Southeast Asia Day 3:
Angkor Wat Sunrise, 2 other temples, Lunch with Vanna’s family, 3-hour break, Boat ride to stilt village, Canoe paddle, Dinner Show
We were up at 4 am and requested a bag lunch from our hotel. By 4:30 am we were on our way to Angkor Wat. It took some time to get our tickets as we were not the only ones wanting to get some sunrise photos at Siem Reap. They take your photo and put it on your ticket so that you don’t share it with others.
By 5:20 am we were in front of the main temple at Angkor Wat gathering with hundreds of others. I recommend bringing a blanket or towel to sit on as the edge of the water in front of the temple is a bit wet and muddy in the morning. As the sun rose, we got some great pictures of this ancient temple and its 5 towers. After taking a million photos, we stopped to eat our break
fast at one of the nearby shops and purchased a fresh coconut drink.
To the left of the Angkor Wat entrance is a monastery for Monks that is worth wandering around especially if you need to use a washroom. We then went into the many levels of the Angkor Wat temple to explore the different rooms and chambers. What I was most amazed by were the bas-relief stone carvings that stretched the length of the long stone hallways. They were over 14 feet tall and hundreds of feet long. About a million people worked for 37 years on this temple site from 1113 to 1150. The entire Siem Reap complex of temples was constructed from the early 9th century to the 13th century.
We stopped at two other temple sites in the morning. The second was a Khmer Temple called Bayon. The entrance was guarded by a bridge with 54 demons on one side and 54 gods on the other. This was represented by the 54 provinces during the Angkor period when it was built.
Our third temple visit was to Ta Prohm. This site was impressive as they left many parasitic trees overgrowing the stone temple walls. All over this site, you could see the tree roots wrapping around the walls, showing what many of these temple sites looked like before they were restored.
We had an early lunch at the restaurant of our guide’s family in the village of Preah Dak. This was not a restaurant tourists went to which was perfect for us. Although we did not stop anywhere else in the village, I was told this is a great place to see how local things are made such as rice wine, coconut cakes, rice noodles, and incense.
We took a 3-hour break from the heat of the day at our hotel to catch up on sleep and relax by the pool. It was the perfect time to relax before heading to Tonle Lake. As October is the beginning of the dry season, November was the perfect time to see the village of Kampong Phluk. We hired a boat to take us along the canal where we could see houses built on tall stilts over the water. Over 2000 families live in these homes over the water this time of year. In a few months, the water will have receded, and people can drive to the village. We stopped to get on a 2 personal open boat to enjoy the silence of being paddled by a local through the water-covered mangroves. The lady paddling us around must have been 80 years old. She didn’t speak English but enjoyed taking people through the mangroves to her village. Of course, she stopped at two different boats where people were selling souvenirs and drinks. When we didn’t buy anything the vendor suggested we buy a drink for the lady paddling us or school books for her kids. The silence of this paddle ride was a stark contrast to the noisy engine of the boat that had brought us to this point.
After exiting the mangrove forest area, we went into the main part of the lake for a short stop before heading back to our shuttle van. It was the perfect evening for exploring only 45-minutes from Siem Reap.
Our evening took us to a Cultural Dinner show called Amazon with an Absara dance show in Siem Reap. We had a buffet dinner of mostly Western foods followed by an hour of traditional Cambodian dances. Because I had been up since 4 am, I dozed off a few times during the show. It was very interesting, but by the time it was over at 8:30 pm I was ready to head back to our hotel and sleep.
