Wat We Did in Siem Reap

Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor Wat.

To avoid crossing the Thai border again, we decided to fly from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap. The airport in Siem Reap is one of the fanciest buildings I’ve ever seen as an airport, as you can see from the picture above. You can get a Cambodian visa upon arrival so our first job was to fill in some forms, provide a passport photo and $30 and get our visa. As there were only 29 people on our flight, the process was pretty quick and painless.

We took a taxi from the airport to our accommodation. On the way, our driver offered us a two day trip, one day to see the floating village at sunset and the other to go around Angkor Wat. While we’re not sure whether $60 was a good deal, it did mean that our time in Siem Reap was organised and we could travel in style in an air conditioned car rather than on dusty roads in a tuk tuk.

That evening we walked to Pub Street. While not being quite as busy as I expected, it was definitely loud and bright, with lots of neon signs and music blaring out.

We decided to go a couple of roads back for dinner, and as expected, the food here was about two thirds the price of Pub Street. We found a little restaurant by the market called Psa Chas and had the most tasty meal of chicken curry I’ve had since being out here. Even the unexpected power cut in the middle of the meal added to the ambience!

You quickly get used to being shouted at by Cambodian locals, either offering you a tuk tuk, or trying to convince you to go for a massage. We politely declined both and headed instead for a walk along the river and then to check out a local brew pub. It was more of a fancy restaurant than a traditional brew pub and was almost closing for the night so we had a quick drink and promised to go back the following day.

As we weren’t being picked up until 4pm the next day to go to the floating village, we had a lazy morning wandering around the city. This mainly consisted of drinking and eating our way around Siem Reap! We first stopped at a cafe for a drink and on the way out spotted this amazing book called ‘All My Friends Are Dead’. If you come across it, have a read as it’s absolutely hilarious!

Having done some more research into brew pubs, we headed a bit further out to a little cafe-cum-hostel-cum-brewery run by an ex pat for lunch. It was pretty small and rudimental but apparently the beer was tasty!

After the cooler climate of Laos, Siem Reap was noticeably hotter so we spent the afternoon by the hostel pool, reading and planning the rest of our time in Cambodia.

At 4pm, our driver Lavy turned up to take us to the Floating Village, a series of house boats situated on the Tonle Sap lake in the west of Cambodia. He explained that during the rainy season the river that feeds the lake can rise by up to 10 metres so all houses along the riverbanks have to be built on stilts and for half the year are only accessible by boat.

The lake itself can vary greatly in size too, from 2,500 sq km to 160,000 sq km during the rainy season. About 20 minutes outside of Siem Reap, we got onto our own private boat with Lavy and his friend and powered down the river to the lake. The water was very murky, although apparently at its height it can be quite clear. There were also tonnes of rubbish lining the riverbanks, even in the tree branches, which shows how high the water can get.

The Floating Village community live on fishing and we saw lots of nets as we entered the lake. We were taken to a floating restaurant and shown the fish and loads of crocodiles that had been captured and kept in a pretty small space. There were also hundreds of Chinese tourists all vying to get the perfect sunset picture. The sad part here was the children who were trying to get money from the tourists by having snakes draped round their necks, or paddling round in tiny boats or polystyrene containers. All in all, we were happy to get back on our own little boat!

The highlight of the trip was the sunset. We motored out to the lake and sat on the front of the boat, bobbing around and jostling for position with the other boats. It was quite entertaining and the sunset was pretty good!

That evening we headed back to the fancy brewpub for dinner and then back to the hostel for an early night as we were up at 5am to go to Angkor Wat.

Wat’s all the fuss about?

Angkor Wat was constructed between 1113 and 1150, initially as a Hindu temple. However, over the centuries it became occupied by Buddhist monks and now has a large number of Buddha statues there as well. Luckily, by visiting in January, sunrise was at the slightly more respectable time of around 6.30, but it still meant an early start. When we arrived, we walked across the moat in the first light of dawn then headed through the complex to one of the two lakes in front of the Wat complex. From here we got a lovely view of the sunrise and of the five towers of Angkor Wat coming into view. Despite the early start, it was still quite busy!

After sunrise we wandered up through the Cruciform Platform, which had been taken over by a load of army cadets undergoing their swearing in ceremony - a pretty spectacular place for that! We continued through the Gallery of 1000 Buddhas (of which there are now only a few left) before entering the Second Terrace. It was great wandering around as the sun came up as the light was lovely!

On the south side of the Wat, you can climb up to the top level up some particularly steep steps. My advice is just look at the next step in front as you go back down and not down to the ground!

The wat itself is very intricate and between the walls of the Second Terrace there is a fresco or bas-relief depicting different stories as you wander round.

After Angkor Wat, we continued onto the next complex, called Angkor Thom. We entered through the South Gate, which is lined with various heads - gods on the left and demons on the right.

Angkor Thom was commissioned by King Jayavarman VII (hereafter known as King Number 7) at the end of 12th century and became the country’s capital, although it is thought that only royalty actually lived within its walls. The first enclosure is the Bayon, which sits over three tiers and comprises of 51 pilars, each with a face on each of the four sides. It’s quite remarkable, made even more interesting by the hoards of Chinese tourists taking pictures.

From there we wandered to the Terrace of the Elephants, aptly named after the elephant sculptures that lie along it, and the Terrace of the Leper King. Our guide informed us that there wasn’t much to see at the Royal Palace that sits behind the terraces so we jumped back in the car and drove to Ta Prohm, otherwise known as the Tomb Raider temple.

Ta Prohm was built by King Number 7 to house the divine image of the Queen Mother. Over the centuries it became abandoned and the trees started to reclaim the area. It has been left largely uncleared and creates a wonderful labyrinth of passages, with walls covered in roots. It would be impossible now to clear the trees as the walls rely on them for support. This was our favourite temple, mainly because it felt less crowded due to all the nooks and crannies.

By this time we were pretty tired and it was getting rather hot so we headed back to hostel and had a quick power nap. That afternoon, not yet having had our fill of Wats we visited the Wat in the centre of Siem Reap. There were lots of statues around the complex, but the most amazing thing was the frescos around the inner complex itself. They were all 3D and beautifully painted, depicting the Hindu stories of Rama and Sita. Definitely worth a visit.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging by the pool, reading one of the books from the hostel’s large collection and blogging. We went back to Psa Chas for dinner as it had been so delicious the first time and again it didn’t disappoint. We were lucky enough to have a four person bunk room to ourselves for two nights which meant I could actually sleep for the first time in ages without earplugs in, simple pleasures whilst travelling!

Overall we were pleasantly surprised with Siem Reap. If you avoided Pub Street, the people shouting about massages and those trying to sell you scorpions on sticks, there were actually some nice places to visit and we had quite a relaxing time there. I can see why people end up extending their stay.