Travel Diary #3: Temple Run at Angkor <Siem Reap, Cambodia>

Angkor Wat was the first ever Unesco World Heritage site I ever visted, making the trip more memorable. I already wrote about my Angkor Wat Sunrise experience and you can read about it here.

On this blog, I will be talking about our one day tour around the complex.

Join me on my Temple Run at Angkor!

Our driver and our tour guide were already waiting for us outside the hotel. As I mentioned in my earlier post, we arranged a tour with our hotel the night before. Our friend, Mel who visited Cambodia a year before us, advised us to book a guide for better understanding of Angkor's history. At that time, we paid around USD 21 for a 1 day tour that's with a guide and a tuktuk ride (also known as auto rickshaw) already.

Going to the complex, we have to go through the ticketing area again. Make sure to keep your tour pass safe, specially if you bought a 3 or even a 7-day pass because they will be asking for it everytime you enter the complex. Since we already bought one earlier that day, we were free to enter the complex for a whole day.

Angkor Wat Temple

Upon entering the complex, the first temple we visited was Angkor Wat temple.

Angkor Wat is, figuratively, heaven on earth. It is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and the abode of ancient gods. The temple that is a city, Angkor Wat is the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion. The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors structures in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in what is believed to be the world's largest religious building, the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat. - Lonely Planet

The ambiance is quite different this time compared to our earlier visit. There were still a lot of tourist but not as crowded as during the sunrise. Our tour guide asked us to go to the left side of the temple for a different view. It is were you can see all 5 towers clearly and he suggested different poses which I believe he always do with his other tourist clients.

Entering the temple, you can see different carvings on the walls which were about stories of their gods such as Vishnu. There were wooden barricade or ropes that were placed to avoid tourist from touching the carvings. We were led by our guide to a corridor leading outside of the temple to take some photos again.

Going up the towers, there was a very strict dress code. No wearing of shorts, sleeveless tops, or above the knee dresses. There were guards stationed at the entrance to make sure everyone's following the dress code. Only my friend, Katrina was able to go up to the towers since I was wearing a mini dress and I had nothing to cover my legs. I was okay with it because it gave me time to rest while waiting for her to come down.

Closer look at one of the towers

Heading out of Angkor, we passed through the South Gate of Angkor Thom. We saw a lot of tourist having elephant rides passing through this gate too.

Bayon Temple

We then headed out to Bayon Temple also known as the 'face temple' thanks to its iconic huge heads glare down from every angle. There is an estimated 216 count of the face of the bodhisattva of compassion on the temple.

Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman's capital, Angkor Thom. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences. - Wikipedia

From a far, Bayon looks like a enhanced pile of rubble. It is only when I entered the temple and up to the upper level that it's beauty becomes apparent. In fact this is my fave temple out of all the temples I visited in the complex. Bayon temple is by the way as crowded as Angkor Wat. You really have to perfectly time your photos to get a good one.

Baphuon Temple

A short walk northwest from Bayon temple, there is another temple that according to our tour guide are often overlooked by some tourist. Baphuon Temple was built in the mid-11th century and it is a three-tiered temple mountain.

It was already pass lunch time when we finished visiting just 3 temples so we decided to take a break from our tour. We had our lunch at a restaurant in the complex that our tour guide suggested. After a well deserved break, we continued with the second part of our tour. We spent our entire afternoon exploring the temple of Ta Prohm.

Ta Prohm Temple

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara. Located approximately 1 km east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors. - Wikipedia

You may recognize this temple from the movie Tomb Raider that was release in 2001. Since then, this temple was dabbed as "Tomb Raider Temple" attracting tourist to visit this place. As a movie lover, I was so excited to see the site in person. I even watched the movie again before going on this trip. 😆

There were also other temples that we saw along the way but we did not bother to check it out. Visiting just 4 main temples already got me and Katrina "templed out". I hope you enjoy the Temple Run with me.

See you on my next travel diary! 🙂