the central water source, the main tank, by a stone conduit "presided over by one of Four Great Animals namely Elephant, Bull, Horse, and Lion, corresponding to the north, east, south, and west quarters. (information from Wikipedia -- click here to read more about Neak Pean Temple)

Temple in the middle of the pool. Something different =)

Worth visiting.

Next Stop: Banteay Srei (or Banteay Srey)

It is a 10th century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor in Cambodia. It lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25km north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstones. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. (For more information, please click here for my reference from Wikipedia)

Under the sun, Banteay Srei Temple is pink.

Cambodia: Short Getaway to Siam Reap Part 5 (Bayon Temple and Ta Prohm)

Day 2 in Siam Reap

The Smiley Temple -- Bayon Temple and Ta Phrom

After visiting Angkor Wat, we were all exhausted and requested for a break. Tour guide brought us to a restaurant nearby Angkor Wat for breakfast. Breakfast in Siam Reap is simple, they either have porridge, noodles or baguette. I ordered a bowl of maggie with soup, served with chicken. The soup is rather salty and in addition to the saltiness of maggie, this is a very very salty bowl of noodle. 

Ta-daa! The bowl of noodle. It looks simple and the taste is rather unique. 

If it were to be less salty, it would be a tasty bowl of noodle. XD How to describe the taste? I can't find a way to describe it. Just like how we can't describe the taste of durian. 

After breakfast, we proceed to Bayon Temple, another must-visit temple in Angkor area. 

The Bayon is located in the centre of the city of Angkor Thom, roughly 1500 meters from the south gate. Prasat Bayon was built in late 12th century to early 13th century, by the King Jayavarman VII, dedicated to Buddhist. The Bayon was built nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat. The basic structure and earliest part of the temple are not known. Since it was located at the centre of the royal city, it seems possible that the Bayon would have originally been a temple-mountain conforming to the symbolism of a microcosm of Mount Meru. The middle part of the temple was extended during the second phase of building. The Bayon of today belong to the third and last phase of the art style. 

The architectural scale and composition of the Bayon exude grandness in every aspects. Its elements juxtapose each other to create balance and harmony. Over 2000 large aces carved on the 54 towers give this temple its majestic character. The faces with slightly curving lips, eyes placed in shadow by the lowered lids utter not a word and yet force you to guess much, wrote P Jennerat de Beerski in the 1920s. It is generally accepted that four faces on each of the tower are images of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and that they signify the omnipresence of the king. The characteristics of this faces - a broad forehead, downcast eyes, wild nostrils, thick lips that curl upwards slightly at the ends-combine to reflect the famous "Smile of Angkor" ~~~~ information from tourismcambodia.

Bayon Temple is my favourite temple out of all temples I've visited during my stay in Siam Reap. I like its uniqueness that there are so many smiley faces. All the faces are exactly the same and it really amazed me. According to the tour guide, the people carved the stone on the ground and then move the pieces one by one to the temple area and stacked them up to be towers like what we see today.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Let the photos tell the story of the short tour at The Bayon. =)

You may find Bayon nothing much different from Angkor Wat in this photo.

But if you zoom in, you can see the difference.

Zoomed in! See the smiley faces? 

How to not do a jump shot in front of such beautiful temple?!

And the historical frames

This is one of the favourite photo. 

Visited Bayon at 12pm and hence the sky is perfect for photoshoot. Clear, blue sky!! I've sacrificed my skin for these. 

Me and the smiley face carving. 

And this was captured by my tour guide!

He asked me to look to my right and smile. I have no idea what he wants to take at first until he showed me the photo. I didn't know there's a face behind me. Such a surprise! Thank you! Love this photo so much!!!

Under the hot sun but still want to take a bit more tourist photos. =)

Cambodia: Short Getaway to Siam Reap Part 4 (Angkor Wat)

Day 2 in Siam Reap

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat. It is a place where I’ve never thought I would be stepping into it. Angkor Wat is such a historical place that I’ve seen on textbooks, on magazines, on TV and on the web. I never thought that one day, before 25 years old, I have the chance to visit it on my own with a bunch of friends. The trip to Siam Reap is definitely unforgettable and sometimes, I can’t believe that I’ve really been to such a beautiful place.

We left our villa at around 5.10am and our tour driver drove us to the entrance to purchase our ticket. 

There are 3 types of temple pass: 1-day, 3-day and 7-day pass. We bought a 3-day Angkor pass as we are visiting the temples for 2 days. 

Here are some guide on the admission fee:

• One-day pass: $20
• Three-day pass: $40
• Seven-day pass: $60

Passes can be purchased at the main entrance on the road to Angkor Wat. These passes will have your photo attached (taken on the spot with free of charge) to make sure the passes cannot be sold to others. Passes will be checked at entrance of each major temple (And yes, they do check one by one. So, don't try to cheat!) Visiting hours are 5:00am till 6:00pm.

This is how my Angkor Pass looks like. Blur face snapped at 5.30am. =D

They took just a while to process the pass. Don't worry about the waiting time, unless you go during peak season. 

I reached there at 5.40am, standing by the water, looking Angkor Wat. There’s a sense of calmness in my mind although I was surrounded by a lot of tourists. I sat there, looking at Angkor Wat, waiting for sunrise. Meanwhile, I took out my phone and camera to snap down the beautiful view in front of me.

Here are 2 photos of Angkor Wat at sunrise. Not a perfect sunrise but it is still breathtaking.

Here's some history about Angkor Wat. When you are in UNESCO World Heritage Site, you need to know about the history. I am really grateful that my tour guide was really awesome as he can tell great story about the temples. Being an unprepared tourist, I'm so thankful that I have my tour guide. If not, this trip to Angkor Wat would be a waste. As all these meaningful architectures will be just STONES... STONES.... and STONES...... So my advice for all my readers and friends, please do get a tour guide unless you know history very well.  

Angkor Wat (means "Capital Temple" in Khmer) is a temple complex in Cambodia and it is the largest religious monument in the world. It was originally founded as a Hindu capital for the Khmer Empire, and then gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th Century. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture and become a symbol of Cambodia. (information from Wikipedia)

Ok, done with simple history telling and now, it's photo time! Can't wait to share with you all the beautiful photos taken at Angkor Wat. ^_^

Sun is rising. We are heading into Angkor Wat! 

The long walkway towards the temple. 

According to the tour guide, this walkway will be very crowded during peak season. The number of tourists during my visit is consider little. 

Too excited to go in and explore! =)

I was so tourist that day! Look at my shirt. Haha...

The walkway. 

One of my friends was having headache and hence he decided to rest at the walkway while the rest of us went into the temple. Stay safe friend. We will be back for you. 

The middle temple to enter.

Most of the tourists used this way but our tour guide brought us to the one on the right. A little more special huh. =)

This is the entrance that we used to enter. 

I was really amazed by the details of the temple. W-O-W!

A lot of carvings on the wall, in great details.
Indeed, all these carvings symbolize something and there's story behind each carving. To understand all of them, I think you need to spend weeks here to explore. This temple complex is way too HUGE!

The Apsara (celestial dancers) Statue can be found all over the walls in Angkor Wat.