Siem Reap - 5* Town & Temples
Cambodia, November 2011
Siem Reap, in Cambodia, is the name of the airport and town that sits on the outskirts of one of the most amazing archaeological sites in the world. Over a million visitors come each year to see for themselves the famous temple of Angkor Wat. However, it's not just Angkor Wat that will blow you away! There is the last capital city of the Khmer Empire and many other temples; first class accommodation and fine dining as well as the breathtaking countryside that surrounds both ancient and modern civilisations.
amazing Bayon Temple with its 200 large smiling faces carved on its towers
From the minute I stepped off the plane I was impressed. It took longer for our luggage to appear on the carousel than it did for our entry visa to be processed. The airport is also a very short 7km from the town of Siem Reap so it wasn’t long before we were passing several well known 5* hotels lining a straight boulevard. When we pulled up outside the Hôtel de la Paix I had to remind myself I was in Cambodia as I could easily have been looking at an art deco hotel in Miami’s South Beach. From the ice cold face cloths we were handed as we walked through the front door, to the “wow” that escaped my lips when I saw our bedroom, I was in luxury hotel heaven.
The next morning our guide and driver collected us bright and early and 10 minutes later we pulled into a car park in front of the Angkor Archaeological Park’s ticket office. Here we had our photos taken and seconds later I was handed my “Angkor Pass”. The passes are for 1, 3 or 7 days (the 3 day pass is valid for a week and the 7 days for a month). On the far side of the ticket office we got back into our waiting minibus and re-joined the road. It wasn’t quite a drive-through but it was close enough!
The road cut through the middle of a forest and at the end, right in front of us, was Angkor Wat. The word “wat” means temple and that first glimpse had my heart beating faster and I was desperate to see beyond the wide moat and high walls. It felt like our guide was teasing us when we didn’t stop but kept going to Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer Empire, which translated means “Great City”. The actual city was built in the late 12th century but some of the temples, within its 8-metre high walls date back a couple of centuries earlier.
The city is laid out in a square surrounded by a wide moat with gigantic trees reflected in the still waters. We hadn’t even entered the city and already I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie set. On either side of the stone causeway crossing the wide moat stood 54 stone figures. On the right demons and, on the left, gods and each held the body of a giant snake with nine heads. At the far end towered the 23 metre high South Gate with its four Buddha faces looking out in all directions. It was wonderful to walk across the causeway, posing for a photo with a demon or two, but if you really want to make an entrance you can arrive on the back of an elephant.
The city is enormous and spread out over 9 km². Our guide took us on a whistle stop tour of the Bayon Temple with its 200 large smiling faces carved on its towers; Phimeanakas, a temple that was once located inside the royal palace which was made of wood so no longer exists; the two royal swimming pools as well as the terraces of the Elephants and the Leper King. It was a trek across uneven ground through tall trees to get from one monument to the next. There was so much to see and photograph that we were constantly running to catch up with our guide and before we knew it we were back in the minibus and heading for our next stop.
Ta Prohm temple, otherwise known as the Jungle Temple, looks the same as the day it was discovered by explorers back in the middle of the 19th century. This is the temple featured in Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider and I doubt even the most creative mind could have conjured up a backdrop such as this. Giant trees sit on top of ancient tiled roofs and their alien roots either spill over walls like tangled spaghetti or slither through doorways like enormous pythons while others hold up galleries with grasping gnarly fingers. The stone and bark are the same silver grey and some are covered in a mint green moss; they are so intertwined and morphed together that it’s impossible to tell which was there first.
The temples and surrounding jungle are home to bats and monkeys and the air is filled with the calls of parrots and cicadas. As well as the music provided by nature you will encounter groups of local musicians playing for donations to send their children to school. It all adds to the already intoxicating atmosphere that surrounds the whole site.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that I actually set foot inside Angkor Wat. Built in the first half of the 12th century it is thought to have taken 40 years to construct and it is the world’s largest religious building. It is so impressive you will need to visit it at least twice, preferably at sunset and sunrise, which explained why our guide had left it till last.
Again we had to cross a stone causeway and over a wide moat but here the comparisons with Angkor Thom end. The outer walls are an actual building with long corridors of stone columns and pristine wall carvings punctuated by elaborate stepped entrances. Once through the central hallway, the raised causeway continues another 350 metres past two libraries, the size of small churches and over a pond before reaching the temple itself.
After exploring the second walled enclosure it was time to climb to the upper most level reached by steep wooden stairs sitting a few inches above the original stone steps. This was the only place where we had to make sure that we were dressed appropriately (knees and shoulders covered) and our guide wasn’t allowed to accompany us. After a short queue we joined the continuous human chain that seemed to go up one side of the handrail and down the other.
Feeling as if I had just climbed up a ladder I took advantage of the views across the top of the jungle canopy to get my breath back. Up here there were more galleried corridors to walk around with a tower at each corner and one in the middle. The tops of the towers are tiered creating an unusual conical shape that is supposed to resemble a lotus bud but looked to me like a beehive or cocoon.
Eventually we found our way to one of the middle courtyards where a policeman offered to take our photo with the 42 metre high, central tower looming above us. Ten minutes later we felt as if we had taken part in a fashion shoot with shots taken from every conceivable angle. It was just a pity that we were sweaty from the climb and dressed for cycling! Leaving the temple through a different entrance gate and after a short walk through trees, we spotted our driver and a row of mountain bikes waiting for us. With very tired legs we followed our guide around the smooth roads linking the temples and finished on the edge of a lake in time to watch a dramatic sunset.
We had a 5.15 am start the next day and made our way in the pitch dark back to Angkor Wat. It felt as if we were on a pilgrimage as we headed across the causeway with our heads bowed - so we didn’t trip! Once through the outer walls our guide led us away from our fellow tourists and came to a stop at the edge of the pond. We could just make out the outline of the temple, with its five towers and skinny palm trees, silhouetted against the dark sky and reflected in the still water in front of us.
surrounded by a wide moat with gigantic trees reflected in the still waters
All around us couples sat holding hands and groups huddled together. Everyone was whispering so as not to disturb the atmosphere and it felt as if we were about to witness a miracle or take part in a religious ceremony. Instead of candles, the only light came from the screens of mobile phones, camera flashes or the heavy duty torches carried by the guides. Slowly the sky turned brighter and the sound of frogs waking up filled the air. Butterflies flew across the lily pads and the tension mounted as the temple, towers and trees became more and more prominent with every passing second.
At 5.45 am the sun peaked above the right hand side of the temple and a few minutes later the show was over. As we headed back to the minibus I kept glancing back over my shoulder scared that we had left too early and missed the finale but all I saw was the temple lit up in an eerie golden glow. Although the ending was a bit of an anticlimax it was definitely worth getting up early to see and we still had breakfast back at the hotel to look forward to!
Our next temple was by far the most enchanting. Banteay Srei, translated means Citadel of the Women and its nickname is Lady Temple. It is miniscule compared to the others but that’s what makes it so special. The first thing that strikes you is the colour - dark pink sandstone - and then you notice how detailed all the carvings are. Depicting Hindu tales, you will see chariots pulled by horses and warriors holding bows as well as elephants, Apsara dancers, trees and flowers. The friezes and lintels are so exquisitely carved and so deep they are almost 3D. I particularly loved the kneeling monkey guards although we were told some were replicas as the originals were stolen or in museums.
Located 30 minutes away from Siem Reap it was the furthest temple we visited and due to its size and popularity it was noticeably busier or perhaps we were just unfortunate to turn up at the same time as a couple of tour buses. There are dozens of temples in the park built between the 9th and 15th centuries and it’s crazy to think that we only saw five, although our guide told us that the ones we saw were the best examples of all the others. Some temples are made of volcanic rock and look as if they have been under the sea and turned to coral. The earlier temples were made of brick and then plastered and the newer temples – still over 1,000 years old – had foundations of volcanic rock and the upper parts made with sandstone which was easier to carve.
Heading back into town we passed Pre Rup and despite looking very grand it wasn’t on our guide’s itinerary and we had to beg him to stop and let us have a quick look. This temple was in need of some TLC and its crumbling brick towers were sprouting tufts of tall grasses. We saw several sites that had been restored, funded by countries such as India and France, and with the help of “before and after photos” on billboards you could see the amazing job they had made. Lying around all the temples were huge sandstone blocks, sections of archways and friezes all waiting to be put back together like an enormous, complicated jigsaw puzzle.
Despite all the renovation and preservation work, tourists could clamber all over the temples which I found very upsetting. Our guide believed sometime in the next five years they will put a stop to the free roaming and all the temples will have dedicated routes similar to Angkor Wat. I hated when I had to climb up over walls and walk through ancient doorways and under fragile lintels and was convinced that they would collapse if I touched them.
The vastness of the Archaeological Park, even when you are there, is hard to grasp. Covering 400 sq km there are several ways to visit the temples. Most tourists have their own guides and drivers in minibuses or you can hire a tuk tuk or mountain bike or even an electric car. You can also see the temples from the air in a helicopter or hot air balloon. All tourist drivers must wear a vest showing their licence number and they can be stopped and fined on the spot for not wearing one. They were not the only ones that were strictly monitored. At least five times a day we were asked to show our passes to security guards at the entrance of sites or to hold them up against the minibus window.
We were told that the park is run by a Vietnamese company but I’ve subsequently read on the web that this isn’t true. Whoever is running it, in my opinion, is doing a great job. The whole site was spotlessly clean with numerous staff picking up rubbish and there were recycling bins for plastic bottles. As only tourists with passes, guides and employees are allowed in the temple complexes the only place we were accosted to buy souvenirs was as we got in and out of our minibus. At some of the temples there are proper markets and at others young children, with heart-melting eyes, pleaded with us to buy fridge magnets and handmade beaded bracelets. There are no restaurants but Siem Reap is so close that we were constantly nipping back to have breakfast, lunch, a swim in the pool or a catnap in between our visits.
Our last day took us away from the smooth temple roads to Tonlé Sap Lake to visit a floating town. Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Asia and for most of the year covers 2,700 sq km but during the monsoon season it increases in size to 16,000 sq km flooding the nearby fields and forests. The 45 minute boat trip seemed to take forever as there was nothing to see other than the occasional fishing boat. Later, when we looked on the map to see how far into the lake we had gone it wasn’t even a millimetre.
The first building we saw was the Gendarmerie and a short while later we arrived in the heart of the town where the locals did their best to ignore our boat and snapping cameras. Young kids, in crisp clean uniforms passed us by, rowing themselves to school. People were washing themselves from the steps of their houses or were in the lake swimming. The town consisted of two streets and as well as houses had a school, a couple of restaurants and a temple. We also spotted a few floating bamboo pens filled with pigs and saw hundreds of freshly caught shrimps drying in the sun. Beyond the town were mangrove swamps and beyond that nothing but water as far as your eye could see.
On the way back to Siem Reap we stopped to take a photo of some water buffalos and also at a roadside village, with traditional houses built on stilts, to see how they made palm sugar. Each house is home to several families and in the yard a hand-pumped well sat in front of a large board with the name of the person who had donated it. The majority of the names were US citizens although there were a couple of Europeans as well as Rotary Clubs from around the world. Behind the houses lay green rice fields and we were told that the farmers grow rice for nine months of the year and during the monsoon they either fish in the rivers, lakes and canals or go into town and work on construction sites. Sitting on the far horizon we could see a solitary sandstone mountain – Phnom Kulen - that once was a quarry and now is a national park.
I particularly loved the kneeling monkey guards
Everywhere we went we saw the word Khmer. The locals of Siem Reap refer to themselves as being Khmer – and not Cambodian – and the same applies to their cuisine. The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful in Southeast Asia and ruled over parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Malaysia and Angkor was the capital city. However, for most visitors the word Khmer is linked to a more recent and tragic moment in the country’s history when the Khmer Rouge, under its leader Pol Pot, ordered the genocide of millions of people from 1975 to 1979.
To the visitor, just passing through to see the temples, you will be oblivious to that horrific time unless of course you are very observant and notice that 50% of the population is under the age of 25. You might also notice that the musicians playing at the temples are either blind or missing a limb. Our guide was reluctant to talk about it although he did let slip that his father, who was a doctor, was one of the many victims.
Siem Reap is an attractive town particularly along the river with its formal park. Here you will find the Grand Hotel D’Angkor which opened in 1932 and over a buffet dinner in the gardens you can watch the Apsara dancers and warriors featured in the temple friezes come to life. The town has a very western feel and is laid out in a grid, but don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t lost its Asian charm and there are even some tacky bits. In the evenings you may be accosted by massage girls or will see strangers, dangling their feet in communal tanks of skin-nibbling fish, whilst swigging bottles of Angkor Beer. As well as the numerous 5* hotels and trendy restaurants you will also find hostels and fast food shops catering for the many student backpackers.
Our trip ended where it started, back at the airport and just when I thought I couldn’t be impressed more I discovered the gift shop next to the duty free. Artisans D’Angkor was born on the back of a training school established in 1992 to help young people make a living from handicrafts and their boutiques sell the most exquisite gifts from silk scarves to silver ornaments. They have a shop in town but if you run out of time, check in early and do your shopping while you wait for your flight to be called.
If I had known there was so much to see I would have stayed for a week. With an extra two days we could have hired bikes and cycled to some of the other temples or re-visited the five we saw. It certainly would not have been a hardship to have spent longer at the stunning Hôtel de la Paix and we could have perhaps found time to explore Siem Reap and had dinner at another couple of fabulous restaurants. Then there is Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which according to the hotel’s receptionist is easy to visit in a day as it’s only an hour’s flight away! Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temple complex truly is a 5* tourist destination so, if you haven’t been, I couldn’t recommend it more.