For those unfamiliar with Angkor Wat, it is to Cambodia what
the pyramids are to Egypt. It is
absolutely amazing and deserves a visit if you’re ever in the area. This part
of the trip found its way to the top of our wish list and we made sure to make
time for it. Once we arrived in Siem Reap we looked at the available tours. It
looked to be about three days to see all of the different sites throughout the
entire area or one day to see a select few sites. Not content with either plan,
we set out to see everything there was to see within a day. We also said to
hell with the tour and rented bicycles to make our own tour.
To ensure that bikes would be available we awoke extremely
early, had a quick breakfast in the hotel, and then headed off to the rental
shop. It is lovely how cheap things are
in South East Asia, once you get a plane ticket there isn’t much left to worry
about and the bike were a typical example of this, costing only a few dollars
for a full day’s rental.
Lacking a tour guide, our next stop was to locate a map.
Once we had this in hand, along with my compass purchased prior to the trip, we
headed off in the direction of Angkor Wat. We arrived to huge lines of cars and
Tuk Tuks [Link to previous article] waiting to get in. Luckily, since we were
on bike, we were able to pass them to the non-car line. Due to, what I’m assuming are ticket scalpers
or something, we were required to get a ticket with our picture printed on
them. Surprisingly, the process of getting a photo ID was relatively fast and
we continued on the road leading up to the temple.
The road was lined with trees and continued on for some
time. Eventually it opened up to an absolutely amazing view of Angkor Wat. A
moat formed the perimeter, so we rode
our bikes around to the entrance, locked our bikes, and walked in. Since I couldn't possibly do justice to Angkor Wat with words, I’ll let the pictures do the
talking.
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| Angkor Wat from the outside. |
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| This was some of the art along the walls of the Wat. |
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| Hallway of Angkor Wat. |
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| Sitting on the steps leading up to one of the rooms. |
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| The whole place was filled with beautiful architecture. |
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| A view from the top looking down back towards the entrance. |
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| The wildlife are also welcome to hang out. |
Once we finished up with Angkor Wat, we headed back out
towards our bikes. About this time, the heat made it known that the rest of the
day would be very hot. The best way to
see the other temples we deemed was with a giant loop along the path that would
typically be completed over three days. Along
the way as we rode to the next Wat, we noticed many children dressed up on their
way to school. One girl was very friendly and talked with us while we rode to
the next destination. Her English was amazing, she learned only by talking to
people as she went to and from class. We didn’t have much time to get into
conversation before we arrived and she continued on to school.
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| My friend and the Cambodian girl talking. |
Stay tuned for Part II.
