After purchased the air ticket, I have been looking forward to this trip. I am preparing this trip all on my own; from planning the itinerary, to booking of the hotels and driver. The day of departure is finally come.

The departure time is 7 o’clock early in the morning. Taking into account that we have to wake up early 4 o’clock in the morning to rush to the airport, we decided to stay overnight at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). My boy friend sent me to the airport to meet with others at around 12 midnight. 5 of us have not been seeing each other since graduated from university several months ago. Instead of sleeping, we have chatted over the night. Well, I did try to sleep but it was too noisy for me to sleep.

Finally it’s time for check in. Thank goodness AirAsia is punctual this time. I remembered last time when I flew to Bali the flight was delayed for almost 3 hours. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap took about 2 hours. All of us slept deadly on the plane and that’s the only two hours we sleep. But I did remember to take the Siem Reap photo from the sky. The land is flat and the earth is yellowish.



The Siem Reap Airport is very small and look like a museum.



After collecting our luggages from the baggage claim zone, we proceeded to the immigration clearance counter. Tourists from Singapore and Malaysia are exempt from producing a VISA.

# Internal view of the airport


Some pictures on the way to our guest house:

There are many guest houses and hotels in Siem Reap. If you are traveling alone or with a partner, you are encouraged to walk in to the hotel/ guest house. This allows you to check on the cleanliness of the hotel. In fact I have look into several guest houses such as Angkor Voyage Villa, Bun Seda, and etc but we finally decided on Golden Temple Villa.

The twin room is USD18/ night and the triple room is USD 25/night. The price might seems to be higher than others but it’s worth paying a little bit more for it’s great location. The guest house provides free pick up, free drink upon arrival, free fruits and free 20 minutes of body massage. All in all, it’s a great place to stay.

Initially we thought we would hire a tuk tuk driver since we only have two people. With the increase of the number of people joining us, we have opted for a Van to accommodate 5 of us.

The standard rate of a tuk tuk is USD 10/ day, USD 20/ day for car and USD 25/ day for van for nearby destinations while for outskirt temples are quoted USD 20/day for tuk tuk, USD 50/ day for car and USD 65/ day for Van.

A tour guide will charge about USD 20-25 depends on what language are they speaking. We understand that Italian speaking tour guide charge about USD 50 and above per day.

In order to save cost, we hired a driver cum guide and he charged USD 10/day for his touring service.

I have sent out quite a number of emails to contact the drivers in Siem Reap. Finally Raksmey is chosen primary is because he replied email instantaneously and his charges is quite reasonable. I did see some not so well command about his English and less experience in being a tour guide. But throughout our days in Siem Reap, he has been a really nice tour guide and didn’t bring us to any place that we don’t want to go. He also helped us in bargaining for the prices especially when having lunch at the expensive restaurant nearby the temple.

I would highly recommend him. :-)

The highlight of our trip is the Angkor Archeological Park. We do want to visit as many temples as we can in the shortest time we have.

The temples can broadly be categorized into four groups:

• Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the grandest temple of all and the ancient capital next to it
• Little Circuit (Le Petit Circuit), taking in major sites to the east of Angkor Thom
• Big Circuit (Le Grand Circuit), taking in major sites north and further out east
• Roluos group, 15 km east from Siem Reap along National Highway 6
• Outlying temples, located over 20 km for Angkor Wat

We started with the not so well known temple and moved to the outlying temples on the third day.

Before we enter the Angkor Archeological Park, we need to purchase a pass. It costs USD 20/ 1 day; USD 40/ 3 days and USD 60/ 7 days and can be used consecutively. If you buy a pass on the evening before the first day, you can enter the park after 5PM to view the sunset. We paid for the 3 days pass and have our photo printed on it, it takes about 5 minutes to get this thing done. There will be regular check at each entrance of the temple so make sure you carry the pass with you all the time. You even need the pass to go into a wash room!

1. Preah Khan

Preah Khan is Jayavarman VII's first capital before the completion of Angkor Wat. Large and atmospheric, yet somewhat overshadowed by Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm. This temple is partly in disrepair with strangler figs crawling up the walls, but has some excellent carvings and less visitors, and is well worth a visit. The temple is some 3kilometers north of Angkor Thom.

# Main entrance


# Churning of the Ocean of Milk, most of the head have disappeared


# Entrance to the temple is under renovation, we are using the side door to enter


# Little Ta Phrom


# This tree is unique right?


# More photos













My friends thought this is Angkor Wat. :-p As they didn't look at the itinerary. One of them accidentally deleted all his pictures but he said it's ok as long as it's not Angkor Wat. LOL...


2. Neak Pean

Neak Pean has a large square pool surrounded by four smaller square pools. In the centre of the central pool is a circular “island” encircled by the two naga whose intertwined tails give the temple it’s name.



In the pool around the central island there were once four statues, but only one remains, reconstructed from the debris by the French archaeologists who cleared the site. The curious figure has the body of a horse supported by a tangle of human legs. It relates to a legend that Avalokiteshvara once saved a group of shipwrecked followers from an island of ghouls by transforming himself into flying horse.

# the flying horse









3. Ta Som

The central area of Ta Som is in a ruined state, but restoration by the World Monument Fund is getting closer to completion.



# The western entrance


# Some unrestore stones


# My crazy travel mates


# Statue of Apsara


# The square door way. It's very common to see this kind of doorway in the temples


The most impressive feature at Ta Som is the huge tree completely overwhelming the eastern entrance. A lot of tourists came here just want to take photo here.

# We are using this way to go out


# After passing the entrance, here is the tree overwhelming the entrance.



4. East Mebon

Located on what was an island in the now dry East Baray, this is a large, three-story temple-mountain crowned by five towers, like a miniature Angkor Wat. Originally built by Rajendravarman II in the 10th century, many structures are in poor shape, but the temple is best known for its massive (restored) elephant statues.







# Elephant statue

1. Ta Phrom
Built during the time of king Jayavarman VII and is best known as the temple where trees have been left intertwined with the stonework, much as it was uncovered from the jungle. It might be considered in a state of disrepair but there is a strange beauty in the marvelous strangler fig trees which provide a stunning display of the embrace between nature and the human handiwork. This is one of the most popular temples after Angkor Wat and the Bayon because of the beautiful combinations of wood and stone. Black and white film photographers especially love this site because of this and most of the stunning postcard shots of Angkor's trees come from here; pop culture fans, on the other hand, may recognize a few scenes from Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. While the temple is very popular, most visitors follow a central route and the sides of the complex can be surprisingly quiet. Note that large sections of the temple are unstable rubble and have been cordoned off, as they are in real danger of collapse.

# Walking towards the site of Ta Phrom, they are walking really fast. :-p


# Stones to be restored back to it's original position


#Twin trees on top of the temple










# Sites probihited from outsiders






# Apsara smiling in between the root of the tree. Many tourists try to find this but it's kind of hard to spot without a tour guide


# Isn't this look like a huge snake crawling?




# Tomb Rider, here we are!


# This tree is 400 years old






# The craving is vanishing...


2. Ta Keo

An incomplete, largely undecorated temple built by Jayavarman V. The stairs at the east side of the monument are least steep and the easiest way to reach the top level.

# The stair case is very steep.... huh...






# Throughout the trip I'm really please with the design of the temple, they are really amazing



3. Thommanon

# The unique lion statues